Former SC police officer charged with sexual assault now faces federal lawsuit
A Greenville County woman has filed a federal lawsuit against a former Travelers Rest police officer accusing him of sexually assaulting her in a secluded area after dark on the Travelers Rest High School campus.
Gerard James Hildebrandt is also charged with sexual assault in General Sessions court in Greenville County.
The federal lawsuit names the city of Travelers Rest as well for what it calls “repeated failures” that allowed the assault to happen. The lawsuit says the city police had an environment “where excessive force and officer misconduct is permissive if not outright encouraged.”
Warrants for Hildebrandt’s arrest say he took a woman to a remote location at Travelers Rest High School and forced her to perform oral sex on him while on duty on July 3, 2022. He also performed oral sex on her, the warrant says.
He was charged with criminal sexual assault and misconduct in office by the State Law Enforcement Division. Hildebrandt is awaiting trial and was released on $125,000 cash bond.
SLED said the allegations were based on body camera footage, physical evidence and statements from the victim.
The lawsuit says the woman’s boyfriend called police during a dispute. Hilderbrandt answered the call and told the woman she needed to go with him to “sober up.” She followed him in her car to the high school. The lawsuit says he was on duty, wore his uniform and had his service revolver.
Travelers Rest Police Chief Ben Ford fired him.
The lawsuit states that Ford said there were no “red flags” when he hired Hildebrandt.
But the lawsuit says Hildebrandt had been accused of using excessive force when booking an inmate in Laurens County and was fired. The lawsuit says Hildebrandt used a banned chokehold.
“If Chief Ford doesn’t think this kind of violence and criminality constitutes a red flag, then what does,” the woman’s attorney, Bakari Sellers, said in a news release. “That’s exactly the kind of deliberate indifference that leads to a predator like Hildebrandt wearing a badge and a gun so he can take a woman to a dark, secluded area of Travelers Rest High School, rape her and think he’ll get away with it.”
Further, the lawsuit points to another case in which the city settled a lawsuit alleging an officer sexually assaulted a Boy Scout in 2019 while he was in a mentoring program.
“The similarities between these two sexual assaults are deeply disturbing,” Sellers said. “This isn’t just a bad apple. It’s a bad tree and this is our chance to do something about it.”