Ex-CHP officer convicted of bribery and perjury
A former California Highway Patrol officer was convicted Monday of bribery and perjury for dismissing a traffic ticket for a woman who agreed to have sex with him.
Abram Carabajal, 53, faces up to four years, eight months in prison when he is sentenced in San Diego County Superior Court in Vista.
The same jury acquitted the woman, Shirin Zarrindej, 49, a dog groomer from Encino, on similar charges. Investigators followed the two to a motel in Oceanside after Carabajal went to court to have the speeding ticket he’d written in March 2008 dismissed.
The jury split 11-1 for conviction on a conspiracy charge against the two.
Carabajal, a 26-year CHP veteran, retired immediately after being confronted by investigators about the tryst. He had written Zarrindej a speeding ticket on Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton.
During the trial, four women testified that he had made suggestive comments to them after stopping them on the freeway during traffic stops — allegations that Carabajal denied. He insisted that he and Zarrindej had been having an affair.
Prosecutors sought to have Carabajal taken immediately into custody. Judge Lisa Foster declined but ordered him to surrender his guns to Oceanside police.
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