Student Who Accused Officer Convicted of Resisting Arrest

A 19-year-old college student who accused a California Highway Patrol officer of making sexual advances during a traffic stop was sentenced Monday to six months in County Jail after being convicted of resisting arrest and evading police.

Municipal Judge Ronald P. Kreber in Laguna Niguel also sentenced Monica Denise Chandler, a Saddleback College student and part-time nanny from Aliso Viejo, to three years of probation.

A jury, after deliberating for an hour Monday morning, found Chandler guilty on two misdemeanor counts of evading a police officer and resisting arrest. She had been pulled over one evening last December for allegedly running a red light.

The woman testified that she sped away from the traffic stop on Lake Forest Drive when a CHP officer suggested that if she wanted “to slide out of this ticket, slide down your pants.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jimmie Harris said the jury didn’t believe her story, which he called “totally unfounded.”

“She turned a routine traffic stop into a very serious case,” Harris said. “There was no one on that jury who believed her story.”

The officer, Cpl. Steve Webb, a 9 1/2-year veteran of the CHP, said he felt vindicated and “knew all along the jury would know the truth.”

“It’s really sad someone would cause people so much trouble and cause so much disruption in our life just because she didn’t want a traffic ticket,” said Webb’s wife, Maureen. “It just made us both feel really good that the jury obviously believed him.”

Julie Brown, a lawyer who represented Chandler, said she was shocked by the verdict and sentence, which was even stiffer than one recommended by the district attorney.

“She’s been the victim, but you had a jury listen to the facts, and this is what they came back with,” Brown said.

Chandler was taken into custody following the verdict but was released on her own recognizance later in the afternoon pending the outcome of an appeal her lawyer planned to file immediately.