Officer Acquitted of Murder Solicitation

A Los Angeles police officer accused of offering to kill two business associates of a wealthy Hancock Park man for $50,000 was acquitted Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court on three counts of solicitation.

Jurors deliberated nearly three days before finding Keith Moser, 29, not guilty of solicitation of murder, assault and extortion. The panel deadlocked on a fourth count of grand theft, and Superior James B. Pierce declared a mistrial. Moser is expected to be retried on that charge.

Neither Moser nor his lawyer, Howard Price, could be reached for comment Friday.

Moser, a three-year veteran who worked the desk of the Wilshire Division police station, was arrested last November as he met with businessman Robert Furlong in the parking lot of a restaurant on West Pico Boulevard and allegedly accepted $50,000.

Investigators, who had been alerted by Furlong, were waiting. Moser was arrested, charged and relieved from duty without pay in January.

In his defense, Moser claimed that Furlong had approached him to commit murder for hire, and he had conducted his own “sting”--without telling his superiors--in order to get evidence against the businessman. Moser maintained that he had no intention of committing murder.

Prosecutor James Koller argued unsuccessfully that it was Moser who offered to commit murder for money.

Despite Friday’s verdicts, Moser still faces departmental charges before a Board of Rights that could lead to his dismissal from the Police Department, if convicted, according to Cmdr. Bill Booth.