Former Officer Dennis Decker Accused of Raping Children-Trial Begins
![[IMAGE]](http://members.aol.com/TheStork/dhspd1.jpg)
(Officer Dennis Decker is on the left with his son)
I was very surprised to find a web site still up for former Officer Dennis Decker who is accused of various felonies and child molestation from a fellow police officer. You would think that under the circumstances photo's or any reference to the officer who is standing trial for crimes with children would be removed, at least for now. here's what the caption under the photo reads:
This picture is from when I was sworn in at the Desert Hot Springs Police Department. The people with me are two of my good friends. Dennis Decker with his son, Christopher, on the left and Philip Orosco on the right. Dennis is a Dispatcher, where I work, for the Desert Hot Springs Police Department and he is the one that got me into this crazy hobby of patch collecting.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin 1/7/2008, in the trial of a former Desert Hot Springs police officer Dennis Decker accused of molesting an underage relative and her friend, both of whom were in a police ride-along program. The 37-year-old officer was arrested Sept. 26, 2006 in Marina del Rey. He remains in custody.
(Story Link -- http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_decker29.376aa70.html)
He faces multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault on a child, rape, lewd acts with a child and other charges. If convicted, he could get life in prison. Both of the possible victims were in the Explorers Program, which enables teenagers to ride along with police and help out around the station. Prosecutors claim the officer molested the relative, who is now 18 years old, over a 10-year period between 1996 and 2006, and the other girl over a yearlong period while she was a police Explorer.
The Dennis started and supervised the program in Desert Hot Springs. He also worked as a resource officer at Desert Hot Springs High School and Desert Springs Middle School.He denies all the charges, according to his attorney, John Patrick Dolan, who said he would look for jurors who could be ”fair and impartial and able to listen to the evidence, and not be prejudiced by the nature of the charges.”
Jury selection will likely take a week, he said, and the trial could take two or three months.
Dolan said he and the deputy district attorney assigned to the case had a witness list with nearly 100 names on it.
Dolan said he planned to call the officer’s friends and family to testify on his behalf, as well as his teenage son and the boy’s girlfriend.
Dolan said several Desert Hot Springs police officers had been subpoenaed to testify, and the department had been uncooperative.
