LAPD Commander Cleared in Rape Case : Courts: A jury finds him innocent of attacking a subordinate. The verdict precludes a further trial on charges of discrimination in the police force.

Ending two days of deliberations Tuesday, a federal jury cleared a Los Angeles police commander of civil charges that he raped a female officer in his apartment two years ago.

The commander, Maurice Moore, smiled broadly at the U.S. District Court verdict and later shook the hands of jurors as they filed past him in the hallway. “I’m just clearly glad it’s over, absolutely,” said Moore, who has been with the force for more than three decades and is among the department’s highest-ranking officials.

The verdict capped a weeklong trial in a federal lawsuit filed by one of his subordinates, who accused Moore of raping her and violating her civil rights and who also alleged that the LAPD had a history of discrimination against women.

The jury of six men and two women voted unanimously in Moore’s favor Tuesday afternoon, thereby precluding a second phase of the trial on the discrimination allegations.

Juror Tony Hillbruner said that initially he had been sympathetic to the plaintiff but that “a lot of her testimony didn’t match logically.”

He explained that he and other jurors could not understand why a trained police officer with a dozen years of experience would not have put up more of a physical fight if she was being sexually assaulted. He also noted that she vividly remembered details of a message left on Moore’s answering machine during the incident.

“It was very curious,” Hillbruner said. “She says she’s being violently raped. . . . Yet she was able to listen to a phone call.”

At the same time, Hillbruner added that he thought both Moore and the woman had acted stupidly in their meeting. “I think they both used very poor judgment,” he said. “Particularly him, as a commander--I think he may have taken advantage of the situation.”

Moore testified last week that the female officer had sought him out for advice on marital and career troubles, met him in his apartment while they were both off duty and willingly engaged in sex with him. The next day, he said, the woman left several messages on his answering machine, saying she was thinking of him.

The officer, who is now on disability, told the jury that she went to the commander’s apartment in March, 1992, to get the name of a therapist he had recommended. Once there, she said, they talked and he invited her into his bedroom to see the view. She testified that he then pushed her onto the bed and raped her despite her repeated protestations.

The Times is not publishing her name because the newspaper has a policy of not naming the alleged victims of sexual assault. The officer was not in court for the verdict. Her attorney, Stephen Yagman, said he would appeal the verdict and expected a reversal on grounds that the judge had improperly instructed the jury on the issue of consent.

Barry Levin, Moore’s attorney, scoffed at the notion of a reversal, saying that the plaintiff’s case was one of the weakest he had seen in 15 years of practice. “Nothing in this case made any sense,” Levin said. “I never expected anything but this verdict.”

The case went to trial at a time when increasing attention is being turned to sexual harassment allegations within the LAPD. The Moore case was one of at least eight complaints in the past five years in which female LAPD employees have alleged sexual assaults by co-workers.

The department also is conducting a sweeping internal investigation of conditions at the West Los Angeles station, which has had a longstanding reputation as a difficult place for women to work. And today, the City Council begins hearings on sexual harassment problems in the city work force, including the LAPD.