A Los Angeles police officer has pleaded not guilty to a series of criminal charges, including theft of a police radio and an illegal search of a law enforcement database.
Prosecutors also allege that Jessica Guzzetti failed to pay for a baby stroller, according to a criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and cited by the Los Angeles Times this morning..
Guzzetti, 27, entered the not-guilty plea in a Van Nuys courtroom Monday, her first court appearance since she was charged July 25 with the three misdemeanor counts. Her attorney, R. Alex Comley, told The Times his client “acted without criminal intent.”
The first count alleges that Guzzetti stole an LAPD radio valued at $3,470.30 in 2013. Another count alleges she accessed information from a Department of Justice computer database in 2014. Prosecutors also contend that Guzzetti failed to pay for the baby stroller in August 2015, giving someone who had advertised on Craigslist a check that bounced.
The prosecution of Guzzetti, a Lancaster resident, is the latest twist in her LAPD career. She sued the city in January 2014, alleging she was sexually harassed by a supervisor in the LAPD’s jail division and was retaliated against for spurning a supervisor’s sexual advances. Guzzetti’s attorney in the sexual harassment lawsuit, Greg Smith, later asked a judge to release him and his firm from the case.
Guzzetti later represented herself, but a judge dismissed the lawsuit after she failed to show up to two consecutive hearings, according to court records cited by The Times.
She’s also being sued in federal court, along with two other officers, for shooting and severely wounding a schizophrenic16-year-old boy armed with two knives in May 2013.
