Jury Finds Simi Officer Innocent of Perjury : Police: Department is conducting its own investigation, chief says, to find whether David Ming violated regulations.

A jury took only two hours Friday to find Simi Valley Police Officer David Steven Ming innocent of perjury, but the 27-year-old still faces another jury of his peers.

The Simi Valley Police Department is continuing its own investigation to determine whether Ming violated departmental regulations.

“Misconduct can occur even when there isn’t a criminal violation,” said Capt. Dick Wright, a department spokesman.

Ming has been suspended with pay since June after two fellow officers accused him of lying against a criminal suspect in court.

“[Ming’s] status will remain the same until our own administrative investigation is completed,” Wright said.

If the internal review finds him guilty of violating department policy, Wright said, Ming’s punishment could include a written reprimand, additional training, counseling or firing.

A grand jury indicted Ming in August on one felony count of perjury. Ming, who pleaded not guilty, was accused of falsely testifying in Superior Court that he had been given permission to search the home of a Simi Valley woman in May, 1994.

Based on Ming’s testimony about it being a valid search, school bus driver Cheryl Kay Borjon was convicted of being under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the search.

It was Ming’s word against Borjon’s, and Superior Court Judge John Dobroth chose to believe the stocky police officer. Borjon spent the next seven months behind bars.

The question at Ming’s perjury trial was not whether all of his testimony at Borjon’s pretrial hearing was accurate--he admitted it was not--but whether he had intentionally lied in court.

Despite powerful testimony from four fellow police officers, which contradicted Ming’s version of events, and Ming’s sometimes nervous demeanor on the stand, the jury did not believe that Ming had purposely lied.

“I think [Ming] believed what he was saying at the time was the truth,” juror Marybeth Sheaffer said. “There was no evidence to show otherwise.”

Said juror Tom Fox, “There was a legitimate possibility Officer Ming gave that testimony as an honest mistake.”

Ming’s face showed no emotion as the verdict was read Friday, but his wife and mother broke into joyful sobs and clutched each other. Moments later, Ming’s mother profusely thanked jurors outside the Ventura County Superior courtroom. Ming and his attorney declined to comment on the results of the three-day trial.

The Ming trial comes at a time when the Simi Valley Police Department is suffering from a series of external blows and internal troubles.

On Monday, Officer Michael Cratch pleaded no contest to participating in an illegal pyramid scheme. And on Wednesday, former officer Raymond Madden, who resigned from the department last month, was indicted in the scam. Two other officers tainted by the scandal have also resigned.

Earlier this year, six Simi Valley officers were investigated for accepting free food, spending too much time in doughnut shops and violating time sheet rules.

In another blast to morale, Officer Michael F. Clark was shot to death while responding to a call on Aug. 4. He was the department’s first officer to die in the line of duty.

And Ming’s trial necessitated that four officers testify against one of their own.

Said Officer Kenneth “Bo” Stephenson after his testimony against Ming on Thursday: “It’s like testifying against my own brother. I see more of him than I do of my family.

“But right is right and wrong is wrong.”