Vice Officer Says Moses Offered Her $100 for Sex

Olympic track star Edwin Moses offered a female undercover officer $100 for two specific sex acts, the officer testified Tuesday during the trial of the two-time gold medalist for solicitation of prostitution.

Defense attorneys, however, disputed some of the officer’s statements in the second day of the Los Angeles Municipal Court case, maintaining that Moses was the victim of entrapment.

Los Angeles police officer Susan Gonzales, the first witness called to testify by Dep. City Atty. Michael J. Gaurino, told a six-man, six-woman jury how she encountered Moses on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Genesee Avenue at about 3:15 a.m. Jan. 13.

She said she noticed Moses stopped in the left-turn lane on Genessee in a gray Mercedes-Benz with the driver’s window rolled down. She said Moses looked at her, nodded and smiled.

Gonzales, who was involved in her first vice operation, said she smiled back and continued pacing the southwest corner of the intersection. Then, she testified, Moses said, “Nice night.”

She said she asked, “Are you talking to me?” and that Moses replied, “It’s a nice night.”

“I said, ‘Oh, yeah,’ and continued my pacing,” Gonzales testified.

She said Moses then said something that she couldn’t understand, and told him, “I can’t hear you. If you want to talk to me, you’ll have to pull over.”

Gonzales said that Moses then backed up on Genesee, pulled over, parked and waved her over.

Gonzales further testified that she crossed the street, telling officers in a nearby house monitoring her conversation through a microphone that she had a possible violator. She said she gave them Moses’ personalized license plate, OLYMPYN.

Gonzales said that when she approached Moses, they exchanged greetings, then he said: “How much for an hour?”

“Well, what do you want?” she asked.

Gonzales then said that Moses, using street language, asked specifically for an oral sex act and an act of sexual intercourse for $100. She said she then repeated the request so that officers in the command post could determine whether to follow through with an arrest.

Moses did not respond to her, so Gonzales then said she told him, “Oh, sure. Make a right here (onto Sunset) and I’ll meet you.”

Gonzales said Moses nodded, started his car and began driving away at about 5 m.p.h. in the direction she pointed. She said she then went to the command post, where she initialed a transcription of her conversation with Moses taken by officer Kent Ridenour.

Gonzales, who has worked as an LAPD patrol officer for a year, said she was on loan to vice during a weekend sweep of prostitution Jan. 13. She participated in five arrests, including Moses’.

The dark-haired, slender woman in her mid 20s said she was instructed on vice squad procedures during roll call on the evening of her first night at Hollywood. She also watched other decoys operate before taking her position on the corner, she said.

She said superior officers told her not to wear lewd or enticing clothes while serving as a decoy, and that her duties were to stand on the corner and wait for possible violators to solicit sex for money.

“I was told to dress like an ordinary person,” she said.

Moses, 29 of Laguna Hills, has pleaded innocent to a misdemeanor charge of solicitation. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of six months in Los Angeles County Jail and a $1,000 fine.

Defense attorney Edward Medvene tried to show discrepancies and inaccuracies in the police reports filed on the arrest.

Gonzales admitted under cross-examination by Medvene that the original police report on Moses’ arrest was inaccurate in that no statement of her first conversation with the defendant was included.

She also conceded that she did not see Moses pull over and stop where she had suggested after the offer was made.

“I didn’t care whether he stopped or not,” Gonzales testified.

Ridenour also testified that it made no difference whether Moses had stopped voluntarily or not after his conversation with Gonzales. “I’m not sure whether he stopped,” Ridenour said. “I don’t know if he stopped or he was stopped.”

Ridenour, who monitored the conversation between Moses and Gonzales, testified that he took verbatim notes, but admitted that some parts of the conversation were not recorded for the record.

He also admitted that the police versions in subsequent reports varied from the original one he had completed.

Medvene asked Ridenour why a tape recorder had not been used, even though one was available for use with the system the force was using. Police say they often do not use tape recordings during vice arrests because they believe officers’ testimony is strong enough evidence in court.

Ridenour also admitted that he left out the segment of conversation in which Gonzales repeated the alleged request for specific acts. He later told Gaurino that it is standard procedure to omit such conversations. The decoy repeats the request, he said, to ensure the monitor hears the request properly.

“I didn’t write it down,” he said. “It’s routine.”