Police sergeant allegedly told a 19-year-old co-worker ‘if only I was twenty years younger and not married,’ and now he faces a sexual battery charge

Randall Bray, a 45-year-old sergeant with the Bristow Police Department in Oklahoma, has been arrested on a sexual battery charge after an investigation into allegations that he assaulted a 19-year-old coworker during a shared shift, according to KJRH. A court affidavit alleges the incident happened at the department, where the woman worked in the dispatch area.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation looked into the case after the department asked for help, and a Creek County District Court issued an arrest warrant for sexual battery. The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Bray and booked him into the Creek County Jail. According to the affidavit, Bray has maintained that the encounter was consensual.

The woman is identified in court documents only by her initials. The affidavit says Bray commented on her appearance earlier in the shift and sent sexually suggestive text messages while he was out picking up food with her debit card. She told him the messages gave her anxiety but did not address the matter more directly because he was her supervisor.

Bray says the encounter was consensual, but the affidavit says the woman pushed against him.

The affidavit alleges that Bray asked the woman whether she wanted to learn how to kiss, then stood, pinned her against a wall, and kissed her. It says the contact escalated to biting and groping while she pushed against him and told him she was anxious. According to the document, Bray did not seem to notice or care and kept going.

Afterward, the affidavit says Bray repeatedly returned to the dispatch area to ask whether the two were “good” and whether she planned to report him. He also sent text messages asking her to keep the matter between them so he would not lose his job. The woman reported the incident to her supervisor shortly after his shift ended, as the affidavit describes it.

The department requested help from the state bureau the following day, and the woman was taken to a hospital for an exam. Investigators also performed a forensic download of her phone and recovered Bray’s messages. The affidavit says none of her messages to him appeared flirtatious or sexually suggestive. The case comes amid other recent allegations involving law enforcement officers facing sexual assault investigations.

OSBI Special Agent Manny Lara interviewed Bray with his attorney present, and he agreed to give a statement after being read his rights. Bray told investigators he believed the woman had flirted with him because she sent a cat emoji and said she was more comfortable flirting in person. He said she nodded and said yes when he asked whether she wanted to be kissed.

Investigators, however, noted that the cat emoji message Bray described was not found during the forensic review of her phone, according to the affidavit. Bray acknowledged sending apologetic texts afterward but said he did so because he did not want to lose his job or career. He also denied discussing marital issues with the woman, although the affidavit says he told her his wife “was not very wife like.”

The case moved from report to arrest over several weeks. OSBI delivered its investigative report to the Creek County District Attorney’s Office on Sept. 23, a judge issued the warrant on Sept. 30, and Bray was arrested on Oct. 5. The agency credited the Bristow department, the district attorney’s office, and the Marshals Service for their assistance.

Bray remains charged with sexual battery in Creek County District Court, where the affidavit’s claims and his account are expected to be tested as the case moves forward.