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Ex-Deputy Guilty in Rape, Assault Case, Faces Lengthy Term : Crimes: Jury convicts him of criminal acts involving three women during incidents in 1990 and 1991. He could spend 33 years in prison.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was convicted Thursday of rape, battery, oral copulation and lewd conduct for raping two women and sexually assaulting a third while on duty in 1990 and 1991 when he was assigned to the Temple City substation.

Lloyd Shoemaker, 34, a 10-year veteran who resigned last June while under suspension, faces a maximum of 33 years in prison when he is sentenced by Superior Court Judge Richard Neidorf on Nov. 19. Shoemaker is being held in County Jail without bail.

Caressing a Bible, Shoemaker heard the guilty verdicts to all six counts with a grim expression.

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After two days of deliberation following a three-week trial, the jury found that the former deputy had forced two women into having sexual intercourse with him under threat of arrest.

After the verdicts, several jurors said they did not believe Shoemaker when he testified that the women had initiated the sexual contact because he was so desirable.

“His testimony was just unbelievable,” said jury foreman Don Hallinger, an Altadena geologist. “He had an excuse for everything. Had he not testified, we would have had more difficulty reaching a verdict.”

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Hallinger said the men on the jury were even more determined than the women to convict Shoemaker.

“I thought he was lying,” said another juror, Phebe Ogami. “His insistence that all these women wanted him, and that one of the cases was a true romantic encounter just was not convincing.”

In both rape cases, the victims testified that Shoemaker told them he had a warrant for their arrest, but he would not take them to jail if they had sex with him.

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Both submitted without any violence being used.

The case came to the attention of authorities in April, 1991, when friends of one of the women persuaded her to report Shoemaker to authorities shortly after she was taken to the Whittier Narrows Recreation area and raped.

Shoemaker followed the second woman from a Duarte restaurant on Sept. 20, 1990. She said the deputy told her she was swerving, then told her that her car had been identified as one used in two robberies, for which she could go to jail.

She came forward after reading about the Whittier Narrows rape. A third woman, who was assaulted but not raped, was found by investigators who interviewed more than 30 women with whom Shoemaker had contact while on duty.

Prosecutor Gordon Scott said he was pleased by the decision, adding that the conviction showed that law enforcement authorities who use “the color of authority” to attack women will be punished.

Shoemaker’s attorney, Leo B. Newton, said his client, who persistently carried his Bible with him into the courtroom throughout the trial, was “extremely disappointed” with the verdict. Newton said the verdict will be appealed.

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