WEST SILOAM SPRINGS, Okla. — Rape charges against a former West Siloam Springs police officer will not be filed, Benton County Prosecutor Nathan Smith confirmed to 5NEWS on Wednesday.
Officer Cody Kackley, who was later fired, was accused of raping an intoxicated woman he drove home from the Cherokee Casino on Feb. 12, 2023. Kackley was arrested three days later after the victim reported the incident to the department.
According to court documents, the woman told police that she and a friend went to the casino on Feb. 11 at around 8 or 9 p.m. where they hung out and drank "between 4 and 10 beers."
She said that as they were walking out of the casino, there were "a ton" of officers, and she was handcuffed for 10-15 minutes.
During the investigation, casino employees told detectives that the woman was cut off from drinking by 1 a.m. and asked her and her friend to get a ride home. Investigators reviewed Cherokee Casino surveillance footage from that night and stated "you can clearly see the victim was highly intoxicated" and that "she had trouble maintaining her balance and was falling into people and objects," in the arrest affidavit.
The affidavit says that "The victim said she thought it was safe to ask him for a ride home since he was a police officer."
While viewing Kackley's bodycam footage, investigators noted that he looked up the Oklahoma Code for Rape about 30 minutes before getting in his patrol car to take the woman home. The affidavit says the footage shows him read that a victim can't give consent if they are intoxicated, including oral sex— which is what the woman told police happened between her and Officer Kackley when he went into her house.
"The victim repeatedly said it was her fault this happened because she was intoxicated and had trouble remembering everything that happened that night," the report states.
When confronted with the evidence gathered, Kackley said the woman "wanted to perform oral sex on him" and that it happened for about five minutes.
Kackley reportedly admitted to knowing the woman was "very intoxicated."
However, on July 12, Benton County Prosecutor Nathan Smith said this was a case he decided not to file.
“The law gives me a clear duty to pursue charges when there is evidence of a crime and a clear duty not to pursue charges when evidence is insufficient to prove a crime. During the course of our investigation, it became clear that there was reason to believe that this sexual encounter may have been consensual," Smith said. "Because of this, I was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had been committed."
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