More than two years after 22 charges were filed against a former San Mateo police officer accused of sexually assaulting five women while on duty, three charges against him have been dropped after the credibility of one of the alleged victims was called into question, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Following multiple delays, including six settings of his jury trial and a change of defense attorney in 2017, Noah Winchester was slated to go to trial April 15. But his jury trial was reset to Wednesday, Sept. 9, after a motion to continue the jury trial on behalf of his defense attorney Paul DeMeester was granted due to health reasons, according to prosecutors.
Winchester, of Stockton, could still face life behind bars if convicted of multiple felonies alleging he sexually assaulted four women between 2013 and 2015, according to prosecutors.
Winchester was employed by the San Mateo Police Department when he allegedly raped three female victims in San Mateo in 2015 and was employed by the Los Rios Community College Police Department when he reportedly abused one victim in Sacramento in 2013, according to prosecutors.
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Several of the victims were also kidnapped and threatened, with some indicating they feared reporting the assaults because Winchester was a cop, according to prosecutors.
Though another Sacramento woman’s account had initially been included in the charges against Winchester, testimony she has since given in an unrelated Solano County court case called her credibility into question, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Defense attorney Michael Rains, who has previously represented police officers accused of misconduct, represented Winchester for more than a year but he allegedly could not be retained for Winchester’s case after the Peace Officers Research Association of California said it could no longer pay for his services, according to prosecutors.
Appointed to the case by the court, DeMeester took over Winchester’s case in October of 2017 and has previously asked for the case to be continued so he read through the high volume of information associated with the case.
DeMeester could not be immediately reached for comment.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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