A Duke police officer arrested this week on rape and sodomy charges in Dothan, Ala. was declared indigent Wednesday.
District Court Judge John Steensland appointed Dothan attorney Valerie Judah to represent Webster Simmons, the Dothan Eagle reported Wednesday.
Simmons, 37 and a patrol officer at the Duke University Police Department, was arrested Monday for allegedly assaulting a 34-year-old woman early Saturday morning after they left a night club together.
Simmons is on paid leave from DUPD and is being held in the Houston County jail in Alabama on $120,000 bond, but told Steensland he had been terminated and could not afford to hire an attorney, according to the Dothan Eagle.
“I received a letter from my employer that I was terminated,” Simmons told Steensland. “I have nothing. I own nothing, zero zilch.”
The woman and Simmons knew each other, Houston County Sheriff Andy Hughes said Tuesday, adding that the woman may have been drugged.
Police say an attack took place while the woman was unconscious inside Simmons’ vehicle, where the woman woke up handcuffed and gagged during the alleged assault, but became unconscious again.
Samples of the woman’s blood and ties used in the alleged assault have been sent to labs to test for DNA evidence.
Chief John Dailey of the Duke University Police Department said Tuesday that although there is no evidence of misbehavior, DUPD will open a routine investigation into Simmons’ conduct at Duke.
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