LIVERMORE, Calif. - A former Contra Costa County Sheriff's deputy was placed on the state's decertification list last month on accusations of sexual assault for what happened on a Livermore couch.
The POST listing showed Erick Anthony Rossi was placed on a temporary suspension on June 13, which means he can fight to get his job back, although that could take as long as three years.
POST is the Commission of Peace Officer Standards, the agency vested with the power of setting standards and providing training for peace officers in California.
The 36-year-old Discovery Bay Man was sentenced to three years probation in December 2022, order to pay a $300 restitution fine, and required to register as a sex offender. Alameda County Judge David Pereda, who convicted Rossi during a bench trial, chose not to sentence the ex-deputy to jail, the Bay Area News Group reported.
Rossi was charged six months earlier with one misdemeanor count of sexual battery after a woman told authorities she woke up on a friend's couch in Livermore in October 2022 to Rossi kissing her face, groping her breast and sliding his hand down her pants.
During the trial, Rossi took the stand and insisted it was all just a misunderstanding. He denied the allegations, saying he had grabbed the woman to make room for himself on the couch.
20 California police officers facing possible decertification
The officers' on the most recent POST decertification list worked in departments including Rohnert Park, Redwood City, Sonoma County and San Francisco, San Diego, Kern, San Bernadino counties and Stockton.
Rossi joined the sheriff’s office in 2012 after spending two years as a policeman in the city of Alameda, according to state employment records. He had worked as a jail guard, a patrol officer, a SWAT team member, a water patrolman and a tactical flight officer for a helicopter unit.
BANG reported that Rossi left the sheriff's office in June 2022.
As of Friday, Rossi was just one of nearly 60 law enforcement officer's on POST's decertification list.
As of Jan. 1, California became the latest state in the country to be able to decertify peace officers, under a law called SB2.
The law gives POST the power to decertify officers for serious misconduct — essentially kicking them out of the profession for things like sexual assault, perjury and wrongfully killing civilians.
Last month, POST said it's possible that they could decertify or suspend up to 3,500 police officers each year for serious misconduct.
The estimates detailed in a POST budget request, and first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, suggest that's about 4% of the roughly 90,000 officers working in California.