Newspapers May Publish Photos of Officer Suspected in Rapes, Court Rules

An appellate court Wednesday rejected a judge’s decision to block the Los Angeles Times and other news organizations from publishing photographs of a San Bernardino police officer accused of raping at least 11 women.

The decision by the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal took effect immediately.

Last month, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge W. Robert Fawke granted the media permission to take photographs of Ronald Allen VanRossum, 37, a 14-year San Bernardino Police Department veteran accused of raping women he encountered while on patrol.

But after a defense attorney and a prosecutor protested, the judge ordered the media not to publish any of the pictures that had already been taken. The Times and the Press-Enterprise of Riverside asked the appeals court to overturn the decision, and the newspapers’ petition was granted Wednesday.

“The public has a right to observe what goes on in the courts,” said Alonzo Wickers, a Los Angeles-based attorney who represented The Times. “The Constitution does not give the court the authority to stop newspapers from publishing photographs that they lawfully attained. That is a well-recognized principle and it goes to the very core of the 1st Amendment’s provisions for free speech and free press.”

William J. Hadden, VanRossum’s defense attorney, said he had hoped that blocking the publication of the photograph would protect potential jurors from being swayed. And, he said, publishing VanRossum’s photo could prompt other women from the San Bernardino area to bring additional charges against the officer.

“We did not want anyone coming out of the woodwork and saying, ‘Gee, I’m a victim,’ based on the fact that his face is out there,” Hadden said. “Both sides wanted the jury pool not to be tainted, but they also wanted to protect the integrity of the investigation that is ongoing.”

Wickers said there is “no conceivable way that the mere publication of the defendant’s photograph could in any way prejudice a jury pool so that 12 impartial jurors could not be found in a county with 2 million residents.”

He said there is a significant public interest in publishing VanRossum’s photo, giving “other potential victims the opportunity to come forward, perhaps because they will recognize that they were not the sole victim.”

VanRossum is scheduled to be arraigned in June on more than two dozen charges associated with the rapes of 11 women. Two other women have come forward to police since those charges were filed.

VanRossum’s attorney has said the officer is not guilty.