Costa Mesa : Ex-Policeman Begins Jail Term for ’84 Crimes

Five years after his conviction in a sexual assault case, a former Costa Mesa police officer was ordered to begin serving a 60-day sentence in County Jail.

William Lauchlan, 39, reported Monday evening to the jail, having been ordered to do so earlier in the day by Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown.

The sentence was first ordered in 1984, but Lauchlan was allowed to remain free as he pursued his appeals, which ended at the U.S. Supreme Court when it refused to hear his case. His appeals now exhausted, Brown ordered Lauchlan to begin serving the sentence.

Lauchlan was fired from his job as a patrol officer with the Costa Mesa Police Department in February, 1984, after three women accused him of making sexual advances and molesting them while he was on duty.

He was convicted that year of molesting a 22-year-old whom he had stopped late one night on the Costa Mesa Freeway. The jury acquitted him on a similar count involving a 39-year-old Costa Mesa woman, and it was hung on a third count of false imprisonment involving the assault on the younger woman.

Defense attorney Keith C. Monroe said Tuesday that his client still maintains that he is innocent. Since being convicted, Lauchlan has been working at various jobs in sales and promotions, but he was to have begun work this week as a private investigator with an Orange County firm, Monroe said.