Accused Former Officer Faces 2 More Charges

A former Huntington Beach police officer accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl while on duty was charged Friday with asking women to expose their breasts during two separate traffic stops.

Mark Trachman, 36, was arrested in May and charged with fondling a teenage girl at her home during a police interview in which she was reporting an incident of sexual abuse to him.

Huntington Beach police officials, who launched a separate disciplinary probe in the wake of the accusations, said Trachman was fired from the department on Tuesday.

Trachman has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. His attorney, John Barnett, contended during a preliminary hearing Friday in Orange County Superior Court in Westminster that none of the allegations would amount to criminal conduct, even if true.

But prosecutors insist that Trachman’s actions were more than just improper. They say the officer illegally used his position of authority to force women to expose themselves for his sexual gratification.

“When you have a police officer . . . who has detained an individual and then requests that she expose her breasts, it’s an inherently coercive situation for the victim,” Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy said.

Trachman listened intently in court on Friday as testimony provided details of the accusations against him.

Orange County Sheriff’s Investigator Wade Walsvick testified that after Trachman’s arrest in May, two women called authorities to complain about their encounters with the officer.

One woman told investigators that Trachman approached her in December or January as she sat in her car in the parking lot of a Washington Mutual bank branch and said she was wearing her seat belt improperly.

During their conversation, he told her to lift her shirt and expose her breasts, Walsvick said.

A second woman told detectives she was pulled over by Trachman on May 18 and also told she was wearing her seat belt improperly, Walsvick said in court.

During a lengthy conversation, Trachman asked the woman to expose herself, Walsvick said.

“She refused, and Officer Trachman replied something to the effect of, ‘Oh, come on. What’s the big deal?’ ” Walsvick told the court.

After 45 minutes, the woman was allowed to leave without a citation, the prosecutor said.

Three days after that incident, Trachman was dispatched to the home of a 14-year-old girl who was the alleged victim of statutory rape by an 18-year-old man.

The girl alleged that Trachman told her he wanted to examine her for possible injuries from the previous sexual encounter and asked her to remove her bra. He touched the girl’s breasts and had her remove her underwear and “manipulate” herself, Walsvick said.

“He told her something to the effect of, ‘I’m required to do this. I’m a police officer,’ ” Walsvick testified.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Stephanie George is scheduled to decide Oct. 19 whether Trachman should be tried on the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of six years in prison.