One Cop Fired, Another Quits on Allegations

Two Buena Park police officers have left the department after being accused of two separate incidents of sexual misconduct on the job.

A patrol officer was accused of having sexual contact with a woman he pulled over and arrested hours earlier.

In the second case, an officer who worked out of Buena Park High School has been charged with exposing himself to an adult on campus while in uniform.

That second officer was fired and the other one resigned shortly after the accusations came to light, according to Buena Park Police Chief Gary Hicken.

The department refused to provide details of the cases, noting that they were personnel matters.

“All I can say is that we turned both cases over to the district attorney’s office as soon as I learned about them,” Hicken said.

The most recent case involves former Officer David Mills and stems from an early-morning arrest he made July 21, according to police documents obtained by The Times.

On that morning, Mills stopped a 30-year-old hairstylist who was wanted on an outstanding warrant, then arrested her.

The officer also suspected that a bag in the woman’s pickup truck contained drugs, according to the documents.

In an interview with investigators after the incident, the woman said Mills had performed a body search on her before booking, reaching under her dress with his bare hands.

After she was booked at the police station, the officer allegedly offered to give the woman a ride back to her truck about 3:30 a.m., according to the report.

The woman said that when the officer brought her back to her truck, he ordered her to follow him to a dark and deserted parking lot on La Palma Avenue.

Once they were in the parking lot, the woman said, Mills helped her out of the truck, began kissing her, fondled her breasts and told her to perform oral sex, according to police report.

Buena Park detectives investigated the case, then sent their findings to the district attorney’s office, citing possible charges ranging from oral copulation under the color of authority to kidnapping. Prosecutors are now reviewing the case.

Mills could not be reached for comment Friday.

Charges have already been filed against the second officer, Marlon G. Ware, 31, who was stationed at Buena Park High School as a school resource officer for three years. His job was to patrol the campus area.

While on duty April 26, Ware allegedly exposed himself to a female security officer on the campus.

He is charged with indecent exposure, a misdemeanor that carries a potential penalty of six months in jail and $1,000 in fines.

He is scheduled to be arraigned this month.

Ware denies the charges and said he will fight the department’s decision to fire him.

He said he and the woman had a previous relationship and that she concocted the story.

“It’s horrible,” he said. “The thing was, they believed her. . . . I expect to be vindicated from this he-said-she-said ordeal and look forward to being a police officer again.”

Officials from the school declined to comment.

Buena Park’s police department has a force of roughly 100 sworn officers.