Simi Officer Denies Lying at Drug Trial : Courts: A former school bus driver was convicted, based on testimony about a home search. She served nearly seven months in jail.

A Simi Valley police officer Wednesday denied he lied on the witness stand during a misdemeanor drug case last year and pleaded not guilty to one felony count of perjury in Ventura County Superior Court.

Indicted Tuesday by the grand jury, David Steven Ming, 26, is accused of falsely testifying that he had permission to search the home of a Simi Valley woman in May, 1994. Based on that testimony, Cheryl Kay Borjon was convicted of being under the influence of methamphetamine and, after violating terms of her probation, served nearly seven months in jail.

A judge earlier this month agreed to set aside Borjon’s conviction.

Borjon’s court-appointed attorney had asked a judge last October to throw out the search of her residence as illegal.

“My motion to suppress the evidence was based upon her Fourth Amendment rights having been violated,” attorney Edward J. Lacey said. “There had been a search of her home without any consent.”

But at that hearing, Ming testified that Borjon gave him permission to search the home. A judge took Ming at his word and allowed that testimony to be used against Borjon. She pleaded no contest to the drug charge a week later.

A urine test taken immediately after the arrest showed traces of methamphetamine in Borjon’s system, court records show.

The officer had an arrest warrant for Donald Vaughn Lewis, who was in Ming’s home at the time. But an arrest warrant for one person does not allow police to enter another person’s home without permission or without a search warrant, Lacey said.

“In my mind, she is still guilty,” said Frank Dunlavey, Borjon’s father. “But there are ways to do things and this arrest doesn’t seem right. She went to jail for this. . . . There seems like there should be some sort of recourse.”

Borjon lost her bus-driving job and commercial driver’s license because of the conviction, Dunlavey said. She drove a school bus for the Simi Valley Unified School District at the time of her arrest, district Assistant Supt. Susan Parks confirmed.

Borjon, who has moved to Santa Maria, could not be reached for comment. She has retained Westlake Village attorney Richard Hamlish, who said Wednesday that he intends to file a lawsuit within 30 days against Simi Valley alleging a violation of Borjon’s civil rights.

“How much is seven months of someone’s life worth?” Hamlish asked. Hamlish said Borjon contacted him in May after the district attorney’s office told her it was investigating Ming. Hamlish said several other officers accompanied Ming to Borjon’s house the night of the arrest.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn declined to comment Tuesday on who leveled perjury allegations against Ming, who has been on paid leave since June 28. Glynn said no further charges are expected to be filed.

Superior Court Judge James P. Cloninger allowed Ming to remain free without bail pending his trial in November.

The grand jury indicted Ming, a four-year veteran of the department, on Tuesday. He faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison if convicted.

He is the second Simi Valley police officer to be suspended in the past few months for alleged criminal activity.

Michael Charles Cratch was arrested in July for allegedly running an illegal pyramid scheme. Cratch has also been placed on paid administrative leave.