Officer pleads guilty to forcing women to perform sex acts at gunpoint

Richard DeCoatsworth Credit: PPD

A former Phil­adelphia po­lice of­ficer who was once called a hero and giv­en a seat next to Michelle Obama at a speech by the pres­id­ent pled guilty today to charges arising form an incident where he forced two wo­men at gun­point to use heroin and perform oral sex on him.

Richard DeCoatsworth, of Port Richmond, pled guilty to charges of promoting prostitution, simple assault and distributing heroin, but avoided more serious charges of rape, NBC reported. His sentencing date was set for March.

Police said that De­Coats­worth, 28, left a party with two wo­men in May and took them to an­oth­er loc­a­tion, where he pulled out a hand­gun and “forced the two fe­males to en­gage in the use of nar­cot­ics and sexu­al acts.”

The two women called police after he left.

De­Coats­worth was hailed as a hero in 2007 after he was shot in the face with a shot­gun dur­ing a traffic stop but still was able to chase down the sus­pects as they fled.

De­Coats­worth was in­vited by Vice Pres­id­ent Joe Biden to at­tend the pres­id­ent’s tele­vised Feb­ru­ary 2009 ad­dress to Con­gress and sat with First Lady Michelle Obama. De­Coats­worth re­tired from the de­part­ment on dis­ab­il­ity in Decem­ber 2011.