Accused Officer Is Called Devoted Father, Worker

A San Bernardino police officer charged with sexually assaulting or raping 11 women while on duty was described Friday as a devoted father who worked a graveyard patrol shift to leave time to participate in Little League games.

“As far as we knew, he was a hard-working officer,” said Richard Lawhead, vice president of the San Bernardino Police Officers Assn.

Ronald Allen VanRossum, 37, a 14-year veteran of the department, is charged with more than two dozen felony counts: 11 of kidnapping for the purpose of rape, eight of rape, two of sexual battery and, under color of authority, five counts of oral copulation and one charge of sodomy.

The charges cover the period from April 28, 2000, to Nov. 1, 2001.

VanRossum’s arraignment, initially set for Friday, was continued to April 19 by San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge W. Robert Fawke.

Santa Monica attorney Bill Hadden, who has defended police officers for 20 years on criminal and other matters, said he expected that his client would plead not guilty. Hadden spoke to VanRossum for the first time Friday.

“He’s holding up better than I would,” Hadden said.

Lawhead said VanRossum and his wife, who works for the San Bernardino city Water Department, have two children. The officer had few close colleagues on the force, Lawhead said, because of his overnight shift. He worked without a partner.

According to Lawhead, VanRossum joined the department in the civilian post of community service representative. Later, he worked on bike patrol, where Lawhead worked with him. VanRossum had several different assignments during his career, according to Lawhead. He worked vice and other specialty assignments, Lawhead said, before returning to patrol a couple of years ago, which Lawhead said is not uncommon.

Investigators were able to locate the alleged victims by retracing every stop VanRossum made in the last two years as a patrol officer, according to Lawhead. A history of every officer’s stop is recorded by a computer.

“If he’s guilty of all charges, he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent,” Lawhead said. “I think we all feel that way, if he’s tarnished our reputation. As police officers, we’re held to an even higher standard.”

Defense attorney Hadden said he has just been given several thousand pages of information about the investigation and will start to go through it all this weekend.

The complaint alleges that VanRossum threatened women with arrest.

Hadden said he understood “that at least some of [the women] have had extensive law enforcement contact in the past.” He said he has been led to believe that some of them may have police records.

All the women have asked to remain anonymous.

VanRossum, who was arrested Thursday, is being held at the West Valley Detention Center in lieu of $3-million bail. He has been on leave since Nov. 7, five days after San Bernardino police arrested a woman who told them she had been sexually assaulted by an officer. That began the investigation that led to his arrest.