A retired Garden Grove police sergeant pleaded not guilty Friday to sexually assaulting two women in separate cases.
Charles William Starnes III was charged Oct. 16 with a count of kidnapping to commit a sex offense, sexual penetration by foreign object, sexual penetration with an intoxicating substance and assault with the intent to commit a sex offense, all felonies.
Starnes was arrested on a warrant Thursday and pleaded not guilty Friday in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana. Starnes is next due in court for a pretrial and bail review hearing Tuesday in the West Justice Center in Westminster.
Starnes’ attorney, Brian Gurwitz, said, “Mr. Starnes categorically denies the charges and is eager for the truth to be presented in a courtroom.”
Prosecutors alleged Starnes sexually assaulted another officer in March 2007 at a bar in Stanton, claiming he dragged the woman out of the bar and assaulted her until two fellow officers intervened.
Starnes was also accused of sexually assaulting a civilian co-worker in the police department in March 2020. The two were riding back from a party at a Long Beach bar to the Garden Grove Police Department Stress Release Center, which was described as a bar for officers run by a police union, prosecutors said.
Starnes retired as he was under investigation for sexual harassment, prosecutors said.