Civil trial begins in alleged rape of woman by former Macon cop

A former Macon police officer testified Monday that he took a young, intoxicated woman to a south Macon motel early one morning, but that he didn't have sex with her.

The officer, Christopher Campbell, said he checked on the then 19-year-old Houston County woman multiple times during the night.

On the last check, he asked to go into the room to use the restroom. As he came out, the woman made a romantic advance toward him, he said.

"She kissed me," Campbell testified.

He said he rebuffed her, pushing her away and leaving.

Testimony began Monday in a lawsuit filed in Bibb County State Court by the woman, who alleges that Campbell raped her at the Liberty Inn on Pio Nono Avenue on Feb. 18, 2011.

The suit seeks damages against Campbell, former desk clerk Steven Robinson and then motel owner Purveebhavini LLC.

The woman maintains that Robinson and Purveebhavini LLC were negligent in not keeping patrons safe.

In his opening statement to the jury, the woman's lawyer, Jerry Lumley, said his client was cited for underage drinking at Whiskey River as she left the Pio Nono Avenue nightclub just before 2 a.m.

He said Campbell, who was on duty, later took his client to the Liberty Inn, also on Pio Nono Avenue, where he got a room for her without payment.

At some point early that morning, Campbell undressed the woman and had sex with her, using a condom, Lumley said.

The woman was "passed out or incredibly intoxicated," he said.

Later that morning a motel employee lifted bed covers off the woman, waking her, and the woman discovered that she was naked, Lumley said.

Campbell pleaded guilty to violating his oath of office in 2013, but he maintains that guilty plea doesn't mean he admits having sex with the woman. He was sentenced to five years on probation and has completed about three years of his sentence.

Lumley said evidence will show that Campbell responded to at least 10 reports of prostitution at the motel, but never made an arrest.

Evidence also will show the officer was given free rooms, he said.

Lars Anderson, Campbell's attorney, and Dan Bullard, a lawyer representing Robinson and Purveebhavini LLC, say there's no evidence the woman was raped, despite her being examined at a hospital and evidence being collected.

No condom was found at the motel, Anderson said.

Bullard said Campbell asked for rooms at the motel on three other occasions to help people in need: a homeless man sleeping under an interstate bridge, a woman forced to leave the Salvation Army and a man kicked out of his home with nowhere to go.

Testimony is set to continue Tuesday.

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398 or find her on Twitter@awomackmacon.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Civil trial begins in alleged rape of woman by former Macon cop ."