Ex-Deputy Sentenced for Sex With Inmate

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who admitted having sex with a woman prisoner at the Van Nuys courthouse was sentenced Tuesday to community service, but not to jail, authorities said.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered Larry Wayne Fraize, 43, to perform 200 hours of community service and serve three years felony probation and also pay a $900 fine. A 180-day jail sentence will be imposed if Fraize violates his probation.

Fraize was found guilty of two counts of oral copulation.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Yochelson, who prosecuted the case, said he was satisfied with the outcome.

“It’s an appropriate punishment . . . even severe punishment,” Yochelson said. “We were not able to demonstrate that (Fraize used) force or coercion.”

Judge Judy Champagne made her decision based on transcripts of the preliminary hearing after Fraize waived his right to a jury trial.

Fraize, assigned to duty as a court bailiff, was arrested in May, 1993, after he was caught on a surveillance videotape receiving oral sex from a female inmate in a holding tank at the Van Nuys court complex. A 10-minute portion of the six-hour tape also showed the inmate engaging in sex with another woman in custody while Fraize looked on.

The woman told investigators that she was not forced to have sex with the deputy.

Authorities said the video camera was set up after an inmate told authorities that Fraize was sexually involved with prisoners under his guard.

He was prosecuted under a statute that forbids acts of oral copulation “while confined . . . in any local detention facility.”

During the proceedings, Fraize’s attorney, Paul Kinion, unsuccessfully argued that the former deputy could not be prosecuted under a statute written to curb sex between inmates.

On Tuesday, Kinion--who plans an appeal--said that while Fraize crossed a line by having sex with an inmate, his client committed no crime.

“It is egregious. He was in a position of trust and he violated it,” Kinion said. “But what he did is not against the law . . . the conviction will not stand.”

Fraize, a deputy for 11 years, resigned from the department, and the incident caused Fraize’s wife to divorce him, Yochelson said. With the conviction on his record, he can no longer serve as a peace officer, and is required by state law to register with authorities, wherever he lives, as a sex offender.