Rape
trial begins for former police officer
SANTA ANA – A paranoid, jealous
and controlling Huntington Beach police officer sexually, physically and
emotionally abused his ex-wife and former girlfriend as he alternated between
explosive and loving phases with both women, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday.
But the defense attorney for
former officer James Roberts, 36, said the women joined forces before suing him
for money and did not tell authorities of their most serious allegations until
later.
James Roberts, a former
Huntington Beach Police Department officer accused of sexually abusing his
ex-wife and ex-girlfriend, listens during opening statements of his trial in
Santa Ana.
"Although they started out
as rivals, they became a team," John Barnett said. "They talked to
one another. Not shockingly, their (stories) ultimately start to line up."
Roberts is charged with 20 felony
counts, including rape, sodomy by force, criminal threats, false imprisonment
and aggravated assault. If convicted, he faces life in prison with the
possibility of parole.
Deputy District Attorney John
Christl told jurors in Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue's court that within
less than three years of the Roberts' 2003 marriage and birth of a son, the
defendant began having affairs and was deceitful.
He used his police powers to find
out who his wife and girlfriend were seeing, Christl said in his opening
statement.
And, "when he snaps, he
becomes a stalker," the prosecutor said.
After moving out of his
Huntington Beach home, Roberts became increasingly controlling, and the threats
and abuse that followed led to his wife being injured, her personal property
being damaged and to her rape, Christl said.
The prosecutor said that Roberts
told his wife, "I own you."
Barnett told jurors they will
have to decide whether the women can be believed. He contended both women sent
sexually charged messages to Roberts after the time that they said they were
raped.
"There's a lot of sex. I
mean, a lot," he said, adding photographs will show consensual sex.
Barnett added that Robert's wife
hardly seems a "terrorized woman" two weeks after she said he
threatened to kill her, when, in an email, she asked him to send a photo of a
sex act.
Each filed a civil lawsuit
against the city and the Police Department, but the former girlfriend has since
dropped her suit. Roberts was arrested Sept. 2, 2009, and was fired from the
Police Department on April 15, 2010, after an internal investigation.