Our San Diego police officer is charged with allegedly eliciting sexual favors from women during DUI or traffic stops on promises that he could keep them out of jail.
San Diego police officer Anthony Arevalos is dealing with new charges including eighteen felony counts, including sexual battery, assault under color of authority and bribery. The eight new charges relate to two additional women.
That brings the number of alleged victims in this case to five, said Deputy District Attorney Sherry Thompson, who is prosecuting the case.
San Diego police officer Arevalos, an 18-year department veteran, has pleaded not guilty to the charges in San Diego Superior Court. He bailed out of jail shortly after his March 11 arrest but was handcuffed and taken into custody again a little more than a week later when he appeared at his arraignment.
He is free again on $200,000 bond.
Thompson said Wednesday that the new charges pertain to incidents on Jan. 10, 2010, at three locations, at the point of the traffic stop, at the police station, and at the Las Colinas jail in Santee.
One of the new charges — requesting a bribe — relates to an incident on Sept. 28, 2009.
Thompson declined to give details of the incidents, saying she did not disclose that information in open court.
The prosecutor has said previously that San Diego police officer Arevalos is accused of groping or otherwise victimizing three women during stops in the Gaslamp Quarter on Oct. 22, Dec. 29 and March 8, asking each of them what they could offer him to get out of their situations. The three women ranged in age from 20 to 31.
Thompson said San Diego police officer Arevalos asked a woman leaving Mardi Gras celebrations on March 8 what it was worth to her to get out of a DUI arrest. He then directed her to drive to a nearby 7-Eleven and asked her for her panties and bra in a locked restroom, the prosecutor said.
The woman has said the officer put his arm around her and fondled her crotch before letting her go. She reported the incident to police the next day.
Authorities say they have surveillance video of the officer and the woman going into the restroom.
On Oct. 22, San Diego police officer Arevalos allegedly stopped a woman on suspicion of DUI and spoke to her for 90 minutes as he stood or crouched next to her car. The officer allegedly poked the woman’s breasts with his hand, and later slid his hand down the front of her waistband, the prosecutor said.
San Diego police officer Arevalos is accused on Dec. 29 of making inappropriate comments to a San Diego State University student. The woman, who was 20 at the time, claimed the officer asked what she had under her coat and suggested they could take care of the situation by going to a dark corner or to the back seat of his car.
When San Diego police officer Arevalos’ was arraigned last week, his San Diego DUI criminal defense lawyer, Philip Gagnon, called the allegations “salacious” and said his client planned to fight the charges and for his job.
San Diego police officer Arevalos, who is on unpaid leave while the case is under investigation, now has a new San Diego criminal defense lawyer, Jan Ronis.