LOS ANGELES : Ex-LAPD Officer to Be Tried in Armed Robberies

A Municipal Court judge on Monday ordered former Los Angeles Police detective Michael D. Brambles held for trial in a series of armed robberies that began even before his official retirement last spring.

After a preliminary hearing at which a number of robbery victims identified Brambles as their assailant, Judge Mary E. Waters found sufficient evidence to proceed to trial on 23 counts against the onetime organized crime detective.

Brambles, 45, remains in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail pending arraignment Dec. 27 in Superior Court.

Most of the robberies, which stretched from January to May, were at closing time at restaurants and shops around the Westside and San Fernando Valley. Store clerks described a lone gunman clad in a blue jeans jacket and baseball cap, and women at two of the locations said they were sexually assaulted.

Brambles’ attorney, Anthony Brooklier, argued that the identifications were flawed because the victims originally had given police widely divergent descriptions of the robber. Waters noted, however, that witnesses often give varying accounts.

Brambles faces separate charges in Ventura County, where four counts were filed last month stemming from an April 19 robbery in which he allegedly sexually assaulted his victim.