Officer, Deputy Face Trial Over Crash

A Los Angeles police officer and a sheriff’s deputy are scheduled to go on trial next week on charges of threatening to beat up a motorist after an off-duty fender-bender in San Bernardino County and then lying about the accident to investigators.

LAPD Officer Isaac Lowe and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy David Green, both 30, are accused of making criminal terrorist threats, giving false information to police and obstructing a police investigation, said San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. Salvador Silva.

Also charged with providing false information about the accident was Lowe’s wife, LAPD Officer Olga Villa, 30. She was a passenger when their sport utility vehicle rear-ended a pickup truck on July 25, 2004, in Rancho Cucamonga.

All of the charges are being prosecuted as misdemeanors, Silva said.

The officers’ criminal defense lawyers did not return phone calls seeking comment Wednesday.

In an 11-page report, a San Bernardino County motorcycle officer who was sent to the accident scene said Lowe and Green smelled of alcohol and unleashed a stream of curses and physical threats against the other driver although they were being questioned.

Lowe had no driver’s license or personal identification, the motorcycle officer said, and vehemently denied driving the SUV when it struck the pickup.

The pickup’s driver insisted that Lowe was behind the wheel, but Lowe, Green and Villa maintained that it was Villa.

After nearly two hours of questioning, the officer said, Lowe admitted that he was the driver.

“I asked Lowe if he was lying because he had something to drink and he wouldn’t answer,” the officer wrote.

Silva said there was no indication that Lowe was tested to determine if he was driving under the influence of alcohol. He could not explain why.

The police report said Lowe was cited for speeding and for not having a driver’s license. The officer forwarded his report to the San Bernardino County district attorney for consideration of criminal charges.

Lowe and Villa have been relieved of duty and are facing administrative charges in connection with the incident, Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Michael Berkow said.

A Board of Rights, consisting of two command officers and a civilian, will decide the charges and could recommend their termination.

Lowe, with eight years of service, has been involved in two fatal shootings, an off-duty one outside a sports bar in Sierra Madre and another when he was on patrol in the Hollenbeck Division, official records show. Police Chief William J. Bratton and the civilian Board of Police Commissioners found both shootings within LAPD policy.

Green is the subject of a sheriff’s internal affairs investigation for his role in the incident, sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Meanwhile, the pickup’s driver, Richard Curtiss, 20, of San Dimas has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the three officers, the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Proceedings in the lawsuit have been stayed pending the criminal trial’s outcome.

Lowe, Villa and Green, through their civil lawyers, have denied any wrongdoing. Lawyers for the LAPD and Sheriff’s Department say those agencies are not liable for damages because the alleged misconduct occurred outside the scope of the officers’ employment.