Officer in Assaults Resigns

A police sergeant who fondled teenage girls and women after stopping them for curfew violations resigned Wednesday from the Los Angeles Police Department after pleading no contest to four counts of assault.

David Louis Navarro, 42, was placed on three years’ probation by Los Angeles Municipal Judge Elva Soper for a series of illegal searches between July and November of 1996 in the Sylmar and Chatsworth areas of the San Fernando Valley.

“He clearly used his uniform and position to take advantage of these girls,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Goul. “The most important thing we wanted to do was make sure he never wears a badge again.”

Navarro had been on administrative leave from the Foothill Division since last November. Navarro could have been sentenced to a maximum of four years in state prison.

The 16-year police veteran was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service, pay restitution and undergo psychological counseling. Navarro, who pleaded nolo contendere, also received 36 days in Los Angeles County Jail but has served that time while in custody. “I think he’s an embarrassment to the LAPD and specifically the Foothill Division,” said Capt. Ronald Bergman. “He’s really tarnished our image.” Navarro worked the Foothill area for 10 months between February and November 1996, mostly working patrols from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.

During that time, Navarro showed no evidence of disciplinary or behavioral problems, Bergman said. But at least one police official said it wouldn’t be a surprise if Navarro had had similar problems in his past. Prosecutors allege Navarro used a Los Angeles ordinance that prohibits persons under the age of 18 from loitering in a public place after 10 p.m. as a justification to stop the young females.

He would then search the girls and women, all between the ages of 16 and 18, touching their breasts and groin, Goul said. LAPD regulations explicitly prohibit male officers from frisking a female suspect, unless there is an emergency or crucial evidence could be lost or destroyed. Police officials disagreed over how unusual Navarro’s conduct was.

“I hope that they would be very rare,” said LAPD Inspector General Katherine Mader. “I haven’t seen any similar incidents in the past year, and I read every personnel complaint.”

In fact, it took five months for one 16-year-old victim, who was assaulted in Sylmar, to report the incident to police. When another female teenager came forward a week after she was assaulted in November, the LAPD began an internal surveillance operation that resulted in his arrest. Navarro was then charged with assault in three separate incidents. The first incident occurred at about 10:30 p.m. July 13, 1996, and involved two 16-year-old girls who were ordered out of the car and touched during a search in a Sylmar park. Months later, two girls, both 17, were touched under their bras.

In the final incident, involving an 18-year-old woman, Navarro “ordered [her] to open her shirt, and hand him her bra” before “patting her breasts down,” Goul said. The victims “indicated afterward they felt scared and violated because he had a badge and a gun. . . . They had no ability to resist,” Goul said.