Woman Sues Upstate Police Officer and City of Travelers Rest Over Sexual Assault

Travelers Rest, SC – Attorneys for the Upstate woman sexually assaulted by Travelers Rest police officer Gerard James Hildebrandt (above) on the campus of Travelers Rest High School have filed a federal lawsuit against Hildebrandt and the City of Travelers Rest revealing not only the details of the assault, but what they say are “the repeated failures at the Travelers Rest Police Department (TRPD) that allowed it happen.”

According to the the women’s attorneys, the City of Travelers Rest “has created an environment within its police department where excessive force and officer misconduct is permissive if not outright encouraged.” The lawsuit says Travelers Rest Police Chief Ben Ford said that there were no “red flags” in Hildebrandt’s file when he was hired by TRPD. Only three months prior, however, the attorneys say Hildebrandt had been fired from the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office after he used a banned chokehold on a detainee. Once in the booking area, Hildebrandt continued to choke the detainee and smashed his face into the booking area’s glass window.

“If Chief Ford doesn’t think this kind of violence and criminality constitutes a red flag, then what does,” said Bakari Sellers, an attorney with Strom Law Firm representing the sexual assault survivor. “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.”

The lawsuit also details TRPD’s “history of excessive force complaints and allegations of sexual assaults and Constitutional rights’ violations committed by its police officers” including a 2019 incident where TRPD Officer Shawn Jenkins threatened a minor involved in a Boy Scouts Post 466 mentoring program with his department-issued taser, forced him to strip, and sexually assaulted him.

“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.”

Hildebrandt was arrested in April and charged with Criminal Sexual Conduct – Third Degree and Misconduct in Office following an investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).

Click here for a copy of the filled lawsuit.

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