D.A. Rejects Case Against Officer Charged With Soliciting Prostitute

Citing insufficient evidence, the district attorney’s office has declined to prosecute a San Diego police sergeant arrested for allegedly soliciting a prostitute at the Del Mar race track last month.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Rooten said he rejected the case because the Sheriff’s Department couldn’t prove that Sgt. Reginald Frank had asked a undercover female deputy for sex or offered money for such an act.

“There was no specific act mentioned and no overt act,” Rooten said. “If there had been an exchange of money or they had gone to a certain location, that would constitute something. But there’s a lack of evidence that a crime had been committed. It’s just not there.”

At the time of his arrest, Frank, 36, was accused of offering $40 for a sex act. Lt. John Walker, who heads the Sheriff’s Department’s special investigation vice detail, said at the time that Frank was arrested as part of a random sting.

Frank, who works in the police robbery division, also has served on the Border Crime Prevention Unit, a joint anti-crime squad made up of San Diego police and Border Patrol agents.

In an interview Wednesday, Frank said little about the arrest.

“I think it’s better to keep my mouth shut and get on with my life,” he said. “It really hurt. I have a family and 12 1/2 years on the force. But now it feels good.”

Rooten said his office does not discuss cases that are not filed.

Sgt. Glenn Revell, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, would not comment on the matter except to say that the department was aware that no charges would be filed and accepted the decision.

But Everett Bobbitt, Frank’s attorney, called the arrest “a real bad bust. It’s the first case I can recall where I felt that a ticket should not have been issued.”

Bobbitt said the undercover female deputy was inexperienced at conducting prostitute stings and had portrayed a prostitute only three other times.

“They took an inexperienced deputy and said, ‘Fill this role,’ ” Bobbitt said. “You have to know an entrapment situation. It takes a lot of experience and training.”

According to Bobbitt, who read the undercover deputy’s written recollection of the case, the deputy approached Frank at the track as he was filling out a betting slip, introduced herself and said she was confused about betting. Frank explained the procedure, then the deputy excused herself, telling him, “I’ll be around if you need anything,” Bobbitt said.

Later that day, Bobbitt said, she returned and asked Frank whether he had won. He said he had. She told him that she knew nothing about betting, and Frank asked her what prompted her to come to the track. “Don’t you know what I do?” she asked, according to Bobbitt. He said Frank thought she might be an undercover officer and had recognized that he was a cop.

The undercover officer said she was going to walk out to her van and Frank said he would walk with her. She then asked him if he would offer her something, Bobbitt said. When he asked her what she had in mind, she asked him if he would offer her money, Bobbitt said.

Bobbitt said Frank told the undercover deputy that he only had $40 and then was arrested.

“This case is like charging someone with running a stop sign and looking back and realizing there’s no stop sign,” Bobbitt said.

Rooten said the undercover officer did not tape-record the conversation.