LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Deputy Accused of Sex Abuse to Stand Trial
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy accused of sexually abusing his estranged wife’s children was ordered to stand trial after waiving his right to a preliminary hearing.
Municipal Judge David Horowitz bound Darryl Erwin Byrd, who remains in custody in lieu of $375,000 bail, over for trial in Los Angeles Superior Court on two felony counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
Byrd also was ordered to stand trial on one unrelated felony count of unlawful storage of a firearm for an incident that ended in the death of a teen-age boy last Christmas Eve.
Deputy Public Defender Mark Zavidow said his client waived his right to a preliminary hearing “for reasons that make sense to us.”
The public defender said the hearing would have been of little use to the defense because the prosecution was planning to present a “hearsay” hearing in which police officers testify about the contents of their reports.
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