Portrait Emerges of Alleged Rogue Cop

He worked alone, authorities say, in the wee hours of the night, cruising dark and often fetid corners of this rough-and-tumble city in a squad car that meant nothing but trouble to women walking the streets.

Between April 2000 and November 2001, officials charge, Ronald Allen VanRossum, a San Bernardino patrol officer and a 14-year veteran of the Police Department, sexually assaulted 11 women he encountered on those streets. He targeted poor women, they say--sometimes prostitutes, sometimes drug users, sometimes both.

He was arrested last week and has been charged with two dozen felonies, including eight counts of rape.

Eight detectives have been assigned to investigate every woman VanRossum came in contact with during his shifts. The painstaking investigation has yielded about 1,100 pages of evidence so far, as authorities piece together a more complete picture of VanRossum’s time on the force.

It is a picture, they say, of a renegade officer operating with little supervision and wielding his badge like a club. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t book you,” he told one woman, according to court documents, after ordering her into the back of his patrol car, then driving her toward the desert and allegedly battering and raping her.

All told, San Bernardino’s new police chief said in an interview, it could mean big changes for the Police Department.

“Anytime you have an incident like this, you take a look at your organization,” said Police Chief Garrett W. Zimmon, a 29-year veteran who was a commander of the Los Angeles Police Department before taking office in San Bernardino in January.

VanRossum’s arraignment is scheduled for April 19. His defense attorney, William J. Hadden, said he will plead not guilty to the charges. VanRossum is being held on $2-million bail. Hadden said he also expects to ask for a lowering of the bail at that hearing.

Zimmon said this week that he will consider changes in his department in response to the investigation.

The reforms, he said, will probably include ethics training, the development of a system that will document an officer’s activities during a shift and renewed emphasis on community policing. The latter approach, considered essential to modern police work, encourages officers to know their beat well and target the causes of crime as well as crime itself.

Zimmon also said he will consider staffing the post of watch commander--the officer who supervises the day-to-day operations of a patrol shift--with lieutenants instead of sergeants. That, Zimmon said, would help increase accountability and ensure that patrol officers are better supervised.

Such changes can have a profound impact on officers, said Riverside Assistant Police Chief Mike Smith. His department, 14 miles south of San Bernardino, embarked on a similar reform campaign after confronting a scandal of its own--the 1998 shooting of a black woman, Tyisha Miller, by four white police officers.

Last year, as part of that effort, the department began staffing the watch commander’s post--and daily roll calls for officers--with lieutenants instead of sergeants.

The results were immediate, Smith said. He said lieutenants can handle a citizen’s complaint of excessive force immediately, for example, instead of waiting until an administrator arrives in the morning. And it has helped on a less tangible level, increasing the awareness among officers that their bosses are watching them closely.

“One of the key reasons we got in trouble here as an organization was the lack of management of the organization 24 hours a day,” Smith said. “The organization feels the presence of that leadership. That’s very, very important for us.”

The changes are necessary not only to improve accountability, but to shore up the San Bernardino Police Department’s relationship with the community, Zimmon said.

“You had a police officer arrested for a crime that was committed on duty,” he said. “It is not only embarrassing for the Police Department, but it does raise a level of concern for the community. I think it’s important for the public to know that we are turning over every stone.”

Two alleged victims in the VanRossum case have filed legal claims.

In one case, a 44-year-old woman who was once convicted of prostitution charged that she was picked up by a San Bernardino police officer Nov. 1 and forced to perform sexual acts on him. Documents filed with the city in connection with her case say the officer had been assaulting “hookers and prostitutes.”

The case, said the woman’s attorney, Steven Coleman, was settled out of court about a month ago. The alleged victim had demanded $1 million; Coleman would not say how much was involved in the settlement. City officials would not confirm that the case was settled.

A second case, filed in U.S. District Court, alleges that a San Bernardino police officer found a young woman walking the streets of San Bernardino in March 2001, then ordered her into the back of his patrol car. After driving her through the county, court documents charge, the officer battered and raped the woman, then drove her to a police station and booked her for an outstanding warrant.

That case, in which unspecified damage payments are requested, is still in court.

Neither legal claim mentions VanRossum by name. But city officials, police officials and attorneys representing the women say they believe the officer is VanRossum.

City and county officials say they are bracing for more claims. Although there is a six-year statute of limitations for most rape cases, it does not apply if a rape is conducted in the course of a kidnapping.

If there is also a kidnapping, said Susan Mickey, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office, there is no statute of limitations. The alleged victims in the VanRossum case are also considered kidnapping victims, according to court documents, because they were held against their will.

“As a patrolman, he’s had contact with any number of people,” said San Bernardino County Assistant Dist. Atty. James Hackleman. “And [the Police Department] wants to go out and talk to every person he’s ever talked to.”

If more victims file lawsuits and their allegations are proved, the city’s costs could add up quickly, said Robert Mann, a Los Angeles attorney who has sued officers in the past for negligent behavior.

Despite a campaign to reform the Police Department, San Bernardino officials and attorneys in the case have been reluctant to discuss the VanRossum matter.

Coleman, the attorney representing one of the alleged victims, refused to discuss her case in detail.

He said he was told not to by the district attorney’s office--effectively part of the law enforcement community he opposes in the case.

VanRossum’s attorney, Hadden, was given copies of the 1,100 pages of evidence the police task force has produced.

But he said Wednesday that the district attorney’s office had blocked out the victims’ names and addresses and other important information.

“We don’t know who these people are,” Hadden said. “We don’t know what their histories are.”

Last week, photographers from several media companies, including The Times, received permission from San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Robert Fawke to photograph VanRossum during a brief court appearance.

But when VanRossum’s defense attorney objected, the judge rescinded his permission, then said that because the case is under investigation, the photographs could not be printed.