Two Generations of Alleged Crimes Tear Apart a Police Family

Sometime over the past year, police received a report that a former San Francisco police officer and inspector for the Alameda County District Attorney's Office had allegedly molested a female relative when he and his family lived in Walnut Creek in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Back then, John Richard Fredriksson and his wife, from whom he is now divorced, were also raising Jason Fredriksson. The younger Frederiksson would graduate from Las Lomas High in 1991 and become a well-regarded detective.

Fredriksson father and son both enjoyed distiguished law enforcement careers--until recently. Each now faces allegations in separate cases that could end their careers, devastate their families, and send both to prison.

The younger Fredriksson, Jason, was recently charged in a . A San Leandro narcotics detective, he appeared in court on May 20. The 38-year-old Fredriksson, a Danville resident, pleaded not guilty . Investigators had searched his home in March and said they found items to support the allegation.

His wife, Sheryll Fredriksson, is a San Leandro police employee and a previous winner of the department's Dispatcher of the Year award. Although she has not been charged, she has been placed on administrative leave until the internal investigation is completed, San Leandro police say.

As this case was being investigated, authorities in Contra Costa County were finalizing their look into two-decades-old allegations that John Richard Fredriksson had sexually abused a female relative.

Seven days after his son's court appearance John Richard Fredriksson surrendered in a Walnut Creek courtroom to answer to charges that he molested the girl between the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Facing eight counts of lewd and lasivious conduct and oral copulation with a child under 14, he was taken into custody with bail set at $800,000.

Fredriksson, who has pleaded not guilty, worked with the San Francisco police from 1968 to 1981, making detective, then as an inspector for the Alameda County District Attorney's Office until his retirement in 2006. During his stint with the DA's office, he helped establish the office's witness protection program, according to a motion filed on his behalf by his defense attorneys.

The motion, which sought to reduce Fredriksson's $800,000 bail, argued that he was a lifelong resident of Northern California, had no prior criminal history, had close ties to family and friends, owned his own home in Tracy, and was at low risk to flee or to harm others or himself.

Starting in October 2010, Fredriksson began seeing, once or twice a week, a Walnut Creek therapist who specializes in sexual compulsions, addictions and anger management. "His goal was to heal the family and himself from issues originating 20 years ago," the therapist told Fredriksson's attorneys. "John could understand the idea of complete honesty and confession."

The therapist's comments were contained in the motion filed by Fredriksson's attorneys. However, his attorneys withdrew the motion because prosecutors were going to demand that Fredriksson answer in detail to the charges in court. 

Prosecutors say the abuse happened from 1988 to 1992. At that time Fredriksson and his wife – from whom he is divorced – lived in Walnut Creek, where his wife operated a home-based day care center. The victim, named as  Jane Doe in court documents, was a relative of Fredriksson and not a student of the day care center.

Deputy District Attorney Nancy Georgiou said state law allows prosecutors to bring charges in decades-old sex abuse cases if the allegations have just been reported in the past year and they can  be corroborated by other evidence.

District attorney inspectors generally do work similar to that of a police detective: Interview witnesses, testify in court and investigate violations of law, suspicious or accidental death, misconduct of public office, dishonest or immoral practice and consumer fraud.

The younger Fredriksson, who posted $40,000 bail and is on paid administrative leave from the police department, graduated from in Walnut Creek and has been an officer with the San Leandro Police Department for nine years.

His next court hearing is June 14 at the Hayward Hall of Justice. His father's next court date is June 29 in Department 36 in Martinez.