Man Sentenced to Six Years Prison for Burglary and Looting of Hope Village

Defendant Douglas James Rosado, 50 years old of Santa Rosa, was sentenced on April 20, 2018 by the Honorable Dana Beernink Simonds to 6 years in state prison after pleading no contest on March 15, 2018 to charges of first degree burglary and felony looting during a state of emergency in Sonoma County.

District Attorney Ravitch stated, “As I have stated previously, my office will seek to hold accountable those people that took advantage of this community during the fires. The crime was one of opportunity carried out against a non-profit agency forced to evacuate the building. The sentence is entirely appropriate for the crimes committed."

The charges resulted from an incident on October 15 and 16, 2017, at a time when California Governor Jerry Brown had declared a state of emergency in Sonoma County and adjoining counties due to destructive wildfires. At approximately 4:30 p.m. on October 15, 2017, witnesses confronted Rosado at the location of Hope Village, a group home run by California Human Development, that had been evacuated due to the fires. Rosado was seen attempting to load a dryer from the house onto his truck, and a shop vacuum was observed in the bed of the truck. Rosado told the witnesses his wife was a former employee of the facility and had asked him to check on the residence due to the fire. Rosado began opening the doors of his truck to allow the witnesses an opportunity to look inside his truck, but then immediately got into his truck and drove off before the witnesses were able to look inside. On October 16, 2017, a probation search was executed at his home and storage unit. During the search the shop vacuum seen the day before by the witnesses, and two televisions taken from Hope Village were recovered.