Graphic phone conversation opens sexual assault trial

Published 11:02 am Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Jurors heard a graphic phone conversation between a former Vicksburg police officer and the woman he is accused of sexually assaulting during testimony Tuesday afternoon.

During the taped conversation, David D. “Bo” McLeod, 39, who lives on Rawhide Lane, initially denied having sex with the woman with whom he had been drinking the night before.

Later he admitted they had sex, but said she had instigated the act.

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The woman said she was too drunk to remember, but did not give McLeod consent.

“How could you do that to me? It makes me sick to my stomach,” the woman asked McLeod during the conversation.

The Vicksburg Post does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Prosecutors said McLeod, who is on trial for sexual assault of an incapacitated person, assaulted the woman after she had been drinking heavily.

“He took advantage of [her] in her home,” Assistant District Attorney Lane Campbell said during opening statements.

Defense Attorney James “Buck” Penley Jr. contends the woman, who is a relative of McLeod’s, consented to sex but concocted the assault story after she became embarrassed by what she had done.

“When you hear all the evidence, you will find Mr. McLeod didn’t do anything wrong. It’s certainly not a pretty thing. It never is with these kinds of cases,” Penley said.

McLeod apologized several times during the course of the 20-minute tape and said he did not realize how intoxicated the woman was.

“I’m sorry, as much as you don’t believe it” McLeod said during the taped conversation.

McLeod was employed with the Vicksburg Police Department from 1998 to 2003 and from 2009 to 2011. At the time of his arrest in February 2012 he was a member of the eight-county North Central Narcotics Task Force based in Greenwood.

If convicted, McLeod faces up to 30 years in prison and must register as a sex offender.