Authorities arrested a Denver Sheriff’s Department deputy Monday on suspicion of false imprisonment, official misconduct and sexual assault of a former county jail inmate.

Abdirahman Ahmed, 43, was arrested by the Denver Police Department in connection with an incident that took place while he was off-duty in July, according to a news release from the DSD. He became a deputy sheriff in 2019 and had been assigned to the Denver County Jail before his arrest.

During that incident, Ahmed allegedly locked a former county jail inmate in his car and groped her without her consent, according to a heavily redacted probable cause affidavit for Ahmed’s arrest provided by DPD. He was not on duty or in uniform and was driving a personal vehicle during the interaction.

Police were first notified of Ahmed’s alleged misconduct when they responded to a sexual assault call at an overnight lodging facility on Peoria Street around 10:15 p.m. July 5, the affidavit says.

After getting Ahmed’s information from the front desk attendant, police found two women in the room listed to him, according to the affidavit. One, whose name is redacted, told officers that she had just gotten out of the Denver County Jail earlier in the year after an eight-month stay and that Ahmed worked her pod and offered to get her back on her feet upon her release.

She said Ahmed was kind to her while she was at the facility and asked for her phone number so he could help her after she was released, the affidavit says. He then called and texted her on July 4 and 5, asking if she wanted to meet up with him, a request she thought was strange but agreed to.

When he got to her location around 8:30 p.m., Ahmed met with the woman and her friend before the three went to grab drinks at McDonald’s, according to the affidavit. He then took them to the location on Peoria Street, where he booked a room under his own name.

After they got to the room, they talked for a bit — about 20 minutes, according to video surveillance — before he told them to come outside to grab the drinks they had left in his car, later identified as a 2015 blue Ford Taurus, the affidavit says.

The former inmate walked out to the car with Ahmed; when they arrived, he told her that he had been watching her for a long time, including when she used to sleep in her bed at the jail, and that sometimes he would get aroused while doing so, the affidavit says.

The woman said she was not interested in a relationship but he told her he wanted to be with her, leaning over from the driver’s side of the car to begin hugging and kissing her while she was seated in the passenger’s seat, according to the affidavit. She recounted being scared to make him mad but telling him that she was uncomfortable.

Ahmed then repeatedly asked her to get into the back seat of the car. While she told him she still didn’t feel comfortable, she didn’t know what else to do, so she agreed, the affidavit says. He then reached into her shirt and under her bra. She tried to pull back but he told her he was trying to help her relax and that he wasn’t doing anything wrong.

After she tried to get out to no avail — Ahmed had locked the car’s doors — he told her he needed one more kiss before she could leave, according to the affidavit. Before he unlocked the door, he told her that she shouldn’t call the jail because they weren’t doing anything wrong.

After the woman went back to her room, she told her friend what had happened and they called the police, the affidavit says. The interaction lasted about 15 minutes in its entirety, according to surveillance footage of the parking lot listed in the affidavit.

Police collected a gray T-shirt and black bra from the scene for future examination of biological material, according to the affidavit. Officers did a search and detected the same make and model of car parked in a lot in front of an apartment building matching Ahmed’s address on file at the department.