Former San Mateo Police Officer Charged With 22 Sexual Assault, Related Counts

SAN MATEO, CA — A former San Mateo police officer was formally charged Thursday with nearly two dozen counts of felony sexual assault — all which allegedly happened when he was on duty at the department and another California agency, according to prosecutors.

Noah Winchester, 31, was charged with 22 counts of sexual assault and related charges for incidents on duty as an officer in San Mateo last year, as well as when he was a member of the Los Rios Community College police in 2013, San Mateo County prosecutors announced Thursday.

Winchester was arrested near his Stockton home Thursday morning and was booked into jail on $3.1 million bail, according to the district attorney's office. He remains in jail and is scheduled to appear in court next week.

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The San Mateo Police Department released a statement Thursday saying that while it respects Winchester's presumption of innocence under the legal system, if proven true the allegations are a "disgrace." The agency said in a statement it is "horrified" by the news:

Earlier today, July 21, 2016, the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office arrested Noah Winchester, a former police officer in several jurisdictions, for a series of felony sexual assault-related charges following an extensive investigation involving multiple victims. The San Mateo Police Department has been aware of the investigation and working closely with the District Attorney's Office since the original discovery of the allegations. As soon as our department was notified of these allegations, San Mateo Police immediately placed him on indefinite leave, while pursuing the investigation.

The San Mateo Police Department treasures our close and trusted relationship with our community, and holds very dearly the strength of support we continue to receive from those whom we are sworn to protect. We are horrified by the news of the recent arrest of this former San Mateo and Los Rios Community College District Police Officer, and want to assure our community and our leaders that this neither reflects nor deflects the dedication to duty and selfless service that our men and women commit themselves to every day on every contact.

Noah Winchester came to us as a lateral police officer in early 2015, with prior law enforcement experience. We were first made aware of criminal allegations regarding the conduct of Winchester, at that time a San Mateo Police Officer, on the morning of October 20, 2015. The allegations were related to an incident that occurred the previous night, October 19, 2015 beginning at about 10 PM. Based on the severity of the allegations we immediately placed Winchester on indefinite leave before his next work shift, and turned the criminal portion of the investigation over to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office. San Mateo Police opened an administrative investigation into Winchester's conduct in regards to department policy and procedures, while cooperating fully with the criminal investigation.

Winchester was employed as a San Mateo Police Officer for approximately 10 months at the time the first allegations were made on October 19, 2015. The San Mateo Police Department took immediate action to protect the community and suspend Winchester’s police powers. Additional alleged acts were uncovered during the District Attorney's investigation in both San Mateo and Sacramento Counties. The incidents alleged in 2013 were not discovered until that time. While both investigations were still ongoing, Winchester resigned from the San Mateo Police Department in February of 2016.

While we respect the now former officer's right to due process under the law and the presumption that he is innocent until proven guilty, we as a department cannot help but be appalled by the nature of these allegations. This alleged conduct in no way reflects the core values of this department nor our profession as a whole. The San Mateo Police Department is driven to ensuring excellence in service through strength of character and commitment to compassionate, constitutional, ethical, and just policing. These allegations, if proven true, are a disgrace and wholly disavowed by this department and this city.

When news of this pending investigation was broadcast by the media in May of this year, Chief Manheimer posted an open letter to the Community. Her comments can be seen here: http://local.nixle.com/alert/5640060/

Winchester faces charges relating to five victims between July 2, 2013, and Oct. 19, 2015. The charges include kidnapping with intent to commit rape, rape, sexual penetration and oral copulation under color of authority, battery, criminal threat, and forcible sex offenses.

The investigation was opened in October, and Winchester resigned in February. But news of the investigations into his conduct didn't surface publicly until May, when Wagstaffe and San Mateo police Chief Susan Manheimer revealed he was under investigation.

The San Mateo County investigation into Winchester was opened on Oct. 20, when police in Burlingame responded to a distressed driver in the area of El Camino Real and Chapin Avenue at about 5:15 a.m. After contacting the driver, Burlingame police referred the report to San Mateo police for further investigation, according to Burlingame police records. The alleged behavior had occurred the previous night at about 10 p.m., San Mateo police said.

While Manheimer said that as soon as the allegations against Winchester came to light she immediately suspended his police powers and contacted the district attorney's office, at the time Winchester was hired he was under investigation in Sacramento.

Sacramento police opened a criminal investigation into Winchester in 2013, when he was a member of the Los Rios Community College District police force, according to Sacramento police Sgt. Bryce Heinlein.

Winchester was briefly employed by the Sacramento Police Department in 2006 and 2007 but was released before his probationary period was up.

Heinlein refused to provide more information about the Sacramento investigation into Winchester through a California Public Records Act request, citing the ongoing investigation.

In 2015, another victim came forward to the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department regarding a 2013 incident, according to sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tony Turnbull.

Winchester served with the Los Rios Police Department from January 2009 to January 2015, according to district spokesman Mitchel Benson. He joined the San Mateo department early in 2015.

Los Rios police Chief Cheryl Sears said in May that her department was cooperating with Wagstaffe's investigation, though his office had only contacted the Los Rios department in May after news reports of Winchester's conduct had already surfaced.

The American River Current published a statement issued on behalf of Los Rios Community College in May:

Noah Winchester served with the Los Rios Police Department from January 1, 2009, to January 16, 2015. Los Rios Police Chief Cheryl Sears said that neither she nor anyone in her department has been contacted by the San Mateo Police Department, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office or anyone else regarding the allegations in the news reports about former Officer Winchester. Los Rios Police will cooperate fully with any agency’s investigation if and when the Department is contacted.

Editor's note: Some names have been removed after allegations were deemed unfounded.

– Bay City News Service contributed to this report. Image via San Mateo Police on Facebook.