INS Officer Acquitted of Rapes, Kidnaping : Courts: Jury finds him guilty of false imprisonment but not of 18 counts involving assaults against Latina immigrants.

An immigration officer was found guilty of false imprisonment Thursday, but a Van Nuys jury acquitted him on 18 other counts involving charges that he kidnaped and raped Latina immigrants he encountered on San Fernando Valley streets.

James E. Riley, 34, of Reseda showed no emotion as the verdict in the eight-week trial was read in Van Nuys Superior Court. The suspended Immigration and Naturalization Service officer faces up to three years in prison for the conviction but has been jailed nearly 22 months since his arrest and it is unlikely he will be imprisoned further.

The verdict drew immediate criticism from prosecutors and from officials of social service agencies that provide aid to immigrants who are crime victims. They said the verdict will lead such victims to think that it is not worth coming to authorities.

“I think we let these women down and the system has let them down,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn L. McNary, who prosecuted the case. “I think the verdict sent a very poor message to the community.”

Even some jurors seemed upset by the verdict that they delivered after three days of deliberations.

“Some of us really thought he was guilty,” juror Dana St. John said. “I think he probably is guilty of committing rape and preying on those women, but I can’t say it beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Defense attorney Otha Standifer praised the not guilty verdicts but said he would appeal the conviction.

“You can’t help but be grateful, but I have believed from the start of this trial that Jimmy Riley was innocent of all the charges,” Standifer said.

Riley was charged with six counts of rape, six counts of kidnaping and seven counts of false imprisonment and assault. He faced more than 100 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Prosecutors had claimed that Riley preyed on immigrant women for several months in 1990 by threatening to deport them unless they had sex with him. When he was arrested, police found numerous identification cards belonging to the alleged victims and others in his apartment.

The six alleged victims testified that Riley ordered them into his car, held them and in most cases took them back to his apartment, where he forced them to have sex with him.

But jurors said that contradictions in the victims’ testimony undercut their credibility.

“We didn’t decide that they were lying,” said the jury’s foreman, Arthur Miley. “But the credibility of their testimony wasn’t there.”

Judge Judith M. Ashmann ordered Riley released from jail pending his sentencing April 3. It is likely he will receive a sentence of two years in prison, and with credit for 22 months spent in jail, will be placed immediately on parole.