Ex-Officer Arraigned in Exposure of 4 Women : Law enforcement: He allegedly threatened to arrest female motorists if they didn’t bare themselves to prove they weren’t carrying drugs.

A former Garden Grove police officer was arraigned Thursday on charges that, while on duty, he forced four women to expose themselves by threatening to arrest them on drug charges if they did not cooperate.

Geoffery A. Lynch, 26, of Chino Hills resigned from the department on Nov. 30, less than a month after a woman’s complaint sparked an investigation by the Garden Grove Police Department and the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Lynch, now an insurance salesman, pleaded not guilty in Municipal Court in Westminster to four counts of false imprisonment. He was released on his own recognizance.

The woman who lodged the complaint said Lynch threatened to arrest her for possession of narcotics unless she exposed herself and showed that she was not hiding any drugs, prosecutors said.

Garden Grove Police Lt. Chuck Gibbs said investigators later interviewed three more women who alleged that Lynch had forced them to expose themselves “after he detained them illegally . . . during questionable car stops.”

Gibbs declined to say what led investigators to the three women.

“This is every husband and father’s nightmare . . . for this to happen to their daughter, wife or friend,’ said Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg Prickett, who is the prosecutor in the case.

“Women need to feel that law enforcement officers are their friends,” Prickett said. “When someone pretends to be enforcing the law and abuses it in this manner, it is inexcusable.”

Neither Lynch nor his attorney, John Lueck, were available for comment.

Prickett said there was a pattern in the four incidents, which occurred over a period of several weeks.

He said the four traffic stops occurred around 2 a.m. near the intersection of Garden Grove Boulevard and Brookhurst Street and involved women in their 20s.

“Each incident lasted between 20 to 30 minutes,” Prickett said. “Basically, he would pull her over, tell her that he believed that she was in personal possession of narcotics or under the influence of narcotics, and that he would have to arrest her and take her into the station unless she proved to him that she wasn’t.”

Prickett continued: “He would force the women to pull up their top or slip down their pants. . . . Then he would let them go.”

He said the women were never issued citations for traffic violations.

“This is a very rare occurrence . . . and one no one would ever want to tolerate,” Prickett said. “It is a tragedy for the public and the honest and hard-working officers of this county, and especially Garden Grove police officers.”

Gibbs said the department could not comment on the case beyond saying, “We’re not happy about it.”

A preliminary hearing is set for April 6. If convicted, Lynch faces a $4,000 fine and up to six years in prison.

Prickett said it is rare that a police officer uses the color of authority to gain sexual favors, particularly given “the total number of police officers to the number of cases.”

Last year, Orange Police Officer Gordon Whaley was sentenced to 60 days in jail after he pleaded no contest to fondling a woman during a pat-down search. Whaley is no longer with the department.