Ex-Orange Officer Charged With Sexual Battery

Former Orange Police Officer Gordon W. Whaley has been charged with three felony counts of sexual battery for allegedly touching a woman he had stopped for a traffic violation, police said.

Whaley, 28, is accused of touching “the intimate parts of an adult female” after pulling her over for a traffic violation about 4 a.m. on May 12, Orange Police Sgt. Timm Browne said. The former officer will be arraigned Aug. 5 in Orange County Central Municipal Court and could face up to six years in state prison if convicted.

Browne said about 45 minutes after the officer stopped the woman, she and her roommate notified police that the officer had sexually assaulted her.

“In the course of an administrative investigation it was determined there was criminal overtones to the allegation and there was some substantiating evidence, so I turned it over to the district attorney’s office,” Browne said.

The charges were filed Monday in Central Municipal Court by Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory L. Prickett.

Whaley was fired from his job in May shortly after the administrative investigation found enough evidence to warrant a criminal investigation, Browne said.

Browne said the Orange Police Department hired Whaley, who lives in Moreno, from a police academy. He had worked for the department for 2 1/2 years as a uniformed officer.