Former CHP officer convicted of sexually assaulting two women in Northern CA
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- A former California Highway Patrol officer was convicted of sexual assault.
- Vidal Gonzalez was convicted of sexually assaulting two women in Butte County.
- Gonzalez faces five to 10 years in prison for three felony sexual assault charges.
A former California Highway Patrol officer has been convicted of sexually assaulting two women while off duty in Butte County.
Vidal Gonzalez, 22, of Oroville, was convicted of three felony sexual assault charges and faces a sentence of five to 10 years in prison, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.
When the first allegation of sexual assault surfaced in January 2025, Gonzalez had recently graduated from the CHP Academy and had been an active CHP officer for about two weeks at the Redwood City CHP Area Office.
Prosecutors said Gonzalez was placed on administrative leave and then arrested after a 19-year-old Oroville woman told authorities the then-CHP officer had sexually assaulted her. Gonzalez no longer works for the CHP.
During Gonzalez’s three-week trial last month, the woman testified that she was with Gonzalez at Oroville Dam. She said he sexually assaulted her while she was in her car, according to the District Attorney’s Office. She told the jury she knew the CHP officer from previous social interactions and met Gonzalez to hang out at the dam while he was off duty.
Two other women testified that Gonzalez sexually assaulted them.
A 20-year-old Chico woman told the jury that Gonzalez, who was on a weekend break from the CHP Academy at the time, sexually assaulted her in his car in November 2024 in Chico, according to the DA’s Office.
Prosecutors said another 20-year-old woman testified that Gonzalez raped her in January 2024, before he applied for enrollment at the CHP Academy. Gonzalez was not criminally charged in that case because the assault reportedly occurred during a vacation in Mexico.
In the prosecution’s closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Roose told the jury that the victims’ testimony showed a distinct pattern of sexual violence that Gonzalez used to assault his victims.
On Feb. 27, the jury found Gonzalez guilty of oral copulation by means of force, violence, duress, menace or fear and sexual battery stemming from the sexual assault against the Oroville woman, according to the DA’s Office.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on two additional sexual assault charges related to the Chico case. Prosecutors said jurors later reported they were split 11-1 and 10-2 in favor of guilt on those sexual assault charges.
“Victims of sexual assault are often hesitant to report due to shame, fear of not being believed and being pulled into a judicial system that opens them up to attack during testimony,” Roose said in the news release. “But sexual offenders rarely stop at the first offense. They will continue. However, all it may take to stop the cycle is for one victim to step forward and say something.”
On Thursday, Gonzalez pleaded no contest to one count of sexual battery stemming from the Chico assault instead of standing trial on both felony sexual assault charges.
Roose asked Butte Superior Court Judge Virginia Gingery to revoke Gonzalez’s bail and order him into custody at the Butte County Jail until his May 5 sentencing hearing. Prosecutors said the judge denied the request, so Gonzalez remains free on bail.
