LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A 22-year decorated veteran of the Sheriff’s Department was charged today with multiple counts of child molestation for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl whose family he knew socially.
John Augustus Rose, 43, was charged with 17 felony counts, including four counts of lewd act on a child, six counts of penetration by a foreign object, five counts of oral copulation of a person under 16 and one count each of contact with a minor for sexual offense and possession of matter depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct.
Prosecutors said Rose began a sexual relationship with the teen in March and it continued through June.
The deputy — arrested Thursday and held in lieu of $320,000 bail — is due to be arraigned this afternoon in a downtown courtroom.
Until his arrest, Rose was viewed as a hero within the department for his rescue of a woman trapped in her cabin by the 2002 Curve fire in San Gabriel Canyon. He was awarded the department’s Medal of Valor.
“There was just a solid wall of fire,” the woman he rescued, Sigrid Hopson, told the Los Angeles Times. “Then the wind blew from behind them and made a tunnel of fire, and they just stepped on the gas and drove through this tunnel.”
Rose has been placed on unpaid leave, authorities said. If convicted, he faces more than 13 years in state prison.
