By Gus Burns
DETROIT, MI - The preliminary
hearing for a Detroit police officer accused of sexually assaulting a woman
while on a police call at the victim's home was pushed back a week after the
officer took on a new attorney.
Officer Deon Nunlee, 40, is
accused of assaulting the victim of an alleged domestic dispute. He was
scheduled for a preliminary hearing this week, but is now scheduled back in
court on April 25, according to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office.
Nunlee, along with his partner,
responded to a domestic dispute at a home on the 16000 block of Asbury in
Detroit on Oct. 30. Prosecutors allege Nunlee assaulted the woman after taking
her upstairs in the home. Details of the assault have not been made public.
Police Chief James Craig said
in March this is not proper protocol for an officer.
Nunlee also allegedly told the
woman he would return to her house at 7 a.m. Commander Johnny Thomas of the
Process Standards Bureau, the section that reviewed the allegations, said he
never returned to the house.
The alleged victim under went a
"rape-kit" examination after the Detroit Police Department was
notified of the allegations.
Nunlee was suspended without
pay after DNA evidence analyzed by the Michigan State Police Crime Lab linked
him to the victim, according to prosecutors.
Detroit police say they
received the results on Feb. 10, though state police spokesman Shanon Banner
said Crime Lab records show results were released more than two weeks earlier
on Jan. 22.
Nunlee is charged with three
counts of second-degree criminal sexual assault, sexual assault with intent to
penetrate and misconduct in office.
He paid $5,000, or 10 percent
of the judge-ordered $50,000 surety bond, and was released after his March
arraignment.
Nunlee has "minor"
infractions in his disciplinary file, "but nothing near this degree,"
Thomas said last month.