Former Merced CHP officer accused of sexually assaulting woman during traffic stop

A former Merced California Highway Patrol officer is facing felony charges for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman during a traffic stop in the McSwain area last year.

Atwater resident Jaron De Bruin, 39, pleaded not guilty last month in Merced County Superior Court to felony and misdemeanor charges, which include sexual battery by restraint, assault by a peace officer and preparing false documentary evidence.

De Bruin has denied the allegations, telling law enforcement he was giving the woman a pat down out of fear for his safety, according to the CHP’s investigation report.

The incident allegedly happened the night of May 17, 2019, according to court documents.

The alleged victim in the case, a woman in her 20s, told the CHP that De Bruin touched her underneath her underwear during the stop. The woman complained the day after the stop happened at Highway 140 and McSwain Road in Merced County, court documents say.

The complaint sparked investigations by the CHP and Merced County District Attorney’s Office that found probable cause that De Bruin committed the crime.

Charges were filed with the DA’s office May 14 according to officials, nearly a year after the incident occurred.

It is unclear whether De Bruin was booked into a county jail. Neither the Merced County and Mariposa County sheriff’s offices have any record of De Bruin having been booked locally.

It was also in May that De Bruin formally separated from the CHP, according to Merced CHP Officer Eric Zuniga. Zuniga said he could not comment on the nature of the separation. De Bruin had been with the Merced CHP office since July 2016.

De Bruin was formerly with CHP offices in south Los Angeles in 2014 and transferred to the Humboldt area in 2015 before coming to Merced, according to Zuniga.

The Sun-Star reached out to De Bruin’s attorney Joseph Hoffmann, but he could not be reached for comment.

Report: Officer turned off dash camera

According to the investigation report, De Bruin pulled the woman over for speeding and driving without a driver’s license or proof of financial responsibility for the vehicle. He issued citations and said she must have somebody pick her up, since she did not have a driver’s license.

The officer then returned to his patrol vehicle and deactivated the mobile video/audio recording system (MVARS). According to policy, the in-car dashboard camera is not to be shut off until the stop has concluded.

After shutting off the dashboard camera, he returned to the female’s passenger side window and requested that she get out. She followed him to the right side of his patrol car, according to the report.

The woman told investigators that De Bruin asked her whether she had ever been arrested or was using drugs. He did not ask about weapons, she said. She said he then told her, “I’m sorry I have to do this,” before searching her.

De Bruin told investigators he had to do a “cursory pat down” of the woman out of fear for his safety after spotting what he said was suspicious behavior and a bulge in her pants.

According to the woman’s statement, De Bruin held her hands above her head while using his other hand to pat her down. She said he then put his hand inside her pants and underwear, touching her buttocks and genitals. She said De Bruin did not search her pockets or vehicle.

After about four minutes, De Bruin allowed the woman to drive away, although he previously told her she must get a ride, according to the report.

The woman recorded a 13-second video clip of herself once inside her car, in which she says, “What the (expletive), dude the cop just touched me all over, like the (expletive).”

The woman’s brother and a friend were also interviewed as part of the CHP’s investigation. Both had seen or spoken to her shortly after the incident and relayed a similar series of events to authorities.

Allegedly altered report

Near the end of his shift, De Bruin submitted an activity tracking system report for approval — but without recording that he’d searched the woman during the stop. The investigation report states that’s against CHP policy.

Later, investigators concluded that De Bruin during his next shift altered the report to include the search.

De Bruin was the officer in charge of the Merced office the evening when the complaint was made to the CHP on May 18, 2019. He became aware of the allegations and called the woman three times in eight minutes from his cell phone, but didn’t make contact.

In an interview with CHP Sgt. Daniel Bowen, the woman repeatedly asked whether any footage captured the alleged assault. Bowen said he “took note in her confidence in what a video would show to substantiate her claim.”

“She was not afraid of what would be seen when the video footage was reviewed, but wanted us to view the video,” he added.

The MVARS unit in De Bruin’s patrol vehicle, which had been locked and out of service since the day of the alleged incident, was transported to the CHP Office of Internal Affairs in Sacramento.

Additional footage from after De Bruin manually stopped the MVARS system was able to be pulled from the unit’s hard drive, since CHP’s MVARS system passively records video footage on a continuous 24 hour loop.

However, audio only records when the unit is activated during a patrol incident, meaning the recovered footage did not include sound since De Bruin had manually shut the recording off and stopped the audio.

The video shows De Bruin approaching the female’s vehicle, which she exits and follows him out of the dashboard camera’s view to the passenger side of his patrol car.

While the report says the footage doesn’t capture physical contact, it notes that it corroborates the alleged victim’s claim of being at the vehicle’s passenger side when she was assaulted.

The report also points out De Bruin’s behavior at the scene was contrary to an officer fearing for his safety. De Bruin turned his back to the woman — “complete opposite behavior of what an officer trained to act with his/her safety in mind would be doing,” according to the report.

De Bruin denies allegations

Bowen and Merced CHP Officer Vince Villegas interviewed De Bruin at the Turlock police station July 10, 2019. De Bruin said he would not answer any questions, but would cooperate with the administrative investigation and answer questions at that time.

“I just want to say that I didn’t break any laws that night; certainly not sexual assault,” he said, according to the report.

De Bruin later asked to provide a statement at the DA’s office March 4 of this year.

De Bruin said he shut off the dash camera on account of believing the stop was done, but then realized there was still paperwork. De Bruin said not turning it back on was a mistake.

He said the woman was acting nervous, prompting the search, but denied touching her anywhere under her clothes. De Bruin said it never crossed his mind to search her vehicle, and he did not search for warrants, either.

De Bruin said he failed to initially report the search because he forgot, and changed it to be accurate.

He is scheduled to appear for a pre-preliminary hearing in the courtroom of Judge Jeanne Schechter in Merced County Superior Court on July 27.