By
Peter Dujardin,
NEWPORT
NEWS — A former police officer was found guilty on Thursday of 12 misdemeanors
in an incident in which he exposed himself and performed an "obscene
sexual display" to several people passing by his home.
Christopher
Roush, 42, was acquitted of the felony count of taking indecent liberties with
a child, for exposure to a 14-year-old passenger in a car that passed by the
Harpersville Road home at about 9 a.m. on April 7.
Several
people testified they saw Roush standing "completely naked" in his
front doorway, in view of the passing traffic. Several witnesses testified that
he appeared to be masturbating with one hand, while holding the glass storm
door open with the other.
One
woman testified she was driving to a yard sale, with her 14-year-old daughter
in the passenger seat, when she saw Roush. She said she screamed, then did a
U-turn "to try to see the address."
Officer
Thomas Gamache Jr., who was dispatched to the home on various complaints,
testified that he saw Roush standing naked in the doorway, then closing the
door.
Gamache
said he was soon let into the home by Roush's roommate, who led him to Roush's
bedroom. Roush didn't immediately answer, but soon came outside and began
"belligerently" yelling at Gamache to get off his property.
Roush
— who lost his job over the incident — testified Thursday he had no
recollection of what he did. He testified that he came home from work at 1 a.m.
after working the night shift, and "started to drink liquor."
"I
woke up the next afternoon," he said, and when his roommate told him what
he had done several hours earlier, "I didn't believe him." But
hearing the litany of witnesses before him Thursday — including the wife of a
trusted police officer friend — convinced him he had done it, Roush said.
"I just don't remember it," he said.
Roush
said he's in treatment for a severe drinking problem and suffers from
post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of several incidents, including his
on-duty shooting of a pit bull 17 days before the April incident. The dog had
to be euthanized.
He
was also the first officer who responded to the grisly 2011 homicide scene in
which a Newport News man stands accused of killing his wife and her three
children.
In
early 2010, when Roush was known as Christopher Miner, two juries acquitted him
on charges that he had sexually assaulted two women in 2009.
Roush's
lawyer, Robert W. Lawrence, asked Circuit Judge Ted Markow to throw out the
felony charge involving the juvenile. That request was made on the assertion
that Roush didn't know he was exposing himself to a minor, and had no
"lascivious intent" in doing so.
Lawrence
also asked Markow to "withhold a judgment" on the misdemeanors until
after the judge had a chance to see psychologists' evaluation to see "what
he was going through at the time."
Markow,
a retired judge from Richmond sitting in on the case, agreed to strike the
felony indecent liberties charge, saying that part of the case wasn't proven.
But
the prosecutor, Suffolk Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Wiser, argued
against withholding a judgment on the seven counts of indecent exposure and
five counts of making an "obscene sexual display."
Wiser
said alcohol use doesn't excuse criminal behavior, and the judge needed to
enter a factual finding. While the idea of withholding judgment was
"appealing," Markow said, "I don't think I have a choice other
than to find him guilty."
After
the hearing, Roush apologized to Assistant Newport News Police Chief Joe Moore,
who attended the hearing, for "embarrassing the police department."
"I appreciate the apology," Moore replied.
Roush
will be sentenced May 1.
