LAPD Officer Gets 8 Years In Sexual Assault Case
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — An LAPD officer was sentenced Thursday to eight and a half years in state prison for sexually assaulting a woman and soliciting sex from another.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry also ordered Russell Mecano, a 10-year police veteran, to register as a sex offender.
Mecano, 43, was convicted March 14 of one felony count each of sexual battery by restraint, sexual penetration by a foreign object with force or duress and sexual penetration under threat by a public official and one misdemeanor count of solicitation of prostitution.
Mecano was indicted in October 2008 by a Los Angeles County grand jury and placed on administrative leave.
The judge noted that Mecano had worked as a police officer for a decade, had a "loving wife and family" and had no prior criminal record, but said he had disgraced himself and his badge by committing crimes that "are deserving of harsh punishment."
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