Former TPD officer accused of raping woman while on duty

(TULSA, Okla.) On June 2, detectives in our Special Victims Unit became aware of an incident involving former Tulsa Police Officer Deangelo Reyes that took place on April 17. Detectives learned that Reyes had committed 1st Degree Rape with a citizen that he met while on patrol.

Through the investigation, the SVU supervisors learned that Reyes met with the victim while on duty and had an inappropriate conversation with her. In that conversation, Reyes called himself “Eric” and said, “You’re Sexy”, then followed that by saying, “Is that unprofessional of me? I don’t know, I’m sorry.” Reyes also inquired to where the victim was staying.

The victim gave Reyes her phone number prior to him leaving, a few hours later she was called by Reyes. Later in the evening, as the victim was walking back to her hotel, she noticed Reyes’ police car parked in the rear of her hotel. Reyes approached her and they ended up in her hotel room.

In the room, Reyes asked if the victim was a prostitute, to which she replied “no”. Reyes told her that he ran her record on our computer system and found her criminal record (we verified that he did use the official department database improperly).

According to the victim, Reyes told her that “it wouldn’t take much to put a person with her record back in prison”. The victim told SVU that she had a long criminal history but had never been framed before, based on Reyes’ statement she was terrified that he would plant something to fabricate an arrest.

The victim stated Reyes initiated physical contact with her, then put a condom on and proceeded to have vaginal intercourse. The victim did not fight, and once intercourse was complete Reyes flushed the condom down the toilet. Reyes told the victim that he was late for his end of shift meeting and left the room.

Checking Reyes’ body camera footage for 4-17-2022, we found that Reyes was leaving another call when he contacted the victim. The initial 60 seconds of that contact was recorded on camera, before he deactivated his camera. In this minute, you can hear Reyes call himself “Eric” and the aforementioned comments about her being “sexy”.

According to our records, Reyes did not respond to any calls during the last 2 hours of his shift and had told dispatch that he was unavailable because he was working on reports. We determined that he did not complete any reports for his shift on 4-17-2022. 

During the SVU first interview with Reyes, he admitted to contacting the victim because he believed that she may be a person of interest in a homicide investigation. He told SVU that he got her number for a follow up investigation and called her later for that purpose. He said he did meet her at her hotel room for a follow-up, but denied any sexual contact took place. Reyes denied introducing himself as “Eric”.

SVU obtained a search warrant and continued to collect evidence, prior to interviewing Reyes a second time. During this second interview, Reyes admitted that he lied on the first interview and did tell the victim his name was “Eric”. Reyes said he did this with the intention of initiating a no-strings-attached encounter. He admitted that he met with her at a nearby motel while he was still on duty. He admitted that he dishonestly checked out with dispatch. Reyes stated that the victim initiated the sexual contact, they had sex, and he perceived the encounter as consensual.

The Tulsa County District Attorneys Office was brought into the investigation and worked in conjunction with the Special Victims Unit during the investigation process.

On June 10, our Special Victims Unit submitted an affidavit with the facts of the case to the Tulsa County District Attorneys Office, on the same day a warrant was issued. On June 10 at 11:45 am, Deangelo Reyes turned himself in for charge of 1st degree Rape. Reyes was transported and booked into Tulsa County.

Reyes resigned from the Tulsa Police Department on June 9.

We are looking into Reyes’ past contacts for any issues. As only 25% of sexual assault victims make a report, we are asking that anyone who had an encounter with Reyes that they consider to be inappropriate contact our Special Victims Unit at 918-596-9168 or SpecialVictimsUnit@cityoftulsa.org 

Every report of impropriety on Tulsa Police Officers is taken very seriously and investigated thoroughly.