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Published on 12/09/1996 All articles from this issue

Police officer trial starts, DA files more charges

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

After spending four days this week in Superior Court in San Jose for the opening of his criminal trial on 12 charges including felony sexual assault, former Los Altos Police Officer Rafael Rosario will scoot over to Municipal Court on Friday for a hearing on two new charges filed Nov. 1.

These new charges, which will be handled in a court proceeding separate from his current trial, charge him with a felony regarding improper use of a stun gun and a misdemeanor for sexual battery.

Both charges involve one victim, according to court documents.

The trial for the previously filed 12 charges, which involve five other victims, include felony assault and several misdemeanor sexual battery charges, began last Thursday in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

"We engaged in brief attempts to settle," said Deputy District Attorney JoAnne McCracken of conversations held in the judge's chambers with Larry Peterson, a San Jose attorney and former police officer, who is defending Rosario. "Those weren't fruitful," she said.

Jury selection began Monday for the trial of the five-year veteran of the Los Altos Police Department who was fired last August after police conducted an internal affairs investigation.

McCracken expected to give her opening remarks and call her first witness Tuesday. She said she anticipated that the trial would continue into January.

Bob Booth, city attorney for Los Altos, said that due to the "sensitivity of the case and the seriousness of the offenses," he expected that jury selection would take more than one day.

Last Friday in court the original count of 16 charges facing Rosario was reduced to 12, said Bonnie Estes, clerk for Judge James Chang who is trying the case.

The charges for which he is being tried stem from alleged incidents that happened while Rosario was on duty in Los Altos from November, 1995, through February, 1996, and involve five different women.

He allegedly touched sensitive areas and detained them against their will, according to testimony given during the hearings.

Rosario was put on administrative leave Feb. 23, with full pay and benefits, while the police department conducted an internal affairs investigation.

Rosario has appealed his dismissal.

Currently the dismissal hearings, held like a trial before the city council, are on hold pending the outcome of the criminal trial, Booth said.

This is not the first time Rosario has allegedly misused a stun gun.

In 1992, according to Los Altos resident Kurt Hammerstrom, Rosario allegedly "stun-gunned" his then 18-year-old son, a bystander during a routine traffic stop.

In response to Hammerstrom's complaints, the police department conducted an internal affairs investigation.

Booth said Rosario was exonerated.