The San Jose police officer accused of raping a hotel maid and assaulting his ex-girlfriend was charged this week with another crime – buying a bottle of vodka from a Gilroy Safeway in the wee hours of the morning, violating an obscure California law that bans the sale or purchase of alcohol between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Officer Geoffrey Graves now faces a misdemeanor count of violating that little known business and professions code, formally known as Section 25631.
But the Mercury News, which first reported the new charge, added that the 38-year-old officer was not charged with theft. That's because a grocery store cashier said he left $20 at the checkout counter – even though a police report says he threw it down angrily before storming out.
The incident, which was Gilroy Police Records Manager David Boles told NBC Bay Area was captured on surveillance video, occurred May 25.
But the misdemeanor allegation did not come to light until Tuesday when Graves was in court on his Sept. 22, 2103 rape charge of a hotel maid.
Graves entered a not guilty plea to the rape charge in April. At the same court hearing, he entered a not guilty plea to two counts of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, in which police documented two fights between Graves and his then-girlfriend. Graves did not enter a plea Tuesday to buying the bottle of vodka charge, and was ordered to answer that on Oct. 16. His preliminary hearing on the rape charge is set for Oct. 1.
Since his first arrest, Graves has been out of custody on $100,000 bail.
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It was while he was out that Gilroy police records show that he was inside the Gilroy Safeway on First Street at 2:30 a.m. A Safeway employee called police to report that a customer had tried to buy liquor at the store, and got very angry when the employee said he wasn't allowed to sell it to him.
The customer engaged in some sort of "confrontation with the employee," records show, and the customer "threw down $20 and left with the vodka anyway."
With the help of the surveillance video, which police would not release, the employee was able to identify the customer as Graves.
