Former officer convicted in sexual assaults

A former Garden Grove police officer was convicted Friday of forcibly sodomizing three women, all of whom he had dated.

Jesse Andrew Green, 36, of Huntington Beach, was found guilty by a jury at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana of three felony counts of forcible sodomy. He faces nine to 24 years in state prison and will also have to register as a sex offender.

His sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 22.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on an additional rape charge.

Between April 2006 and November 2009, while working as a police officer, Green dated each of the three victims. It was revealed at trial that at some point, the defendant would suddenly become aggressive while having a consensual encounter with each woman and would physically restrain and forcibly sodomize her.

He called the women derogatory names and tried to scare them by telling them that he had herpes or AIDS and had transmitted the disease to them.

The Orange County district attorney’s office filed charges against Green in connection with the sexual assaults of two of the women in October 2010. After news coverage of the case, a third victim came forward and additional charges were filed.

A fourth woman reported that she had been raped by the defendant in 1998. Charges could not be filed in that case because of the statute of limitations, but the woman testified at Green’s trial to show a pattern of aggressive behavior.

The women told law enforcement that they had been reluctant to report the assaults, fearing that Green might use his position as a police officer to retaliate against them. The women did not know each other.

Huntington Beach Police Department investigated the accusations of three of the women. One case was investigated by the Santa Ana Police Department.

— Alicia Lopez

Twitter: @AlopezCityEd