On-duty deputy accused of forcing woman to perform sex act


Donald A. Harder III

Donald A. Harder III

A Saratoga County Sheriff’s deputy has been arrested for forcing a woman to commit a sex act while he was on duty at a trailer repossession Tuesday night in Edinburg, authorities said. Donald Harder III force the woman to perform the act in his patrol car, authorities said, and the woman believed she had to comply because she was in the vehicle and he was in uniform.

Authorities said the woman immediately reported the incident.

Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy and Sheriff James Bowen held a joint news conference about the incident this afternoon.

They said Harder, 28, was charged with first-degree criminal sex act.

Bowen said the two are past acquaintances.

Here’s video from today’s press conference:

Categories: General, Saratoga County
Christen Gowan

8 Responses

  1. Carl says:

    I guess I don’t understand what the crime was. If he didn’t force the women to perform the sex act why was he arrested? Just because a police officer tells you to perform a sex act on them doesn’t mean you have to; the police don’t have any authority to order people to do things like that.

    If in the end the man didn’t threaten the woman but merely told her to perform a sex act and she did because of some imagined sense of danger which might have entirely been in her head, and he gets convicted of a crime…it will be ridiculous.

    If he threatened her then fine send the man to prison.

    If he didn’t threaten her then maybe the next time the fire department or police make my car slow down in the road so they can ask for donations I should accuse them of robbery for asking for money and kidnapping for making my car slow down…and claim they wore a uniform and carried firearms and made me slow down and I felt threatened and gave them money.

  2. matt says:

    I think its gonna get HARDER for him to get off next time.

  3. ert says:

    He should of waited until he was off duty to cheat on his wife. Ah the moral fabric that is instilled into our law enforcement officials. I say we elect him Governor of New York…or Sen from a southern state…he seems to have all of the qualifications….as a citizen of Saratoga County who is minding the store?

  4. lyndsay says:

    The victim’s stupidity doesn’t mean rape.

  5. Mike Lieman says:

    “The victim’s stupidity doesn’t mean rape.”

    The cops lack of ethics, morals, integrity or basic human decency doesn’t mean he’s not a rapist, too.

    What’s she going to do, refuse the cop and get beaten/tasered?

  6. silverbrunogate2008 says:

    #5. No kidding. #1 and #4 seem to think “That Kind” of rape is
    a-ok… scary and pathetic. Glas we agree on that much :)

  7. carl says:

    #6 There has to be some standard of what is rape and is not and it shouldn’t be merely the state of mind of the person who was asked to perform the sex act. If someone is guilty or rape merely because the other person imagined some threat and did the deed then everyone better stop going to bars or coming onto people or even suggesting sex. As I said I don’t know what happened in the police car however it will be ridiculous if the man is sent to prison merely because he wore a uniform and drove an official car at the time he suggested sex.

    If this happens maybe I will accuse police of robbery the next time my car is stopped when they stand in the road asking for money donations for whatever cause…because they had a uniform and carried a firearm…even if they never threatened me.

  8. Goose! says:

    Where the hell in Saratoga was he? He could have just gone down to Caroline St. on a Saturday night, he wouldn’t have had to force anyone to do anything…