Police Corruption Prosecutors Clueless or Helping Cover-Up

Police corruption prosecutors clueless about West Covina police officer's conduct
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune by Thomas Himes - January 15, 2010

WEST COVINA, CA - An elite unit of Los Angeles County prosecutors that investigates cops was never told that a West Covina sex crimes detective was involved with an alleged victim of sexual assault, authorities said Friday. In November West Covina internal affairs investigators told low-level prosecutors that Officer Tyler Kennedy was seeing an alleged rape victim whose ex-husband Kennedy arrested and testified against, according to documents and officials. But those prosecutors never reported to their superiors that Kennedy was intimately involved with the 39-year-old woman while he investigated allegations of sexual assault she lodged against her ex-husband, Gibbons said. "It's the job of the West Covina Police Department to determine if a crime was committed," Los Angeles County DA spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. "It wasn't reported by (prosecutors in) Pomona or the West Covina PD." West Covina Police Chief Frank Wills said it typically isn't a crime for an investigator to be intimately involved with an alleged sexual assault victim, so long as the contact happened off-duty. "Generally speaking, it's not. But it certainly could be construed as a crime under certain circumstances," Wills said. Kennedy appeared in court on March 20 and testified the alleged victim's ex-husband had forcibly raped her and needed to be held without bail, according to court documents. The man had already been released on his own recognizance, according to court documents. But based on Kennedy's testimony, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lesley Green agreed to set the man's bail at $100,000, according to court documents. The DA's office declined to file forcible rape charges against the man, but did, however, file three misdemeanor charges including sexual battery, invasion of privacy and violating a restraining order against the man, according to court documents. Those charges were dismissed after defense attorneys and prosecutors found out about the relationship between Kennedy and the alleged victim, Deputy District Attorney Gary Hearnsberger said. Officials suspended and demoted Kennedy last year after an internal affairs investigation concluded his conduct was unbecoming, sources inside the department who spoke on the condition anonymity said. Kennedy was suspended again on Monday after a different woman came forward and said she was harassed and sexually propositioned by Kennedy. Hearnsberger said prosecutors in the Pomona branch of Los Angeles County Superior Court would re-examine several cases Kennedy handled while a detective.