2 LAPD officers ‘repeatedly raped at least 4 women and threatened them with jail if they wouldn’t perform oral sex’

Two veteran LAPD officers are facing life in prison after being charged with raping four women while on duty, prosecutors said.

James Nichols, 44, and Luis Valenzuela, 43, who worked as partners assigned to the Hollywood Division, are accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting the women, often while they were on duty together, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced today.

While one officer acted as a lookout in the front seat of a departmental car, a 19-year-old woman working as a drug informant was forced to perform oral sex on his partner in the back seat of their police car, the teenager said in a federal court filing.

‘You have to do what the police tell you to do,’ the teenager claimed she was told.

Another woman, also working as a drug informant, said Nichols and Valenzuela each forced her to have sex with them twice after threatening her with jail time. Two other women told eerily similar stories.

At the time the alleged assaults occurred, the victims were 19, 24, 25 and 34. Most, but not all, of the alleged incidents occurred while the officers were on duty.

The charges against Nichols and Valenzuela include rape under color of authority and oral copulation by force. Valenzuela also is charged with pointing a gun at one of the women.

They could face life in prison if convicted.

Attorneys representing the officers in civil litigation filed by the women did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday. The officers, who have denied all the claims in court records, were set to be arraigned on Thursday.