Ex-California cop convicted of rape, Los Rios college district sued over sexual assault

Ten months after a former police officer was sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting five women while on duty in Sacramento and San Mateo, one of his Sacramento victims is suing the Los Rios Community College District, saying the officer raped her inside a district building’s restroom while her three children waited on a couch.

The lawsuit against former Los Rios Officer Noah White Winchester and the district accuses unnamed officials of failing to properly train its officers and says they “brushed the investigation of Winchester under the rug when there was clear evidence to arrest Winchester.”

“Winchester was not disciplined, reprimanded, retrained, suspended, or otherwise penalized by (the district) in connection with sexually assaulting plaintiff and other victims,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Sacramento by Woodland Hills attorney Dale Galipo.

The district issued a statement to The Sacramento Bee on Monday denouncing Winchester and his crimes, but declining to comment on the lawsuit.

“Noah Winchester was found guilty last year of committing vile and unthinkable crimes and the Los Rios Community College District was grateful to the San Mateo County prosecutors and jurors who convicted and sentenced him,” according to the emailed statement. “While we won’t comment on pending litigation at this time, our heart goes out to Winchester’s victims for all they have endured.”

The victim, whom The Bee is not naming because of the nature of the crimes for which Winchester was ultimately convicted, is one of two Sacramento women and three others in San Mateo who authorities say Winchester assaulted while on duty.

Winchester, 36, was a Stockton resident and served as a Sacramento police officer from December 2006 through October 2007, when “he was released from employment” before completing his probation, the department told The Bee in 2016, when allegations against Winchester first became public.

He worked for Los Rios from Jan. 1, 2009, through Jan. 16, 2015, leaving for a better-paying job at the San Mateo Police Department.

Winchester came under scrutiny while serving as an officer there and was charged and arrested in July 2016.

Last October, a San Mateo Superior Court jury found him guilty of kidnapping to commit another crime, rape by threat to arrest, oral copulation under color of authority and other counts, according to court records. He was sentenced in January to serve 81 years in prison, and is currently incarcerated at Centinela State Prison.

The lawsuit focuses on Winchester’s time as an officer assigned to American River College, where he was profiled in the American River Current student newspaper in November 2014.

“I will do whatever to keep my students safe,” the newspaper quoted Winchester as saying as a student reporter participated in a ride-along with Winchester.

The lawsuit says that more than a year earlier, on July 2, 2013, Winchester detained and then raped a woman who had been walking with her three children to a relative’s home and “stopped in a public elevator to warm up.”

Winchester told her he knew of a place where she and the children could spend the night, conducted a pat search of her and directed her toward a non-campus Los Rios district building, the lawsuit says.

“Upon arriving at the building, (the victim) asked Winchester to let her go, because she had minor children and did not want them to be placed in foster care,” the lawsuit says. “At this point, Winchester asked (her) what she could do for him.

“Winchester then took (the victim) and her three minor children into a closed and locked building, and had (her) direct the minor children to wait on a couch. Winchester then led (her) down a hall to a restroom, where he instructed (her) to remove her clothing.”

There, the officer threatened the victim, telling her he had a Taser and firearm “he could use to hurt or kill” her, and proceeded to sexually assault her, the lawsuit says.

“While Winchester was pulling his clothing back on, he informed (her) that she needed to keep the three children quiet and still, because movement could set off the alarms in the building,” the lawsuit says. “Winchester informed (her) that Winchester would return in the morning before the building opened to the public to let her out.”

The lawsuit alleges that Los Rios knew at the time of a previously reported assault by Winchester from a woman who went to Sacramento police in 2013. No charges were filed in that case at the time, and the woman who filed the lawsuit came forward with her story in 2015 “and, still, no charges were filed,” the suit says.

Eventually, San Mateo police began an investigation into claims of an officer there preying on women, and Winchester was placed on leave in October 2015. He resigned from the department before he was charged.