By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
SOUTHGATE — After a final conference held Oct. 14, a December jury trial awaits a former Southgate police officer accused of sexually abusing a woman he met during a domestic violence investigation.
Emmanual Paravas, 42, will be tried before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette J. Berry beginning Dec. 5. Paravas is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct, a 15-year felony.
The charges stem from an encounter Paravas had with a woman and her husband while responding to a domestic disturbance call on Feb. 9. According to the charges, Paravas and another officer responded to a 1 a.m. call from the La Quinta Hotel on Reek Road.
They intervened in an argument between the woman and her husband. Allegedly, Paravas returned several hours later to a second hotel where the woman was placed for safekeeping.
During preliminary exams in July, the Pennsylvania woman said she and her husband arrived in Southgate that afternoon, and she was scheduled to perform as an adult entertainer the next night. Both the woman and her husband acknowledged that she spent much of the afternoon and evening drinking, and had no memory of most of the evening other than the alleged assault.
The woman and her husband reported the allegations five days later. Paravas resigned in March from the Southgate Police Department, where he had served since 2000.
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected].)