Ex-Officer Is Charged With Selling Information : Crime: The former detective is accused of using a police computer to access DMV records and making the data available to an investigative agency.

A former West Valley detective has been charged with selling confidential information she illegally obtained from a Los Angeles Police Department computer to a private investigator, authorities said Thursday.

Karol Chouinard, 51, was charged Wednesday with 15 misdemeanor counts of unlawfully using a computer and computer data she had access to as a police officer for personal gain, and unlawfully disclosing Department of Motor Vehicle records, Deputy City Atty. Richard Schmidt said.

Chouinard is accused of using the Police Department’s Network Communications System to access DMV records throughout most of 1991 while assigned to the West Valley Station, and then selling the information to a San Mateo County private investigative agency specializing in locating people, Schmidt said.

“This is one of the things you simply cannot do as a city official and a sworn police officer,” Schmidt said. “Especially now that computer data banks are so extensive, it is important that information that is supposed to be kept confidential be kept out of the wrong hands. There is tremendous potential for abuse, and it is an extremely serious offense.”

An arrest warrant for Chouinard has been held pending her appearance at an arraignment hearing April 21 in Van Nuys Municipal Court. Chouinard, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, retired in January before a Police Department internal affairs investigation into the matter could be completed. Results of that investigation were later turned over to the city attorney’s office for prosecution.

Chouinard faces up to 15 years in jail and $75,000 in fines if convicted on all counts, Schmidt said.

The information-sharing deal between Chouinard and the Searchlight investigative agency of San Carlos was uncovered during an unrelated investigation by the San Carlos Police Department into the firm’s alleged unauthorized use of Pacific Bell computer databanks, according to Schmidt and San Carlos Police Detective Mark Robbins. The San Carlos agency has not been charged.

While executing a search warrant at Searchlight’s offices last April, authorities found about 100 Teletypes of Police Department computer printouts that contained personal information from DMV records, some of which contained Chouinard’s name, Schmidt said. Authorities also recovered Chouinard’s Police Department business card and 26 canceled checks in which agency owner Diane Castellano had paid Chouinard $1,405, Schmidt said.

Authorities speculated that the two might have initially come into contact when Castellano was working as an investigator for an Encino law firm while Chouinard was at the West Valley Station. Castellano refused comment on whether she knew or employed Chouinard between February and December, 1991, when the checks were written.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Castellano said.

Detective Gary Swanston, supervising detective at the West Valley Station, also had little comment on the charges against Chouinard, who last worked as a burglary and theft detective.

“All I can say is that we have repeatedly told our detectives and our officers that they are not allowed to make unauthorized inquiries into the private matters of people not involved in criminal matters and that they are obviously not allowed to sell that material,” Swanston said. “Probably as a result of this, it is going to hit home to some people.”

Schmidt said it is not entirely clear what Searchlight intended to do with any information it might have received from Chouinard. “My understanding is that Searchlight specialized in locating persons and that appears to be what the information was used for,” he said.

Chouinard retired effective Jan. 21 after 25 years with the Police Department, and will receive a regular pension with no restrictions of $2,725.53 a month, said Mary Washington, chief retirement counselor for the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System.