Christopher Roush exposed
himself to people passing by his home in April 2013
Former Newport News master
police officer Christopher Roush was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in jail --
all suspended -- for exposing himself and performing an "obscene sexual
display" to people passing by his home last year. (Newport News Police /
May 10, 2013)
NEWPORT NEWS — A former Newport
News master police officer was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in jail — all
suspended — for exposing himself and performing an "obscene sexual
display" to people passing by his home last year.
Christopher Roush, 42, was
found guilty in January of the 12 misdemeanor charges against him — with the
judge throwing out a felony charge that was filed on the basis that one of the
passing car's passengers was a 14-year-old girl.
In the April 2013 incident,
several people testified they saw Roush standing "completely naked"
in his doorway on Harpersville Road about 9 a.m. one Saturday morning. Several
witnesses said Roush appeared to be masturbating with one hand and holding the
glass storm door open with the other.
Roush — who lost his job over
the incident — testified he has no memory of what happened. He said he came
home from work at 1 a.m. after working the night shift and "started to
drink liquor." When Roush woke up the next afternoon and was told what he
had done, he said, he "couldn't believe it."
On Thursday, Roush faced up to
12 years in prison, or up to a year on each of the 12 charges.
The outside prosecutor, Suffolk
Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Wiser, asked the judge to send Roush to
jail.
"As public officials and
certainly law enforcement officials, prosecutors and police officers should be
held to a higher standard," Wiser said in an interview. "We've sworn
an oath and are entrusted by the public to uphold the laws of the commonwealth,"
and to make sure that people are "not unfortunately exposed to this type
of behavior."
Roush's lawyer, Robert W.
Lawrence, pushed for a suspended sentence, saying police officers are no
different than others in their limitations. "They're human beings,
too," he said in an interview. "They have all the frailties that all
humans have."
Circuit Court Judge Ted Markow,
the retired Richmond judge substituting on the case, suspended the entire jail
term, saying "he couldn't do anything more to hurt (Roush) than he's
already done to himself," Lawrence said.
Wiser added: "He just felt
in this particular factual scenario, the defendant had lost enough, and he
didn't think active jail time would help."
Roush, who testified at
Thursday's hearing, now lives with his brother in Maryland and is getting
alcohol and mental health treatment.
In January, Roush said he
suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of several serious
on-duty incidents between 2004 and 2012, and turned to alcohol to cope.
That included, for example, a
2005 fire in which he saw a little boy trying to get out of an upstairs window.
Roush was unable to get up the stairs to save him. Another little girl who was
heavily burned in that fire also died, he said.
In 2010, when Roush was known
as Christopher Miner, two juries acquitted him on charges that he sexually
assaulted two women in 2009.
The suspended sentence imposed
Thursday is conditioned on good behavior. Roush must refrain from alcohol and
drugs, have no contact with the people he exposed himself to, and can't work in
law enforcement. He was also put on supervised probation for two years.
Roush was happy with the
sentence, Lawrence said. "It worked out well," Lawrence said.
"He knows what he did was totally inappropriate, and acknowledges very
candidly that alcohol was the root of his problem. He understands that he
cannot drink at all."
Dujardin can be reached by
phone at 247-4749.