Arrest Warrant Briefly Issued for Official in Juvenile Sex Case

An arrest warrant was issued and later withdrawn Tuesday for a Los Angeles deputy city attorney after he belatedly turned up in a downtown courtroom on charges that he attempted to lure a boy over the Internet to meet him for sex.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that Richard Bruce Coplen, 49, could face additional charges related to allegations that he had sex with a boy last December.

Coplen, a veteran of the city attorney’s office, is charged with attempted oral copulation of a minor and attempted sexual penetration of a minor. On Tuesday his arraignment was postponed until April 30.

After Coplen failed to show for his 8:30 a.m. arraignment, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued a warrant for his arrest. The judge withdrew the warrant when Coplen appeared later in the morning; he is free on $50,000 bail.

Coplen was arrested last week in Duarte as he was going to meet a 15-year-old boy he allegedly had sex with previously. Coplen did not know that police detectives had assumed the boy’s online identity.

Detectives say Coplen had sex with the teenager in December after sending him a message over the Web offering to pay him $150,000. That alleged encounter took place at Coplen’s Highland Park home after he picked up the boy at a park, police said. Coplen paid the boy a much smaller sum, investigators say.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christina Fleming said “evidentiary issues” led to a decision not to file charges in that incident. But she said the encounter is still being investigated, and charges could be filed in the future.

After Coplen’s arrest, police served a search warrant on his home and seized two computers.

Coplen, who once headed the city attorney’s gang unit and helped create Los Angeles’ smoking ordinance, has been put on paid administrative leave.

Police have asked other potential victims to call Det. Dale Barraclough at (213) 485-2883 during work hours or (213) 485-2504 in the evenings and on weekends.