Ex-Caldwell police sergeant is accused of abusing power for sex favors. What to know

CALDWELL (Idaho Statesman) — Ryan Bendawald, a former sergeant with the Caldwell Police Department, followed a clear pattern, prosecutors said: He sought vulnerable women involved in drugs, seized those drugs without an arrest, then exploited his position of power.

Over the course of nine days, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Idaho called more than two dozen witnesses to the James A. McClure Federal Building in Boise, as they worked to convince the jurors of the allegations, that the 43-year-old sexually assaulted two women and collected, or attempted to collect, sexual favors from three others.

Now, a jury must decide whether there’s enough proof to convict him of the five felony charges aganist him.

Bendawald had a 13-year career with the Caldwell Police Department, rising through the ranks until he resigned in November 2021. Just five months before that, the FBI had informed Caldwell police it planned to pursue criminal charges against him, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The FBI began investigating Bendawald, along with former Caldwell Lt. Joey Hoadley, nearly five years ago after two officers reported allegations of misconduct to the FBI in December 2020.

Hoadley was sentenced to three months in prison after a jury convicted him of destruction, alteration or falsification of records, tampering with a witness by harassment, and tampering with documents.

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Bendawald’s trial began earlier this month three years after Hoadley’s conviction, and after several delays. Here’s what you need to know about the case.

What is Bendawald accused of?

Prosecutors said Bendawald’s alleged abuses of power occurred from at least 2017 to 2021, in “strikingly similar” incidents.

On one occasion, he pulled over a woman late at night in a remote area and found drugs in her vehicle, prosecutors alleged in court records. He told her she was in a lot of trouble if he arrested her, pinned her against the car, and began groping and touching her breasts and genitals over her clothes, prosecutors said.

He penetrated her with his fingers and made comments like, “You like it, don’t you?” while he assaulted her, then let her go, according to prosecutors.

Bendawald filed no record of the traffic stop, Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Horwitz wrote in the court filings. He didn’t file a police report, didn’t disclose the recovered drugs, and never charged the woman of a crime, Horwitz wrote.

Bendawald was initially accused of victimizing seven women, but now faces only five felony charges: three counts of federal program bribery and two counts of deprivation of civil rights under color of law involving aggravated and attempted sexual abuse, according to the indictment.

The program bribery charges stem from the allegations Bendawald traded sex and sexual favors with women for letting charges go, according to his indictment. Prosecutors said the women could have faced thousands of dollars in fines if they were convicted of the crimes Bendawald initially stopped them for.

Two of the bribery charges and one misdemeanor count of deprivation of rights under the color of law were dismissed at the prosecution’s request over concerns about the victims’ health and welfare. Bendawald could face up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine for just one count of civil rights deprivation.

Bendawald “plainly assumed” that his victims would never report him to law enforcement because of the power he held over them, Horwitz wrote.

“To ensure they would not report, he threatened them with additional, more serious charges, threatened to remove their children, and reminded them that no one would believe a drug abuser or criminal,” she wrote. “For years, the defendant’s scheme and accompanying threats worked. He was able to sexually harass and assault women with impunity until 2021.”

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Who has testified in court so far?

Many former and current law enforcement officers with the Caldwell Police Department testified, along with five of the women Bendawald is accused of victimizing, as part of the prosecution’s case.

One of the women who testified in court spoke about two incidents involving Bendawald. In 2019, she was supposed to smuggle drugs into the Idaho Maximum Security Institution but couldn’t get into the facility, she said. On her way home, Bendawald flagged her down in Eagle in his personal pickup truck and searched her car and found methamphetamine and heroin, according to her testimony and court records.

“Did you want to have sex with him that day?” Horwitz asked the woman in court.

“No,” she responded. “I just wanted my drugs.”

Prosecutors alleged in one of the filings that the number of women Bendawald victimized went beyond the seven women involved in the charges. FBI investigators identified “more than a dozen other victims” of his abuse, harassment and solicitation, Horwitz said.

What is Bendawald’s defense argument?

Bendawald’s attorneys in court records called the investigation a “fishing expedition” by the FBI after two “disgruntled” officers came forward. Debra Groberg, one of his defense attorneys, alleged the officers made “wide-ranging allegations of misconduct” against Bendawald despite any firsthand knowledge of the allegations.

Officers were invited to “share rumors, suspicions and grievances they harbored against their colleagues,” Groberg wrote.

His attorneys have worked to discredit the credibility of the victims who testified, pointing to their substance abuse disorders and criminal history.

Bendawald’s attorneys began presenting their evidence Tuesday.