Officer Who Won Valor Medal Is Charged With Sexual Assault

A Los Angeles Police Department detective wounded during the North Hollywood bank robbery shootout earlier this year has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman who was a victim in another sex crime the department is investigating, officials said Wednesday.

Det. Earl Valladares, 51, who won the Medal of Valor--the department’s highest honor--six years ago when he killed a suspect who had just killed Valladares’ partner, was released last Thursday on $25,000 bail after being charged with assaulting a 32-year-old North Hollywood woman Oct. 28.

At the time of the alleged incident, the department had been investigating a case in which the woman, whose identity was not released, apparently had been sexually assaulted by another man, LAPD sources said.

They said Valladares was allegedly at the victim’s house in the late afternoon under the ruse of a follow-up investigation and asked her to physically re-create the incident with him.

Valladares, who could not be reached for comment, has been “assigned to his home” while the allegation into sexual battery charges is investigated. A department spokesman said investigators will soon present a case to the district attorney’s office to seek criminal charges.

“The department is aggressively pursuing this investigation and we are truly outraged,” said LAPD Cmdr. Dave Kalish.

He said the department “as a matter of routine” is trying to determine if any women had been victimized by the detective.

“It is still under investigation as to whether the detective was on duty or off duty at the time of the incident,” Kalish added.

News of Valladares’ arrest took officers by surprise. A 26-year veteran of the department, Valladares has been a well-respected and decorated member of the force.

In 1991, he and his partner were attempting to cite two men for drinking in public when one of the suspects opened fire. Valladares shot back and killed the gunman. Valladares’ partner, Tina Kerbrat, was fatally wounded, the first woman in the department’s history to be killed in the line of duty.

Earlier this year, Valladares was one of 11 police officers who were wounded when two gunman who botched a bank robbery in North Hollywood fired hundreds of rounds from assault rifles.

“Everybody is really stunned,” said one officer, who declined to be identified. “It’s unbelievable.”

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Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Scott Glover and Beth Shuster contributed to this story.