Remaining Charges Dropped Against Officer Accused of Sexually Assaulting Teen

The district attorney’s office on Friday dropped its case against a Santa Ana police officer accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in an abandoned police substation in 1995.

Michael Cabrera, 39, is now free to return to the Police Department from which he was fired when he was charged. He was reinstated last year with back pay by a city personnel board and has been on paid leave since then.

“He is eager to put this behind him and get on with his life,” said Cabrera’s attorney, Darryl Mounger. “There is certainly no legal reason why he cannot go back to work.”

Last month, an Orange County Superior Court jury found Cabrera not guilty on one count of sexual battery against the woman and deadlocked on four other criminal counts that could have sent him to prison for 17 years.

Mounger said at least 10 members of the jury had voted in favor of acquittal on each of the remaining charges. They were: two counts of sexual assault, one count of false imprisonment, and one count of assault by a police officer.

“I would assume with those statistics, [the prosecution] would realize there would be little chance of conviction,” Mounger said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Bauer, who prosecuted the case, could not be reached for comment Friday. When the jury deadlocked last month, Bauer remarked that he was not surprised, because “it’s very difficult to convict a police officer.”

The woman, now 21, alleged that after Cabrera broke up a fight between her and her boyfriend at a bus stop, he said he would have to test her for drugs. She said he took her to the substation and subjected her to an unnecessary strip search. She alleged that the officer ordered her to lie on the floor where, she said, he sexually assaulted and battered her. Afterward, she alleged, Cabrera drove her to or near her home, gave her his phone number and told her he wanted to take her to lunch.

Mounger said the charges against Cabrera were fabricated. He told the jury that Cabrera took the woman directly home after breaking up the dispute between her and her boyfriend.