DETROIT (WWJ) -- A former Detroit Police sergeant has been arraigned in connection with a series of abductions and rapes.
Benjamin Wagner, 68, is charged in a total of five kidnapping and criminal sexual assault cases.
According to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, the victims were 15 to 23 years old at the time of the crimes.
From 1999 through 2017, Wagner is accused of assaulting woman and girls on the northwest side of Detroit, less than six miles away from where he lived.
In all five cases, investigators said Wagner would stop the girls while they were walking, point a gun at them and sexually assault them.
Officials said Wagner was living a double life, as both a criminal and a cop.
“This case is illustrative of a multi-year journey to justice. Collaboration, patience, determination, and a focus on our survivors was key here. We are a victim centered, trauma informed, and offender focused office. Our survivors were between the ages of 15 and 23 when they were attacked and sexually assaulted. This case is especially disturbing to us because the evidence will show that a then Detroit Police officer is the rapist of the young women and girls in the cases that we charge today," said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
Wagner was arrested in in Greenville, North Carolina on March 17 and appeared in Detroit's 36th District Court for his arraignment Thursday morning.
He was remanded to jail without bond, and ordered to appear in court again for a Probable Cause Conference on April 7.
“The evidence found in this case concerning former DPD Sergeant, Benjamin Wagner, is egregious and disturbing,” said Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison, in a statement. “It represents a deep betrayal to the oath us officers take as a symbol of public faith, as it violates the trust placed in law enforcement. Mr. Wagner’s actions do not represent the integrity, values or mission held by the officers of the Detroit Police Department.”
The Detroit Police Department is now looking for others who may be victims of Wagner.
Anyone who was sexually assaulted by Wagner, or who has additional information, is asked to call the DPD Sex Crimes Unit at 313-596-1950 and request to speak with Sergeant Jennifer Carlson.
