Man Pleads No Contest to 3 Sex Assaults

A former state Department of Motor Vehicles examiner faces up to three years in prison after pleading no contest to charges that he sexually assaulted women while giving them driving tests in San Fernando Valley.

Charles Lee Wright, 42, of Simi Valley entered the plea Monday in Van Nuys Municipal Court before a preliminary hearing on charges that he assaulted three women between July, 1990, and March, 1991. Wright was charged with misdemeanor counts of battery, sexual battery and assault under color of authority.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Herbert Lapin said a 27-year-old Encino woman told police that Wright made her park her car after leaving a Van Nuys DMV office during a March driving test, then fondled her and forced her to perform a sex act.

Wright also was accused of improperly touching two Van Nuys women in separate incidents in the summer of 1990, Lapin said. One woman said Wright threatened to give her a failing grade unless she obeyed him. Authorities said Wright was arrested after the Encino woman called police. Officers were interviewing the woman at her home when Wright called her to apologize.

Wright later was dismissed from his job. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 9 by Judge Robert Swasey. Lapin said he will request that the sentencing judge bar Wright from future government work and order Wright to receive psychiatric treatment.