Studios Sue LAPD Captain in Pirating

A group of motion picture studios filed a copyright infringement suit Thursday against an LAPD captain who was convicted this summer of selling pirated DVDs of newly released movies out of a Seal Beach nail salon.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of 11 studios, seeks up to $150,000 for each copyright infringement. Los Angeles Police Capt. Julie D. Nelson and her boyfriend at the time, Edward Monroy, are named as defendants.

Although the suit does not say how many infringements there were, it said Los Angeles police recovered 259 bootleg movie copies when they searched Nelson’s office, vehicle and La Palma home in December 2003. More than 2,600 such discs were seized from Monroy’s Torrance home, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says Nelson had investigated cases of pirated videos before becoming a police captain.

Nelson, who was sentenced in September to three years’ probation, a $1,000 fine and 200 hours of community service, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Monroy, who has not been charged with a crime, also could not be reached. He was still being investigated by the LAPD as of early September.

Nelson, 52, a 29-year veteran of the force, pleaded no contest in August to possessing counterfeit DVDs for sale after an Orange County Superior Court judge reduced the piracy charges to misdemeanors. The Motion Picture Assn. of America complained that the sentence was too lenient. An MPAA spokesman had asked the court to give Nelson jail time and order restitution of more than $13,000.

If Nelson had been convicted of felonies, she could have been sentenced to prison for seven years and fired from the LAPD. She is the subject of an internal investigation by the LAPD and on suspension with pay.

At her sentencing, Nelson said she did not profit from the sale of the pirated movies. She said Monroy ran the production end, making the copies.

The criminal case against Nelson is part of an upswing in prosecuting alleged movie piratesin the region.

Times staff writer Jon Healey contributed to this report.