Local News in Brief : Officer Gets 8 Years for Child Molesting

A former Los Angeles police officer, fired for killing a molestation suspect in 1986, was sentenced Friday to eight years in state prison for sexually assaulting his stepdaughter and three other girls.

Albert Cunningham, 38, was convicted in August of two counts of child molestation and three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse. He was acquitted of charges that he sexually molested a second stepdaughter. Jurors deadlocked on 11 other sex charges.

Cunningham was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Vernon Foster.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jane Blissert accused Cunningham of sexually assaulting his stepdaughters from a previous marriage and three of the stepdaughters’ friends from 1980 to 1984.

The girls ranged in age from 11 to 17 at the time of the assaults, which are believed to have occurred in Cunningham’s Canyon Country home and in cars.

Cunningham shot and killed a 25-year-old child molestation suspect in February, 1986, who he said was reaching for a weapon at an apartment complex.

In December of that year, Cunningham was fired from the department for the shooting, which was deemed an improper discharge of his weapon, Los Angeles Police Cmdr. William Booth said.

Cunningham was an 11-year police veteran who was last assigned to the Van Nuys area.