Caught red-handed? OC school trustee Steve Rocco is charged in ketchup theft

There's nothing ordinary about Steve Rocco's tenure as a trustee on the Orange Unified School District board. Elusive and reclusive, Rocco won his seat against a heavily-favored candidate in 2004 without ever making a single speech.

He dresses in black, always wears shades, and never willingly allows himself to be photographed. And though Rocco's made plenty of news with his various forays into politics, now he's in the headlines for allegedly stealing a bottle of ketchup. Here's the update from his hometown paper, the O.C. Register:

Orange Unified School District trustee Steve Rocco was detained and cited, charged with stealing a bottle of Heinz ketchup from Chapman University's cafeteria.

Sgt. Dan Adams of the Orange Police Department said today that Rocco was detained Saturday by campus public safety officers who said he stole the ketchup at 10:30 a.m.

"One of the security guards saw him take a 14-ounce bottle of ketchup off of one of the tables," Adams said. "He concealed it and started to ride away on a bike."

Rocco, who police called "cooperative," was cited for petty theft and released. He faces a possible $250 fine. He's already on the hook for his share of $37,000 in legal fees racked up when his 2006 lawsuit against the school district was dismissed. (Rocco belittled a school principal during a board meeting, was censured by his fellow board members for doing so, and then sued the board members who censured him.)

Add in his run for Santa Ana City Council, where his platform includes taking on "the Mexican Mafia, their Caucasian Puppetmasters and Judicial Miscreants," and the question of whether or not he's behind the website about the late comedian, Andy Kaufman, and you've got a real American original.

--Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[pie]

Everybody in the OC must have been viewing too much X files when they elected Steve Rocco, as a trustee of Orange Unified School District.

Mr. Rocco knows how to play the players in the OC. - I guess the proof is in the ketchup bottle, and how small Mr. Rocco really is.

Taking on "the Mexican Mafia, is a job for the FBI, and LAPD, not Rocco's delusions.

[Bill]

A real gem fer sure, perhaps the black clothing gets too hot in the sun and causes mental difficulties.

[Russ Miller, Ft. Worth, Tx.]

I understand he is running for political office. Obviously he's not ready: he has much maturing to do to get from stealing a bottle of ketchup to being able to steal the hundreds of thousands that his political peers abscound with!!!!

[Ti Tamero]

I truly believe that the very idea that one could be arrested for
a half bottle of ketchup a condiment, is ludricrous. It was not like a theft of
food or some item on the menu. So, what if I was at the campus
cafeteria and took a hand full of ketchup packages, would I be
arrested for that too ?

This sounds suspicious and I believe that Steve Rocco was set up.
What would he need with a bottle of ketchup anyway ?

Police campus patrol should focus their time and attention to the
safety and well being of the students on campus!!

Ti Tamero