Woman alleges California deputy sexually assaulted her. Placer Sheriff’s Office fired him

A Placer County sheriff’s deputy sexually assaulted an Auburn woman inside her home after she called authorities to report a theft, according to allegations included in a civil lawsuit filed last month.

The 58-year-old woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, alleged then-Deputy Jon Patrick Persinger sexually assaulted her on two occasions in the fall of 2022. She said the deputy — dressed in his sheriff’s uniform with his badge and gun — forced her into performing oral sex, fearing he would report or arrest her for working as an escort, according to the lawsuit filed April 13 in Placer Superior Court.

Sheriff’s officials said they first learned of the allegations against Persinger on Jan. 12, the same day the woman’s attorney filed a claim seeking damages from Placer County. The county later rejected Jane Doe’s legal claim, which paved the way for the lawsuit.

But the filed claim included details of the sexual assault allegations, and sheriff’s officials said they launched an investigation in conjunction with the Placer County District Attorney’s Office. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office also placed Persinger on administrative leave during the investigation.

Persinger has since been fired from his job as a deputy, according to the Sheriff’s Office, and prosecutors are reviewing the results of an internal investigation to determine whether the encounters merit criminal charges.

Daniel M. Gilleon, a San Diego-based lawyer who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Auburn woman, said the suit would continue to make its way through the court system despite the pending criminal investigation and the Sheriff’s Office’s quick action in firing Persinger.

“She’s terrified,” Gilleon said in an email to The Sacramento Bee. “She lives alone in a small town and has every reason to be fearful of the armed men in uniform she used to believe were there to protect her.”

Michael J. Wise, a Sacramento-based attorney representing Persinger, did not respond to requests by The Bee seeking comment on the allegations or the suit.

Persinger and Placer County are listed as defendants in the civil lawsuit. The Placer County Counsel’s Office also did not respond to requests by The Bee seeking comment. The civil case is scheduled to continue Aug. 7 for a case management conference.

She called to report a theft

The alleged sexual assault occurred at Jane Doe’s apartment in Auburn. On Sept. 9, she called the Sheriff’s Office to report a theft of personal property.

Persinger called the woman about 9:30 a.m. that day and left her a voicemail message, before he arrived at her home about 11 a.m. in his marked sheriff’s vehicle in his uniform, according to the suit.

She assumed the deputy was there to complete a written report on the theft, so she invited him inside her home and began telling him about the theft. The lawsuit alleges that Persinger was instead “preoccupied with something on his phone, his eyes going back and forth between gazing at her and looking at his phone.”

She gave the deputy the phone numbers for her apartment complex on-site and off-site managers. The lawsuit alleges that the deputy called both managers, “putting a finger to his lips to indicate to Doe that she should not talk.”

“I have done everything about your (property) as you can see,” the deputy told her, according to the lawsuit. “So I want to tell you about the first time I was here. The neighbor in (another apartment) ran me down and was running her mouth about you, and told me you were an escort.”

The woman suddenly realized why Persinger was in her living room, and “her terror grew” as “his presence became menacing,” the suit alleges. She denied knowing what the deputy was talking about. She alleges that Persinger then turned his phone around to show her a website displaying photographs of her.

“The woman who is in this picture is the same woman who is in front of me,” the deputy told her, according to the lawsuit.

The woman alleges that Persinger continued scrolling on his phone, before telling her she was “hot.”

It was clear to the woman that “Persinger was demanding sex in exchange for not arresting or reporting her,” according to the lawsuit. The woman said she felt she had no choice but to submit to the armed law enforcement official who was alone with her in her apartment.

The deputy walked to her son’s bedroom, put his radio on the dresser and removed his service belt holstering his gun and threw it on the bed before the belt and the gun bounced onto the floor, according to the lawsuit. Jane Doe said she told the deputy she would not have sex with him, and he told her he was “good” with oral sex.

After she was forced into the alleged sexual assault, the deputy gave her his cellphone number. She “briefly mentioned” to him a legal matter involving her son, and he promised to get back to her on that matter, according to the suit.

