Officer, Suspect’s Girlfriend Had Sex, D.A. Alleges

The district attorney’s office alleges in a memo to Westminster police officials that one of their department’s detectives had sex with the girlfriend of a burglary suspect he had arrested.

Westminster police officials said Friday that the detective was placed on paid administrative leave while internal affairs investigators determined whether he violated department policies.

At the heart of the probe is a videotape the woman secretly recorded during her encounter with the detective at her Westminster home. Prosecutors reviewed the videotape after Dorothea Cross, 37, complained that the detective offered to help her boyfriend’s case in exchange for sex.

The district attorney’s office concluded that the encounter was consensual and that there was insufficient proof that a crime had been committed. But in a letter to the Westminster Police Chief James Cook, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ebrahim Baytieh accused the detective of being “untruthful in answering the questions of our investigators.”

Westminster police Capt. Andrew Hall said internal affairs investigators are reviewing the claims made by the district attorney’s office and Cross.