Ex-Detective Sentenced in Sale of DMV Data

A retired Los Angeles police detective, formerly of the Devonshire Division, was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days in jail for selling confidential Department of Motor Vehicles information to a private investigation company.

Robert Muldrew, 48, pleaded no contest to a charge of unlawful computer access. He is the second LAPD officer charged recently with giving out confidential records from police files.

Daniel R. Sullivan, a former deputy police chief and onetime head of the LAPD’s Valley Bureau, pleaded no contest to similar charges last year and was fined $5,000. Sullivan was also placed on a year’s summary probation.

Sullivan was the highest-ranking former police officer to be charged with criminal corruption since the early 1900s.

In addition to sentencing Muldrew, a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge fined David Westland, who worked at the private detective firm, $642 and ordered him to do 350 hours of community service.

Another employee of the firm, Joan Jayasinghe, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful computer access, and was fined $200 and placed on two years probation.

Authorities say Muldrew used his police position to access computer files in an LAPD database, helping the detective agency obtain bank records, driver’s license information and credit reports that are legally confidential.