Second alleged sex assault

Weeks went by without hearing from Persinger again, the woman alleges. Jane Doe said she was relieved that he hadn’t returned. But the deputy returned to her home about 3:20 p.m. Nov. 17. The suit alleges the woman said she heard someone knock on the door and ignored it, but the knocking became “more aggressive.”

“Jane Doe looked through the peephole and saw Deputy Persinger standing in full uniform, with his marked sheriff’s vehicle parked in front of her yard,” according to the lawsuit. “Although frozen in fear, she still did not answer the door.”

The woman said she received a text message from Persinger a few minutes later that read: “Just saying hello.” The aggressive knocking on her door continued, and she said she felt she had no option but to open the door.

“I’ve been out here several times, I drive by your apartment many times and I think about you,” the deputy told the woman, according to her lawsuit. “I thought you would see my vehicle. I parked right in front of you. ... I’ve been watching your ad.”

She alleges that the deputy told her he looked into her son’s case and asked if her other son still worked at a jewelry store. She said she then became fearful for her family. The deputy handed her a $20 bill while discussing her son’s legal matter, according to the lawsuit.

The woman said she felt “powerless,” and the lawsuit describes how she performed oral sex on Persinger that day. Jane Doe said she kept a towel he used after the sex act and the $20 bill he gave her.

Before he left her home, Persinger told her that “he was monitoring her website” and he needed to see her “twice a week or twice a month,” according to the lawsuit.

Sheriff’s Office fires deputy

Eleven days later, she retained an attorney and was advised to send a text message to Persinger that read: “Are you coming soon?” It was a pretext message, according to the suit. Pretext messages or phone calls are commonly used in investigations to elicit incriminating evidence from a suspect.

But Persinger didn’t respond to Jane Doe’s text message until Jan. 13, the day after she filed a claim seeking damages and the Sheriff’s Office learned of the allegations of sexual misconduct against the deputy.

The lawsuit alleges that Persinger replied to Jane Doe’s message with “Today?” She said she then sent him a text message asked Persinger to send her a “selfie.” She said he didn’t respond but showed up later that day to her home. He entered wearing his uniform. Jane Doe said she recorded the conversation on home cameras.

“Deputy Persinger can be heard saying in a panicked tone that he ‘felt weird’ and admitting ‘I was pressuring you,’” according to the lawsuit.

Jane Doe said she told the deputy that she was OK. Then, he left her home.

Sheriff’s officials said late last month that after “a thorough internal investigation,” Persinger was terminated from his job at the Sheriff’s Office. A criminal investigative report had been submitted to the District Attorney’s Office and was still being reviewed.

The Sheriff’s Office said it takes all allegations seriously and would hold its employees accountable for their actions.

“We have no tolerance for law enforcement misconduct on or off-duty; this incident is an ill representation of the culture and core values that our men and women work so hard to maintain,” Sheriff Wayne Woo said in a written statement sent to The Bee. “Under Senate Bill 2, we have already reported the allegations to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.”

Previous law enforcement work

Persinger worked for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office since December 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked as a Union City police officer in Alameda County from April 2008 to December 2018.

The former deputy identifies himself in his LinkedIn profile as a “Security and Law Enforcement professional with over 15 years of experience with a major focus in computer crimes, financial crimes, and developing software programs.”

Persinger earned $131,966 in total pay working as a sheriff’s deputy in 2021 in Placer County, according to Transparent California. He earned $155,721 in total pay as a Union City police officer in 2018.

Jane Doe’s attorney said legal claims like these are typically met with a lot of resistance from detectives assigned to investigate allegations against one of their fellow officers.

“It’s not uncommon that the law enforcement agency initially takes a ‘circle-the-wagons’ approach, sometimes even turning the evidence against the victims as though they can be bullied into dropping the claims,” Gilleon said.

But the attorney said Placer County, so far, has demonstrated “genuine concern to thoroughly and competently investigate the allegations and to protect its citizens from a potential predator in uniform.”

Gilleon said he’s not surprised the District Attorney’s Office has not yet filed criminal charges against Persinger, because prosecutors typically spend many months working with internal affairs investigators to build cases against law enforcement officers. He said it’s possible the judge could delay the civil case until any potential prosecution is completed.