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Published on 01/13/1997 All articles from this issue

Witness admits to shaky story in cop's sexual assault trial

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

A Los Altos Police Department communications officer admitted on the witness stand that he does lie sometimes when he's angry.

"Unfortunately, yes," Ted Hoppenrath told Deputy District Attorney JoAnne McCracken when she questioned him Jan. 7 during the trial of former Los Altos Police officer Rafael Rosario.

And he said he was angry when he first heard about the allegations of sexual misconduct against his colleague, Rosario, whom Hoppenrath told the court he considered "one of the best officers around."

Rosario is on trial for 12 charges that include alleged misconduct with five different women in Los Altos from November 1995 to February 1996.

The most serious, felony sexual battery, involves a woman he allegedly fondled and groped after he arrested her for drunk driving Nov. 23, 1995.

Hoppenrath, a 20-year plus tenured communications officer, was on duty that night. He monitored the police department video screens showing scenes picked up by the video cameras that are located in several spots throughout the police station.

"'I don't recall anything,' you told Los Altos Police Sgt. John Hughmanick during an internal affairs investigation interview March 13, 1996," McCracken said to Hoppenrath.

Rosario was arrested on the charges March 22.

Then, in a July 31 interview with Sgt. Jack Woodall, an investigator with the district attorney's office, "you told him, 'I remember officer Rosario. I remember when they drove up (Rosario and the victim), where they parked," McCracken said to Hoppenrath.

"By then, you'd talked with Rosario and told him you'd be there for him as a witness," McCracken said.

After comparing the July 31 and March 13 statements and noticing the discrepancies, Woodall came back to Hoppenrath Sept. 6, McCracken said.

"I can't say specifically what I saw," Hoppenrath said. He admitted his attention was not focused exclusively on the monitors and that there were "quite a few" discrepancies in his story.

"I don't recall one way or the other seeing officer Rosario search the victim," Hoppenrath said.

In December 1996, defense attorney Larry Peterson met with Hoppenrath, with Rosario present, and "Mr. Peterson refreshed his memory about what happened that night (Nov. 23, 1995)," McCracken said.

Hoppenrath said that after he was subpoenaed, he called Peterson, asked what was going on, and asked Peterson to "provide copies of some things."

"And I did that," Peterson told the court.

The trial is scheduled through next Tuesday. Rosario then goes back to court Jan. 28 for a hearing regarding charges filed Nov. 1, 1996, for felony assault with a stun gun and misdemeanor sexual battery.

According to court documents, these events, involving one Los Altos woman, occurred between July 1, 1995, and Feb. 20, 1996.