A Texas Police chief shot himself to death last month as Texas Rangers arrived at his home to serve warrants related to an investigation into a sexual assault complaint against the law enforcement officer.
Marlin Police Chief Nathan Sodek was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound at his Bruceville-Eddy home on August 23, local outlet KWTX reported.
Police Chief Nathan Sodek, 30, was named in a warrant charging sexual assault and official oppression. (CBS Dallas-Fort Worth / video screenshot)
Sodek, who was named police chief in late 2018, had recently confessed to having sex with a check forgery suspect who told investigators she felt she had “no other option but to have sex with him” or risk going to jail. The top cop was later identified in warrants charging sexual assault and official oppression, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the station.
The 35-year-old victim gave a sworn statement to authorities in late August, describing how she felt “powerless and helpless” during the ordeal. In her statement, the woman explained she’d been arrested earlier this year after trying to cash a check from “a deceased person’s account.” She was released but told to return to the Marlin Police Department the following day.
She did just that, and was told that if she “went and made a buy from three dealers that I wouldn’t have to worry about the warrant.” As she was doing the deals, the woman said Sodek, 30, was texting her and “telling me how beautiful I was and how he wanted to go out with me on St. Patrick’s Day to have drinks on 6th Street in Austin.”
That’s when the chief slipped her his personal phone number and told her her to give him a call “if it wasn’t pertaining to police work,” according to her statement.
Sodek reportedly held the woman’s ID for two weeks after retrieving it from a local library, where the victim said she mistakenly left it. The police chief then instructed her to meet him at a nearby park and asked if she enjoyed chocolate.
“He showed up at [Falconer] Park with chocolate and told me he needed to talk to me about another buy, but we needed to go to the Marlin City Park,” the woman said.
Once they arrived at the other park, the victim said Sodek exited the cruiser to smoke a cigarette and when he got back in, he exposed himself to her.
“I was disgusted and shocked but knew where this situation was headed,” she recalled to investigators, explaining how Sodek then walked around to the passenger side and asked if she had a contraceptive.
The victim replied that she did not, and that’s when she said the police chief began tugging at her shorts and pulling her panties down. She said the two had intercourse for about five minutes, after which Sodek told her “nobody needs to find out about this.”
He dropped her off at a local gas station and left, she said.
Sodek later confessed to the incident, telling a Texas Ranger he “engaged in sexual intercourse (with the victim) while on duty in his city issued police vehicle” in late April or early May, the arrest affidavit stated.
McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara confirmed Sodek’s suicide. He said Rangers met the chief on this front porch last month to serve the warrant, at which point he turned and ran back into the house.
That’s when authorities said he grabbed a handgun and took his life.
“I really, strongly believe with more years under his belt as a chief he would have really excelled as the new chief,” fellow Marlin Officer Albert Cavazos told the Waco Tribune-Herald of his former co-worker, seemingly unaware of the charges against Sodek at the time.
“Unfortunately, whatever issues he had or whatever happened, it came to an abrupt end, “Cavazos continue. “He was a good man who was polite to people. I still can’t believe it. It just doesn’t make sense.”
The victim told local outlet Fox 44 she believes Sodek should’ve just faced the consequences of his actions.
“No justice, no answers as to why,” she said. “I just felt like it was a coward way to go.”
Watch more in the video below.
