Cop sexually assaults injured teen after pretending he’d help in GA, suit says
An Atlanta officer, on his way to the police station, found a 16-year-old on the side of a road after she totaled her car in an early-morning interstate crash in August 2023. Detailed in civil court filings, he put on a calculated act when he pretended he’d help, then forcibly sexually assaulted the injured teen instead.
“(She) was deceived into trusting him to get her home safely and was ultimately harmed,” attorneys representing the girl wrote in a lawsuit filed May 8 in federal court.
The now-former officer, Anthony L. Anderson, was charged with aggravated sexual battery, aggravated sodomy, second-degree cruelty to children and violation of oath of office in October 2023, the Atlanta Police Department said in a statement the day of his arrest.
The girl, now 17, is suing Anderson as he serves a six-year prison sentence. The Atlanta Police Department, which is accused of having a longstanding history of officers involved in sexual misconduct, is also named in the lawsuit.
A public information officer for the department, Officer John Predmore, declined McClatchy News’ request for comment on May 14, due to the pending litigation.
A judge handed Anderson a 25-year sentence, including six years in prison followed by nearly two decades of probation, after he took a plea deal in January, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported.
His criminal defense attorney, LaDawn Blackett Jones, was made Atlanta’s interim inspector general in late February, according to the newspaper.
Jones didn’t return McClatchy News’ request for comment.
“The misconduct and abuse of power by Anderson — manifest in his vicious sexual assault of plaintiff who he isolated, violated, and abandoned on (a) curb — is so outrageous that it shocks the conscience,” the federal complaint filed on the teen’s behalf says.
The car crash
The morning of Aug. 2, 2023, the then-16-year-old girl crashed her car along Interstate 20 East in Fulton County, according to the lawsuit.
Anderson was off-duty but “within his jurisdiction” when he saw her — making him technically “‘on duty,’” the girl’s attorneys wrote in the complaint.
It was clear from the wreckage, scrapes on her face and other injuries that she needed medical help, according to the filing.
Instead of following police procedures, Anderson “thwarted” efforts from a highway safety employee who initially encountered the teen and contacted for first responders, the complaint says.
“Without medically clearing (her) himself, Anderson called off responding medical personnel en route to render first responder aid,” the filing says.
He then took advantage of the girl, who trusted authorities, according to the complaint.
The sexual assault
Anderson put the teen in his marked Atlanta police patrol vehicle and drove to a gas station, where he temporarily left her at around 3:30 a.m., the complaint says.
“There, he told (the teen), still dazed and injured from the crash, that she must wait for his return as he needed to ‘clock out’ of his off-duty job/assignment,” the filing says.
When Anderson returned in his personal car, he offered to take her home, according to the complaint, which says she was “scared, vulnerable, and alone.”
Inside his car, Anderson “took a detour” and forced the girl to perform oral sex acts, the complaint says.
He then drove to her parents’ house, left her on the curb and drove away before she had her first day of the school year, the complaint says.
Later that day at school, following a school-wide seminar discussing sexual assault, the girl went to her guidance counselor and shared that Anderson assaulted her, according to the complaint.
The girl’s parents and the Gwinnett County Police Department were notified.
The Atlanta Police Department, in its statement two months afterward, said Gwinnett County officers started investigating Anderson in response to the 16-year-old’s report.
They interviewed Anderson on Aug. 11, 2023, when the Atlanta Police Department said it learned of the accusations against him.
An internal investigation was launched, according to the department, and Anderson was transferred from the agency’s field operations division. As a result, he was criminally investigated.
In October 2023, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said the accusations “disturbed” and angered him.
He vowed to “swiftly investigate” reports of officer misconduct.
With the criminal case pending, Anderson was ultimately allowed to post bond “and walk the streets of Atlanta,” causing the teen and her parents to fear “for their safety,” the complaint says.
Anderson had “a history of workplace misconduct” with “respect to” the public while he was an Atlanta officer, according to the complaint.
“Anderson is only one APD sexual predator which the City/APD has allowed to prowl among its Rank and file,” the complaint argues.
The lawsuit accuses other officers of assault, battery, false imprisonment and rape, and says the department is to blame because of negligence.
It mentions Wayne Longe, an officer accused of raping a woman he arrested in 2004.
Longe was acquitted of related criminal charges by a Fulton County jury in October 2011, according to the Atlanta-based Brody Law Firm.
Another Atlanta officer, Edward Rabb, who was accused of raping his neighbor, is also mentioned in the lawsuit.
Rabb was arrested on charges of rape and sodomy in April 2008, according to the Clayton News Daily. What came out of the charges is unclear.
“Current investigation suggests he is still an APD officer,” the lawsuit says.
The 17-year-old’s lawsuit seeks more than $250,000 in damages and demands a jury trial on claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress, state and federal RICO violations and more.
This story was originally published May 15, 2025 at 11:31 AM with the headline "Cop sexually assaults injured teen after pretending he’d help in GA, suit says."
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