Ex-Policeman Ordered Jailed for 3 Weekends

A former Santa Ana police officer who was convicted of destroying the police records of a prostitute with whom he had had sex has been sentenced to three weekends in Orange County Jail and three years’ probation.

Ronald Thurel Parsons, 28, was found guilty Monday of three counts of stealing and destroying public documents, a felony. The maximum sentence is four years in state prison.

The La Mirada resident, who is married and has three sons, will be back in court Nov. 25, at which time Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno, who sentenced Parsons, will decide when he is to spend his time in jail.

According to court documents, Parsons destroyed the evidence on Oct. 6, 1984, after Cecilia Gonzalez was arrested on charges of conspiracy to forge a signature on a stolen government check. Arresting officers placed the check, a false identification card and an arrest report in a police evidence locker at the Santa Ana Police Department.

Tore Up Evidence

Parsons allegedly took the evidence and destroyed it by tearing it into small pieces at a Santa Ana park. He then allegedly told a second woman to visit Gonzalez in jail and to instruct Gonzalez to plead not guilty to the stolen check charges because he had destroyed the incriminating evidence, court documents said.

The former officer later confessed the crime to two Santa Ana Police Department internal affairs investigators, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Chinn. Parsons also admitted having sex with Gonzalez “two or three” times, documents said.

The officer, who resigned from the force in October, 1984, told investigators: “I realized I’d done something wrong and it’s been eating at me.”

“We admitted (into evidence) a transcript of the tape-recorded admission that he made,” Chinn said. “Based on that evidence, (Municipal) Judge Manuel Ramirez found him guilty of all three charges. After being found guilty, Parsons was turned over to Judge Briseno for sentencing.

“I felt he was convicted of exactly what he did.”

However, Robinson Harley Jr., Parson’s attorney, disagreed. “There was something done wrong, no question about it,” he said. “But I really think they charged him with the wrong offense.”

According to Harley, Parsons should have been found guilty of violating Penal Code Section 135, or Government Code Section 6201.

Misdemeanor Violation

The Penal Code section is destruction of evidence, a misdemeanor. Government Code Section 6201 pertains to the same crime, but there is discretion as to whether it is a misdemeanor or a felony.

The section under which Parsons was convicted, however, Government Code Section 6200, pertains to destruction of evidence by parties such as county officials who have responsibility for the documents, Harley said. “He was not an official custodian. He was not in that higher position of trust. He was just a beat cop.”