Former Detective Pleads No Contest in Sex Case

A former Manhattan Beach police detective pleaded no contest Friday to two felony counts stemming from allegations that he pressured a jail inmate to have sex with him in exchange for help with her case.

Nigel Anthony Starkey, a 30-year-old British subject, faces a maximum sentence of four years and eight months and may also be deported, Deputy Dist. Atty. Herbert Lapin said.

Starkey, who is free on $20,000 bail, stood with his head bowed as he entered pleas to unlawful sex by false representation and oral copulation in a correctional facility.

2 Counts Dismissed

Under the plea agreement, the prosecution will ask Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Clarence A. Stromwall to dismiss two additional counts against Starkey, including rape by threat of the authority of a public official, when he is sentenced May 14.

The charges against Starkey arose from an incident at the Manhattan Beach Jail last Sept. 17, after he arrested a 23-year-old woman for attempting to forge and cash a check. Two days later, the woman reported that Starkey told her she faced a five-year prison term but could have it reduced if she had sex with him.

Prosecutors now believe that no force was involved, Lapin said.

The week after the incident, the woman secretly recorded a conversation with Starkey in which he said that if other police officers found out about their tryst “they would stick me away forever.”

The woman, who may be asked to testify at Starkey’s sentencing hearing, ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor forgery charges.

Starkey’s attorney, John J. Cheroske, said Starkey insisted on the plea bargain. “He’s just emotionally and mentally incapable of going through a trial,” the attorney said.