Officer Resigns Over Illegal Use of License Tag

A veteran Ventura police detective and community college instructor has resigned from the force after pleading no contest to illegally displaying on his 1965 Cadillac a license tag that was stripped from an abandoned automobile, authorities said Wednesday.

Officer Ronald L. Wyatt, 45, was sentenced to one year’s probation and fined $210 by Municipal Court Judge Herbert Curtis III, who on May 23 found Wyatt guilty of a misdemeanor involving personal use of a license stick-on tag that had been assigned to another vehicle, court records show.

A 1990 license for the 25-year-old Cadillac, which Wyatt told investigators he was buying from a friend, would have cost about $30, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles said.

Wyatt, of Moorpark, could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Charles Goldwasser, declined comment.

Lt. Pat Rooney, spokesman for the Ventura Police Department, would not discuss the case except to confirm that Wyatt had resigned recently after about 20 years on the force.

Wyatt, a former narcotics officer, was assigned to general investigations at the time of his resignation, according to the department.

Wyatt has also taught criminal justice courses at Ventura College for several years, including two classes--Introduction to Criminal Justice and Fundamentals of Law Enforcement--this past spring, the college confirmed.

The Police Department became aware of the illegal tag on Wyatt’s car on April 16, nearly one month after he left the vehicle in the department’s parking lot, according to police investigative reports on file with the Municipal Court. Another officer assumed that the car had been abandoned and began an investigation.

Wyatt promptly moved the vehicle from the parking lot. When it was seized as evidence the next day, the sticker had been removed, the reports said.

In an interview with police Sgt. Bob Anderson, Wyatt twice denied that he had placed the illegal tag on his car, Anderson reported.

But Wyatt acknowledged that he was familiar with the abandoned vehicle from which the tag had been taken, saying the vehicle was kept at a Santa Paula storage yard operated by a friend from whom Wyatt had arranged to buy the Cadillac, the report said. Wyatt also acknowledged knowing the combination to the lock at the storage yard.

Wyatt reportedly said he believed that the 1990 sticker on his Cadillac was one of several he had checked out from the Police Department. It is common department practice for officers on undercover and other special details to check out tags from seized vehicles to cover the law-enforcement plates and tags on their automobiles, the report said.

The department forwarded the results of its criminal investigation to the district attorney in late April, and Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim Gibbons filed the misdemeanor count May 15, records show. Eight days later Wyatt entered his no-contest plea.