Former cop is convicted of assaulting several women

SAN MATEO >> A jury convicted a former San Mateo police officer of assaulting five women while on duty during a two-year period.

Noah White Winchester, 35, of Stockton faces life in prison after jurors found him guilty of 14 felony charges, including forcible rape, kidnapping to commit sexual assault and residential burglary.

The Oct. 9 verdict came after a three-week San Mateo County Superior Court trial that examined a series of incidents from 2013 to 2015, when Winchester worked as a police officer in San Mateo and the Los Rios Community College District in the Sacramento area.

During those years, Winchester assaulted five female victims, three in San Mateo and two in Sacramento, prosecutors said. In more than one instance, Winchester threatened and kidnapped the women.

Winchester patrolled in San Mateo unsupervised for just four months after his hiring and probationary period in early 2015. Before that, he spent six years working in the Los Rios district. In October 2015, a woman tipped off Burlingame police that she had been sexually assaulted in her car by a San Mateo officer at Coyote Point Recreation Area, which led to the uncovering of allegations dating to 2013.

Winchester resigned from the San Mateo department shortly in early 2016 while the initial investigation was still underway. Criminal charges followed in July of that year.

He will be sentenced Dec. 20 and is in custody in lieu of $3.1 million bail.