A man who impersonated a Kansas City police officer when he sexually assaulted a woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Grant C. Rader, 36, received the sentence on March 5 after pleading guilty in Platte County Circuit Court to forcible sodomy and false impersonation.
Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said, “This is a particularly frightening crime. The defendant went to great lengths to pretend to be someone sworn to protect and serve so that he could assault and violate. He is a predator in the truest sense of the term ”
According to Zahnd, on March 7, 2013, a woman was at the Power and Light District, celebrating her upcoming birthday with her sister and a friend. Rader was also there but did not interact with the woman.
The woman’s sister left sometime after midnight when the two of them got into an argument. The woman then took a cab back to her apartment in the Northland. Her friend met her there to make sure she was safe.
Rader apparently saw the argument and the woman get into a cab alone. He followed the cab to the woman’s apartment.
After arriving at the woman’s apartment, Rader approached the woman, identified himself as a police officer, and told victim she was under arrest. The woman’s friend argued with Rader for approximately twenty minutes to just let the victim go. Rader refused to release the woman and left with her in his truck.
Rader falsely identified himself to the friend using the name of an retired Kansas City, Missouri Police Officer. Within minutes after Rader left with the woman, her friend called the Kansas City Police Department to find out how to post bond for the victim. Police told her that there was no active duty Kansas City police officer by the name Rader had given. The dispatcher told the friend to hang up and dial 911.
While the friend was on the phone with police, Rader drove to another location in the apartment parking lot. He told the victim that he would have to “search” her and forced the victim to partially disrobe. Rader told the victim he would not take her to jail if she would have sex with him. The victim refused and Rader sexually assaulted her. He then made her get out and left.
A few hours after the assault, Rader sent a text message to a friend reading, “Dude whatever happens I was at ur house till 5am to get my keys, so I could drive home! I did not drive to pnl.”
The victim reported that she heard police “chatter” coming from Rader’s phone and that he had a computer mounted to his dash with a map on it. Police later found that Rader’s phone and iPad had a police scanner app that would have produced the chatter described. Rader’s truck had a bracket on the dash to hold an iPad. Police also found a badge during a search of Rader’s home.
Zahnd said, “This defendant clearly had a plan to find a vulnerable woman and sexually assault her. He had a police scanner app on his phone, a badge, and made his iPad look like a police computer. It’s chilling that someone would masquerade as a police officer in order to sexually abuse another person.”
To protect yourself from a police impersonator, Zahnd recommended:
• If you are pulled over, it should be by a uniformed officer with a badge in a marked vehicle with lights. The officer should be able to show you current police department identification.
• When in doubt, call 911. You can drive slowly in your car with your flashers on while talking with 911 until marked units arrive.
• If you feel uneasy, ask for a supervisor or other officers to come to the scene.
• Trust your instinct. If the situation doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t.
Judge Thomas C. Fincham sentenced Rader to 15 years in prison for forcible sodomy and six months in jail for false impersonation. Rader must complete 85% of his prison sentence before becoming eligible for parole.