Policeman Is Accused of 8 Rapes

A San Bernardino police officer was arrested Thursday on suspicion of kidnapping and raping 11 women while on duty.

The Police Department said Thursday night that it now will interview every woman that Officer Ronald VanRossum has stopped while on duty.

VanRossum, 36, a 14-year veteran of the department, has been charged with 11 counts of kidnap for the purposes of rape and eight counts of rape.

“We’re embarrassed and outraged ... “ said Sgt. Mitchal Kimball. “We took appropriate steps to ensure that he’s brought to justice.”

VanRossum, who is married, has been on administrative leave since Nov. 7.

Five days earlier, San Bernardino officers arrested a woman who told them as she was being booked that she had been sexually assaulted by an officer, police said.

Police eventually focused on VanRossum, and the department created a task force to investigate. They identified 10 more women as victims, police said. None came forward of their own accord; all were located by investigators.

Police asked that anyone who may have been a victim or may have information about the crimes to contact the department.

“This is still early in the investigation,” said Susan Mickey, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office.

VanRossum also is charged with five counts of oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery and one count of sodomy, all under color of authority. He is being held in the West Valley Detention Center on $3-million bail.

He will be arraigned today, Mickey said.