In all, Winchester faces 22 charges including rape, sexual penetration and oral copulation under color of authority.
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The crimes happened between July 2, 2013 and October 19, 2015. He is being held in San Joaquin County Jail on $3.1 million bail, the prosecutor said. In May, Chief Susan Manheimer issued a statement in response to news reports of the investigation. “We are horrified, saddened and disgusted”, she said.
Winchester has been investigated by Sacramento police and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department two separate times – once in 2013 and again in 2015. “We would never hire anyone were we aware of any serious allegations like this”, Manheimer said.
Wagstaffe said Thursday that Winchester’s case is the worst active duty police misconduct he has ever seen. “I want to reassure the community that the men and women in this department share in the shock and are deeply disturbed by the allegations”.
All five cases will be prosecuted in San Mateo County.
WInchester targeted women of different ages and races, but they were all poor and destitute, including a homeless woman.
Charges were never filed, however, and the claim against Winchester did not surface before he was hired to be a patrol officer in San Mateo in early 2015, according to prosecutors. “While on duty he would make contact with women on the street and would engage in various fondling, rape and others by taking them to secluded places”, he said.
He was arrested in his vehicle outside his home, Wagstaffe said.
A former police officer who had served with both the San Mateo and Sacramento police departments was arrested Thursday near his Stockton home on almost two dozen charges of felony sexual assault, according to authorities. As soon as our department was notified of these allegations, San Mateo Police immediately placed him on indefinite leave, while pursuing the investigation. The allegations against Winchester, 31, of Stockton involve his time as an officer at Los Rios and with the San Mateo department, officials said.
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Winchester quit the San Mateo police department after he was put on leave in October when the criminal investigation was launched. The allegations were related to an incident that occurred the previous night, October 19, 2015 beginning at about 10 PM. San Mateo Police opened an administrative investigation into Winchester’s conduct in regards to department policy and procedures, while cooperating fully with the criminal investigation.
