Former police officer pleads no contest to fraud

Jackson Bell

A former Glendale police officer pleaded no contest Tuesday to

setting up several usernames to fraudulently bid on sunglasses and

other items he posted on EBay, prosecutors said.

Sean McCarthy Frank, 33, used at least three phony usernames for

“shill bidding” -- falsely bidding to inflate an object’s worth -- on

Oakley sunglasses and other items about 66 times between June 25 and

Nov. 26, 2002, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff McGrath said. Frank was

arrested Tuesday and pleaded that day to one count of felony mock

auction -- one of the first in the state to be convicted of the

crime, McGrath said. He was released on his own recognizance.

Frank faces 36 months probation and is scheduled to be sentenced

May 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court. Part of the settlement is that

he will never be allowed to work as a police officer again, McGrath

said.

“It’s just a sad situation, because I think otherwise he was a

fairly good police officer,” he said. “It was just another one of

those situations where an individual’s greed got the better of him.”

Oakley investigators noticed Frank was selling several pairs of

sunglasses on the Internet auction site -- sunglasses he obtained

through discounts Oakley gives to law enforcement agencies, McGrath

said.

Frank was caught because his Internet address was attached to the

bogus usernames, McGrath said.

The district attorney’s High Tech Crimes Unit and the Glendale

Police Department collaborated on the investigation.

Frank was “terminated” from the Police Department in Nov. 16,

2004, but not as a result of the criminal charges, Sgt. Tom Lorenz

said. Lorenz said he was “not at liberty to discuss” the reason.

Frank decided to settle the case because he did not want to face a

lengthy trail, even though he had a strong chance of winning, said

Jay Jaffe, his attorney.

“There is a substantial view that his conduct should have only

been a civil liability, but reasonable minds may differ,” Jaffe said.