A judge Tuesday found a former Hancock County sheriff’s deputy guilty of misdemeanor simple assault after a woman testified she repeatedly tried to get the ex-cop to stop when he reached into her bra and forcibly rubbed one of her breasts.
Ex-Hancock County Deputy Joseph “Joe” Gendreau allegedly made unwanted sexual advances on the woman, according to testimony, offering to pay her $100 for sex and forcibly touching the woman’s breast so hard that she suffered bruising.
D’Iberville prosecutor Fred “Dub” Hornsby III successfully prosecuted the case.
After testimony at the trial Tuesday, Judge David Sullivan convicted Gendreau and sentenced him to a 30-day suspended jail sentence, fined him $489 and placed him on six months of reporting probation.
Gendreau denied any wrongdoing and declined to comment before, during and after the trial. His attorney, Donald Rafferty, said he would appeal the conviction to Harrison County Court.
At the time of the June 4 crime, Gendreau had just gotten off a shift working as a security guard at a bar near the restaurant where the woman worked.
When the criminal investigation started, he resigned from his position at the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. Before his resignation, Gendreau worked in patrols and other capacities at the Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Ricky Adam has said.
The court papers filed in the case say Gendreau caused the woman to be in fear of physical harm by “groping, fondling and rubbing her crotch and breast areas.” The criminal affidavit also spells out the allegations that Gendreau made “inappropriate sexual insinuations.”
The incident occurred around 6:20 a.m. on June 4.
On Tuesday, Hornsby amended the charges to include that Gendreau caused physical harm to the woman during the assault.
The testimony
The victim, a petite woman dressed in a pink blouse and slacks, often cried in court as she recounted what happened during her unexpected encounter with Gendreau in the parking lot of a Waffle House in D’Iberville.
She also got angered at times when Rafferty tried to suggest she was somehow responsible for what had happened to her.
The woman works at the restaurant near Interstate 110 and said she was sitting in her car when the alleged crime occurred.
While in the car, she said, Gendreau, at 6 feet-2 inches tall and 250 pounds, appeared by her open window and started propositioning her for sex.
The woman testified that Gendreau pulled out his wallet and offered her $100 to have sex with him.
The woman said she refused the advance, but shortly thereafter, she said Gendreau reached through the window and put his hand in her crotch area over her clothes.
“I told him to stop,” the woman tearfully recalled and said that Gendreau then shoved his hands down her shirt and inside her bra and started forcibly touching her right breast.
“I tried to move his hand, and I couldn’t,” she said. “He had mentioned something about my nipple ring. I kept telling him to stop, that he needed to get back. I couldn’t get him to stop.”
The woman testified that Gendreau was touching her right breast with such force that it resulted in bruising.
She said it finally ended when one of her co-workers walked out and asked her what was wrong.
The woman, still shaken and shocked, said she then went into work and soon told a co-worker what had happened.
She felt “horrible,” she said in court, as if it was somehow her fault that it happened.
“Nobody should have to … be treated like that,” she said. “I was just scared. I didn’t want him to do anything else.”
Questioning the victim’s testimony
Rafferty questioned the woman about why she didn’t have pictures of the bruising and shot down her testimony about Gendreau offering to pay her $100 for sex, arguing that his client had not been charged with any criminal offense for solicitation.
Rafferty also questioned why it took so long for formal charges to be filed in the case.
The woman shot back at Rafferty, saying she did go to the D’Iberville Police Department that day and told a police officer about what happened to her.
Rafferty asked if she recalled asking Gendreau for his phone number and him turning her down.
The woman said that never happened.
“Why would I want his phone number?” she asked, saying she had a boyfriend of her own and had no reason to try to get anyone’s phone number, much less from a man she says attacked her.
Hornsby pointed out to the judge that the woman had never said at any point during her testimony that she tried to get Gendreau’s number.
“What you asked her is not true,” Hornsby said, adding that information is what Rafferty suggested had happened and was not what the woman said in her testimony.
“It’s your testimony,” Hornsby fired back at Rafferty.
Problems with previous employers?
During other questions during the cross-examination of the woman, Rafferty asked her about ever complaining about any other person she had worked for.
The woman said she had reported a boss from another restaurant for stalking her and obtained a protective order that kept the man away from her for a year because the allegations were valid.
Rafferty repeatedly questioned why it took several hours after the alleged crime for D’IberIlle police to be called to the restaurant about the incident.
The woman said she was upset and didn’t know what to do at first because she was still shocked by what had happened. She said she spoke to a fellow employee and her manager before summoning the police.
She also pointed out it was all reported the same day it occurred and that she went to the D’Iberville Police Department as well the same day to speak to an investigator about what had happened.
Rafferty also questioned why it took 13 days before she signed formal charges against Gendreau.
A D’Iberville police officer who handled the investigation later explained the delay, testifying that once the allegations were made, he went to the officers in the criminal investigations division for them to look into the case to determine if any felony charge should apply.
Hornsby said the case file was also sent to prosecutors in the District Attorney’s Office, but they declined to pursue a felony charge.
And the police officer who wrote up the report said it was done 13 days after the crime because that is when criminal investigators got back with him to let him know there would be no felony charge but a misdemeanor assault charge instead.
After that, the officer said he wrote up the affidavit and called the woman back to sign the charges.
After the crime occurred, the woman said she talked about what had happened to her with her children so they would know how to respond if someone tried to attack them like she was.
Rafferty maintains there is no evidence to support the conviction and plans to fight it in County Court.