A Denver sheriff’s deputy is under criminal investigation in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a former jail inmate.
Deputy Abdirahman Ahmed, 43, was placed on investigatory leave on July 6, Denver Sheriff Department spokeswoman Daria Serna said.
Denver police are investigating an allegation that Ahmed solicited a phone number from an inmate in the jail, met the woman after she was released from jail, sexually assaulted her and then warned her not to report it because she would go back to jail, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the investigation.
Ahmed, who was hired in 2019, has not been charged with any crimes, court records show. The police investigation is ongoing. He did not return requests for comment Wednesday.
The woman, whose name was redacted from the warrant, told officers that Ahmed routinely worked in her housing pod during the eight months she spent in jail. She gave him her phone number shortly before she was released because, she said, he was a kind deputy and he offered to help her secure housing and support once she was out.
After she was released from jail, he reached out on July 5, picked the woman and a friend up and took them to McDonald’s and then to a hotel near Peoria Street and Interstate 70, where he booked a room, the woman told investigators. He then asked the former inmate out to his car to sit and talk with him in the back seat.
There, he confessed that he’d “been watching her for a long time, he used to watch her sleep in her bed,” the woman alleged, according to the search warrant. He told the woman he wanted to be with her, according to the affidavit. She told him she was not interested.
The deputy then forced himself on her, groped and kissed her, the woman alleged. She told investigators that Ahmed locked the car doors so she couldn’t get out. He demanded “one more kiss” in order to let her out, she said. He told her not to report the alleged assault because she would go back to jail and said they were not doing anything wrong, according to the search warrant.
The woman reported the alleged assault that night. Police investigators found that the deputy booked the hotel room, and that his car was parked in the hotel’s parking lot at the time of the alleged assault, according to the affidavit.
Investigators also confirmed that Ahmed was assigned to the area of the jail where the woman was housed on the day she said she gave him her phone number, according to the search warrant.
Serna declined to offer details on the reason for Ahmed’s leave, citing the ongoing investigation. He was previously disciplined for disobeying a lawful order from a supervisor, not activating his body-worn camera as required by policy and failing to treat a coworker with respect, according to the sheriff’s department.
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Updated 10:01 a.m. Aug. 28, 2025: This story has been updated to correct the deputy’s disciplinary history after a spokeswoman initially provided inaccurate information.
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