As the trial of Daniel Holtzclaw closes in on Thanksgiving break, the case is making waves nationally.
The courtroom is now being filled with local and national civil rights activists.
This week, members of the National Bar Association made their presence known with a visit by president Benjamin Crump.
“We come here to stand with these thirteen victims of rape, who happen to be African American women, to say that their lives matter, too,” Crump said.
Formerly an attorney in the high profile cases of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, Crump called for justice for the thirteen alleged victims and for the rest of the nation to pay attention.
“There certainly seems to be a marginalization of their lives and their experiences,” Crump said. “We will be here to make sure that this is not swept under the rug.”
Tuesday’s testimony focused on an eighth and ninth accuser’s stories.
Detective Kim Davis took the stand before noon, discussing a woman’s testimony that she was raped in the back of officer Holtzclaw’s patrol car outside of an abandoned school.
Using GPS technology currently found in Oklahoma City patrol cars, known as Automatic Vehicle Locaters, jurors were shown a map with data proving Holtzclaw’s car was, in fact, in the area on the night the alleged assault occurred.
Given how the AVL data can be read, jurors were told Holtzclaw hopped a street curb and drove into the lot where the abandoned school is located.
Defense attorneys used the same AVL technology, telling the jury there’s no hard evidence that Holtzclaw’s patrol car ever stopped.
According to the defense, Holtzclaw picked up the woman to discuss drug use in the area and had driven near the school to give her privacy while exchanging the information.
The second woman on the stand told the jury Holtzclaw forced her to perform oral sex in the back of his patrol car.
State attorneys explained the woman actually was the first woman to claim she had been assaulted by an officer in this case, before an investigation into Holtzclaw had even begun.
However, early on, her story couldn’t be corroborated.
The alleged assault took place in northeast Oklahoma City but. originally. the woman told police it happened downtown.
The woman admitted to the jury she had lied, saying she had smoked crack cocaine in the hours before the alleged assault and changed the location so her boyfriend at the time wouldn’t know about her drug use.
Witness testimony will continue Wednesday morning, before a two-day break for Thanksgiving.