State
police have arrested a 20-year veteran of the Trumbull police department who is
accused of sexual assaulting one member of the police department's explorer
program and sharing inappropriate texts with another.
Trumbull police said
William Ruscoe, 44, has been suspended from duty and there is an internal
investigation to determine if he violated any department policies or
regulations.
Ruscoe served as an
advisor to the explorer program, which works with youth interested in possible
law enforcement careers, for several years, according to a statement from
Trumbull Police Chief Thomas Kiely.
The application for the
arrest warrant says one victim is now 17 and he is accused of sharing
inappropriate texts with her.
The other victim is now
18-year-old.
The investigation into
Ruscoe started on Oct. 14, 2013, when a suspicious incident was reported at a
high school in Tolland County.
The 17-year-old girl told
police that she joined the police explorers program in 2011, when she was 14.
Months later, her drill instructor, identified as Ruscoe, started sending
inappropriate and flirty messages, the girl told police.
Then it escalated to
Ruscoe asking the teen to send him photos of herself.
In all, the teen said she
sent Ruscoe about 50 photos of herself, exposed and Ruscoe sent her
inappropriate photos of himself.
During a cadet camp at
the University of Hartford last year, the teen said she noticed Ruscoe paying
attention to two Trumbull girls and told him that people were talking about him
flirting with one of the teens in an effort to get him to stop flirting, police
documents state.
After meeting with the
teen, police searched her phone for the messages.
In January, police
obtained a search warrant for Ruscoe's phone and met with him at the police
station to retreive it.
Ruscoe handed over his
phone but said he did not want to provide the password or provide a written
statement, according to the warrant application.
Ruscoe's attorney also
told police that his client did not want to be interviewed.
On Sunday, troopers met
with the second victim, who told police that she was "very
intimidated" because of Ruscoe's position and she did not want him to get
in trouble.
She told investigators
she joined the explorers program in December 2012 and Ruscoe started sending
her inappropriate messages in 2013. when she was 17.
She told police that she
did communicate with Ruscoe but only after he was very persistent.
In the texts, Ruscoe
wrote that he loved the girl and the texts progressively became more graphic
and sexual in nature, according to police paperwork.
She told police that
Ruscoe begged the her to send him photos of her and she eventually did,
according to police. She also provided police with information about three
inappropriate incidents that occured in June.
Ruscoe took the teen to a
beach in Stratford and gave her a silver bracelet with a heart-shaped charm
that said "Made With Love," according to police.
On another night in June,
Ruscoe picked her up early in the morning after a "band gig."
He was drunk, she told
police, became aggressive in a sexual manner and kissed her, but she tried to
push him away.
At the end of the month,
Ruscoe took the teen to a Trumbull home he had moved out of.
Once they were inside, he
placed a gun on the counter and and was looking at her "in a threatening
way that made her very uncomfortable," the warrant says.
The girl told police that
things became sexual and she kept telling him to stop. He also restrained her
hands behind her back with handcuffs while in bed, police said.
The girl told police she
recalled one conversation in which Ruscoe said that if he ever got caught, he
would go to jail and that he would kill himself if he went to jail.
She said this was
intimidating and she did not want anything to happen to him because of anything
he did.
The girl told police that
Ruscoe had asked the teen to change his name in her phone to "Jack"
because she liked the movie Titanic and told her he could get in trouble
because of her age.
Toward the end of
January, Ruscoe reached out to the 18-year-old and told her that police had
come to take his phone because "an older friend that was a girl he used to
help out was going through a rough time and she dropped his name," court
documents said.
Ruscoe told her he was
nervous that police would contact her because her number was in his phone and
advised her not to say anything because she is 18 and is not required, the teen
told police.
Ruscoe was charged with
second-degree sexual assault, third-degree sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual
assault and tampering with a witness.
Police released a
statement about Ruscoe's arrest.
"I am deeply
troubled and concerned by the nature of the charges that have been presented.
We will make every effort to ensure that the integrity of the department and
its officers is preserved as this case is investigated, and that the case is
handles in a fair and timely manner," a statement from Kiely says.
Ruscoe was arrested on
Thursday and bond was set at $50,000.
He posted bond and is due
back in court on March 5.