Virginia Police Officer Christopher Roush Busted for Masturbating on His Front Porch

Newport News, Virginia

So, not a story from Texas, but any story involving a police officer and masturbation simply must be told, I think.

Newport News police officer Christopher Roush, 41, was taken into custody on April 7, after police said he exposed himself at his front door on Harpersville Road, masturbating in view of passers-by. At the time, Roush was charged with exposing himself to two people, and faced three misdemeanor counts.

However, since that time, the number of charges against the officer has multiplied. Court documents now list the initials of six people who were victimized by Roush’s porch masturbation. The misdemeanor charges against Roush have quadrupled to 12 counts — seven counts of indecent exposure and five counts of making an "obscene sexual display."

A felony charge has now been issued, as one of the victims was a child under the age of 15-years old. That earned him a charge of taking indecent liberties with a child.

"Christopher E. Roush ... did knowingly, intentionally and with lascivious intent expose his or her sexual or genital parts to ... a child under the age of 15 years," according to the indictment.

Roush turned himself in on Saturday and was released on an $11,000 bond. In a brief arraignment in Circuit Court on Monday, Roush waived the reading of the 13 indictments against him.

Court documents describe the ugly scene of the April day.

According to the initial criminal complaint filed against the officer in General District Court, police responded to Roush's home on Harpersville Rood about 9 a.m. on April 7. An officer arrived and saw a man pointing at Roush's home from across the street.

The officer then turned and saw Roush standing in his doorway "entirely nude," holding the glass door open and pointing back "at the citizen from across the street," the complaint said. The officer then made a U-turn, the complaint said, and "Mr. Roush withdrew into the home and closed both the glass and the wooden door."

Later, the complaint said, police heard from a woman who told them that she saw a man standing on the front porch of the same home, using one hand to hold the door open and the other hand to masturbate with. After she made a U-Turn, the woman told police, the man "was still masturbating on the front porch," the complaint said.

The woman later picked Roush out of a photo spread as the man she saw, police said.

Roush is a master police officer who has been with the department for nine years and was assigned to the South Precinct of the city. Since his arrest, he's been on administrative leave without pay.