Ex-police officer convicted in sexual assault is the first to face tougher new penalty, DOJ says

A former Oklahoma police officer convicted in the sexual assault of a woman during a traffic stop will become the first to face a heftier penalty under the 2022 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, the Justice Department said.

Jeffrey Scott Smith Jr., 35, is facing up to 40 years in prison after a jury found him guilty this week of a civil rights violation involving sexual assault, top Justice officials said.

Prosecutors said Smith was on his first solo shift as a police officer in the small Oklahoma town of Savanna when he pulled over the woman and her then-boyfriend in November 2022. He issued the man a speeding ticket, but then began asking personal questions and turned off his body camera, prosecutors said. He put the woman in his patrol car after discovering a promotional marijuana cigarette from the gentleman’s club where she worked. He sexually assaulted her in his patrol car after deactivating the dashboard camera, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney John Cannon said Smith respects the jury’s verdict but maintains his innocence.

The case sends an “unequivocal warning” that people who abuse authority through sexual assault will be held accountable, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.

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