Officer Arraigned in Department Break-In
A veteran Los Alamitos police officer was arraigned Monday on a felony drug possession charge that apparently stemmed from a burglary of the Police Department’s evidence room.
Cpl. David K. Conte, 36, entered a plea of not guilty in Municipal Court in Westminster, Deputy Dist. Atty. Sheila Hanson said.
Conte, a 10-year member of the department, was arrested in April after an investigation by Los Alamitos police and the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.
In recent weeks, the Orange County district attorney’s office dismissed several amphetamine possession cases at which Conte had been expected to testify.
If convicted, Conte faces as much as five years and eight months in prison.
He also was charged with being under the influence of a controlled substance, two counts of second-degree burglary, offering a forged and altered document and falsifying documents used in evidence.
A pretrial hearing was set for June 29 and a preliminary hearing for July 6.
Conte’s attorney, Michael Stone of Pasadena, did not return a call for comment.
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