Kern County Deputy Held in Killings of 2 Women
A 10-year veteran of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department was arrested Friday for investigation of murder in the shooting deaths of two women, authorities said.
David Keith Rogers, 40, a patrol officer, was arrested on a double-murder warrant, sheriff’s spokesman Randy Raymond said. The arrest culminated a six-day investigation by the Sheriff’s Department and the Kern County district attorney’s office.
Rogers was arrested in connection with the murder of a 20-year-old woman, possibly a prostitute, whose body was found Feb. 8 by rabbit hunters in the Arvin-Edison Canal, Raymond said. The woman has not been identified.
The second victim was Jeanine Benintende, 21, who was found shot dead in the same canal in February, 1986. Authorities said she may also have been a prostitute.
Raymond said that Rogers was released from the department in 1983 for taking a prostitute into a local cemetery, having her strip and then photographing her. Rogers appealed to the state Civil Service Commission, which reduced the firing to a 15-day suspension and reinstated him to the force.
The department would not release details of the investigation or say what led them to Rogers’ arrest.
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