Florida Sentinel Bulletin

   Daniel Holtzclaw was convicted of raping 13 Black women on his beat.

An attorney representing victims of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, convicted of raping Black women, condemned prison officials for removing any trace of his whereabouts from the database, saying it is causing his clients “crushing anxiety.”

“Not knowing exactly where or if Holtzclaw is locked up brings crushing anxiety to our clients fearful that Holtzclaw might be able to somehow get to them,” Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney representing seven of the officer’s 13 victims in a civil suit, said. They have a court hearing scheduled in the case on March 2.

But Alex Gerszewski, public information officer for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, claims that Holtzclaw is in the system, noting that he was entered there after his conviction, but quickly removed for his protection.

Gerszewski declined to say if he was in solitary confinement or with other inmates. He explained that it’s common practice for the department to conceal the whereabouts of high-profile prisoners for their protection. Hotlzclaw’s father was also a police officer.

But Solomon-Simmons took issue with the erasure of information, which came to light last week