SAN JOSE -- A Santa Clara
County Superior Court judge today ordered a San Jose police officer charged
with forcible rape to turn over his firearms and not come within 300 yards of
the alleged victim, a prosecutor said.
Judge Hector Ramon ordered
Geoffrey Evatt Graves to surrender any gun he has to the San Jose Police
Department and issued a protective order preventing him from communicating with
Graves' female accuser, Deputy District Attorney Carlos Vega said.
Graves, who is free on $100,000
bail, was formally arraigned today on a charge of forcible rape in an alleged
sexual assault last Sept. 22 of a woman whom Graves had just dropped off at a
hotel to separate her and her husband who had been in a domestic dispute.
The officer, a Gilroy resident
who is on administrative leave from the Police Department, appeared in court
dressed in a dark suit and had his attorney Darlene Bagley speak on his behalf
to Ramon.
The judge set a hearing for
Graves to enter a plea to the felony charge for April 14 in the Hall of Justice
in San Jose.
The protective or "stay
away" order prohibits Graves from being within 300 yards of the victim,
who is not being identified, Vega said.
At about 2 a.m. last Sept. 22,
Graves responded while on duty with a second officer to an argument between the
victim and her husband, who both had been consuming alcohol, at their San Jose
residence, according to police.
The woman told officers she
wanted to spend the night at a hotel where she once worked and Graves drove her
there at about 2:30 a.m.
But according to prosecutors,
he returned about 15 minutes later, knocked on the door, went into the room,
threw the woman on the bed, took off parts of his uniform and her clothing and
raped her.
The officer earlier had called
his position in to police and then left for about 35 minutes, according to
information from gathered satellite technology, Vega said.
The woman reported the incident
to police on Oct. 15 and after a five-month investigation, police developed
enough evidence corroborating her story to justify issuing a warrant for
Graves' arrest on suspicion of forcible rape on March 10, according to police.
Graves, was booked into the
Santa Clara County Main Jail, posted his bail and was released later that day.
If Graves is convicted of the
charge, a judge could sentence him to three, six or nine years in prison under
state sentencing guidelines, Vega said.
Based on the facts in the case,
the district attorney's office would have prosecuted the case to the fullest
regardless of who the defendant was, Vega said.
"However, there is a
public factor involved," Vega said. "You have a member of our society
who has been entrusted to follow the law, to enforce the law and ever since you
are born and raised you were told to always obey the police and to do what you
were told and they'd be there to help you, and in this case it hasn't."
The Police Department "has
been very cooperative" and professional with prosecutors but "isn't
happy" about the case, Vega said.
"I know our office and I
think the community isn't happy about it," he said. "But I want to
assure the community that everything is going to be above board and we are
going to handle this like we would any other case."
