The Los Angeles Police Department has been under a very large microscope lately, and its problems don't seem to be ending any time soon. Now, one of its own is getting charged with performing lewd acts with a child.
The LAPD officer, Miguel Schiappapietra, is now being held on $100,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. He was arrested over the weekend.
Schiappapietra, 28, is being charged with two counts of lewd acts with a child after he invited two neighborhood girls into his home on Saturday. According to Sgt. Brian Hudson of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, both children were under the age of 10.
Schiappapietra had only been in the neighborhood for five weeks at the time of the incident, and is reported to have a young child himself. It is uncertain at this time what the girls' relation was to the officer, including whether or not they may have been family.
Since his arrest on Saturday, the same day that the sexual assault allegedly occurred, Schiappapietra has been put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation by the LAPD.
Most recently, Schiappapietra had been assigned to Foothill Community Police Station, which is in the community of Pacoima in the San Fernanbdo Valley. The officer's house is located on the 28000 block of Branch Road in Castaic.
Police officers in Southern California have been the focal point of quite a bit of skepticism lately, as this is just the latest in a string of questionable conduct for police departments in the area.
Christopher Dorner attributed his killings to unethical procedures that he claimed were rampant among the LAPD. Most recently, police in Bakersfield, California have been receiving criticism after they beat a man to death because of his alleged public intoxication. Afterwards they seized all of the recordings of the incident from bystanders.
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