Cop Kidnaps Mentally Unstable Woman from Hospital, Cuffs Her, Rapes Her on Hood of His Car—Only Gets 90 Days

 In August of 2017, Curtis Lee Arganbright,  a Westminster police officer, was asked to take an unruly woman home  from the hospital. She was allegedly attempting to steal items belonging  to the Emergency Room after checking herself in for alcoholism. 

But  instead of getting the woman safely home, Arganbright took her down a  dark road and raped her on the front of his car while she was still in  handcuffs. Instead of felony charges for sex assault by force, sex assault by a  person in a position of authority and false imprisonment, the officer  reached a plea deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to lesser  misdemeanors of unlawful sexual contact and official misconduct. As a  result of the sweetheart deal, some have alleged, Arganbright now only  has to serve 90 days in jail followed by four years probation, and has  to register as a sex offender. 

Criminal defense attorney Dan Recht told Denver’s Channel 7 news the  prosecution likely believed they did not have enough evidence in court  to get a felony conviction. Recht described the difficult scenario. 

They have a victim that was intoxicated. An officer  saying that she was sexually aggressive and he foolishly and unlawfully  reacted and was sexual, but that it was consensual…At the end of the  day. It’s clearly he said, she said. Except that he’s a police officer  and it’s an abuse of power. 

We at TFTP consulted a former Emergency Room Nurse who said she would  never have discharged a patient to the care of a police officer to get a  personal ride home. “No, never! You call a cab, or a family member, but  you don’t turn someone over to the police. I’ve never discharged a  patient to the police. That’s a personal favor, not a fiduciary  responsibility. Police are not there to give people rides home.” This also may mean the hospital is liable for discharging someone to  another person who ultimately raped her. The former ER nurse continued  by describing the process of how ER personnel follow the principal of  “MTF” meaning Metabolize to Freedom. In other words, hospitals can place  patients in chemical or physical restraints if they’re a danger to  themselves or others—so, she could conceivably been placed in  restraints. “Patient safety is preached so often in the hospital that I  just don’t even know what to say about how this happened to the woman,”  she said. According to News 7: 

The victim wasn’t physically able to attend the  sentencing hearing, but the district attorney’s office said her mother  told the judge her daughter was brutally raped and suffers from extreme  PTSD because of what Arganbright did.

Nevertheless, once again, a police officer who was responsible to  protect and serve the public used his position of authority to engage in  sexual activity with a suspect. As TFTP has reported, several states allow police officers to engage in sex with people they make official police contact with, without recourse, so long as the sex is consensual.