Former Garden Grove Sergeant Charged With Kidnapping and Assaulting Two Colleagues
The Orange County District Attorney's Office announced that former Garden Grove police sergeant Charles “Chuck” William Starnes III, 52, was arrested on October 29 by the U.S. Marshals Service and charged with four felonies, including multiple counts of sexual assault and kidnapping, in the City of Garden Grove, Orange County, California. Prosecutors allege attacks on two colleagues more than a decade apart: a fellow officer in 2007, and a department employee in March 2020 after an 'off probation' party at a Long Beach bar.
In the 2007 case, prosecutors say Starnes dragged the woman out of the bar and into the parking lot, where the assault continued until two fellow officers stopped it. Starnes joined Garden Grove police in 2005 after serving as a Riverside County sheriff's deputy, later became president of the police officers' association, and was a Traffic Operations sergeant in 2025; he retired in May 2026 while on administrative leave under a sexual-harassment investigation.
Starnes pleaded not guilty at arraignment and remains jailed on $5 million bail. If convicted on all counts he faces seven years to life plus 14 years, prosecutors said. The department said it will keep cooperating. The charges are allegations to be determined in court.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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