Firing, Demotion of S.D. Officers Upheld in Prostitute Case

The San Diego Civil Service Commission on Wednesday upheld the firing of a city police officer and demotion of a lieutenant for improper conduct regarding a prostitute whose body was later found beaten and strangled.

But the three-member commission panel decided to reinstate the lieutenant, Carlton Black, 40, a 15-year police veteran, to his former position in one year, as long as he performs satisfactorily as sergeant during the next 12 months.

Larry Avrech, 32, a five-year member of the San Diego police force, was terminated Jan. 15 after accusations that he was sexually involved with Donna Marie Gentile, 22, and provided her with information that helped her avoid arrests for prostitution.

Although the commission ruled that it had no evidence that Avrech had sex with Gentile, it upheld seven of 12 charges that were filed against him. Among charges upheld were allegations that Avrech’s actions impeded a police probe of the matter and revealed enforcement procedures against prostitution.

Gentile’s nude body was discovered June 23 by a man walking his dog in brush near Sunrise Highway about two miles north of Interstate 8 in rural East County. She had been brutally beaten on the head, and suffered numerous fractures of the neck and back, sources said.

The identity of Gentile’s corpse was not known until last week and was reported only hours after the final day of Avrech’s Civil Service Commission hearing ended.

Avrech’s attorney, Donald Peterson, questioned whether the timing of news accounts of Gentile’s death prevented his client from getting a fair hearing.

“My concern is that the minute the hearing was over, the newspapers came out with news of (Gentile’s) death,” Peterson said. “The innuendo is there.

“If (the commission) had been a jury . . . and they came back with an adverse verdict, I would have little doubt in my mind that media comment would have tainted the ability of my client to obtain an impartial decision.”

San Diego County Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Baxter said that homicide investigators have been so busy this week conducting interviews and chasing leads in the Gentile case that talking with Avrech or Black is not a high priority at this time.

“To say they’re suspects is not a misnomer,” Baxter said. “Certainly, they are not the prime suspects . . . any more than perhaps her last customer as a prostitute or somebody she could have offended in the past.

“There are questions in our mind . . . It’s sensitive.”

Avrech, who said Wednesday he is willing to cooperate with detectives investigating Gentile’s death, said he was deeply disappointed by the commission’s findings.

“This is another example of the . . . inability of the city Civil Service Commission to grasp what’s going on,” Avrech said. “We put everything before them. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t have been reinstated.”

But Gentile’s attorney, Douglas Holbrook, said he would have been shocked if the commission had overturned Avrech’s dismissal.

“There was nothing I heard at any point in the evidence that was convincing or persuasive . . . to reinstate Avrech,” Holbrook said.

Gentile filed a complaint with police in August that Avrech had provided her with confidential information in exchange for sexual favors.

Avrech denied the charges and told police internal affairs investigators that he had been cooperating with Gentile to gather information on Black’s allegedly improper relationship with the prostitute.

Gentile, who testified in June at the civil service hearings against Avrech but was not called in Black’s case, denied ever having sex with Black.

According to testimony at Black’s civil service hearing, he gave Gentile $1,000 to defray her legal expenses on prostitution arrests and contacted a probation officer on her behalf.

Gentile regarded Black as a “father figure” who was trying to help her get off the streets and find legitimate work, Holbrook said.

The commission found no evidence to refute Black’s testimony that he was trying to rehabilitate Gentile, according to its report.

But the commission found that Black, as tactical commander of a task force designed to combat prostitution activity along El Cajon Boulevard, telephoned a probation officer to put in a good word for Gentile.

Although he knew that Gentile was still working the streets, Black told the probation officer she was “not the typical transient prostitute that the Police Department normally dealt with,” according to the commission report.

The probation officer testified that she was impressed by phone calls from both Black and Avrech, and that they caused her to be more lenient with her recommendations in Gentile’s case.

The commission agreed that Black and Avrech used poor judgment in contacting the probation officer, but it ruled that Black’s permanent demotion was “too severe.”

Ed Dillon, Black’s attorney, said, “Knowing his performance in the past, I can almost guarantee you he will be a lieutenant next June.”

Dillon called the decision “kind of half a loaf.” He said Black was looking for a more lenient finding.

“Anything short of a demotion might have been more palatable,” Dillon said.

The difference in the punishments given to Avrech and Black does not reflect highly on the city’s Civil Service Commission, Avrech’s attorney said.

“It’s a comment on the way discipline is handed out in the Police Department, (and) the way certain officers are treated differently than others,” Peterson said.

The biggest difference between the two cases was in the number of charges filed.

While Black faced only the allegation that he contacted a probation officer on Gentile’s behalf, the commission considered a dozen charges against Avrech. Seven of the allegations were upheld, including the following:

- By launching his own unauthorized investigation into Black’s involvement with Gentile, Avrech delayed a proper Police Department probe into the matter.

- Avrech hurt Police Department operations by providing Gentile with information about police activities regarding prostitution enforcement procedures.

- The time Avrech spent with Gentile could have been better spent on police patrol.

Avrech said he will appeal the commission findings in Superior Court.

“I felt in the very beginning that my fate was predetermined when Donna went to the Police Department,” Avrech said. “She went forward with false allegations . . .

“The department never protected me. They never saw my side.”