Officer Pleads Innocent in Sex Case : LAPD Veteran Accused of Molesting Boys He Met on Duty

A veteran Los Angeles police officer pleaded not guilty in an Orange County court Wednesday to nine counts of molesting young boys, many of whom he allegedly met while on duty.

Doyle John Craig, 34, surrendered to authorities Wednesday morning when he appeared in North Orange County Municipal Court in Fullerton to plead not guilty to five felony and four misdemeanor counts of child molestation. Authorities allege some of the crimes took place in Craig’s Anaheim home.

Municipal Judge Daniel T. Brice had issued an arrest warrant for the youthful-looking officer late Tuesday. Brice set bail at $35,000 but reduced it to $15,000 during the court hearing.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg L. Prickett, arguing for higher bail, said in court that Craig “befriended� 45 to 50 boys while he was working as a Los Angeles police officer. Prickett alleged that Craig and one of his victims slept in the same bed.

‘Might Be Commended’

Craig’s attorney, Paul J. Wallin, said that his client, an 11-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, was innocent and under other circumstances “might be commended rather than prosecuted.� Wallin acknowledged that Craig met many of the boys while patrolling Latino areas of Los Angeles and invited them to his home on weekends to get them away from the inner city. Wallin said that this is a common practice of police officers who patrol those areas.

Wallin said only three of the five felony charges filed by the Orange County district attorney’s office allege that Craig had physical contact with his victims, with the worst incident involving briefly touching a boy in a shower.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s internal affairs division launched an investigation into Craig’s conduct in August after the department received a complaint from a parent. Since the administrative investigation began, Craig has been relieved of his regular duties as a patrol officer and assigned to his home in Anaheim. He is expected to be at home between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. unless released by his supervisor. He is receiving his salary.

A search warrant affidavit filed with the court last August said that Craig had befriended at least half a dozen mostly poor boys whom he invited to his home. The affidavit alleged that some of the youngsters, most of whom were about 12 years old, also were taken on camping trips by Craig, and it charged that Craig possessed pornographic magazines that showed heterosexual and homosexual encounters.

Several of the boys interviewed by police, according to the affidavit, said that Craig held sexually explicit conversations with them, showed them lewd magazines and took nude photographs of them while on camping trips.

The affidavit said in one instance, Craig, while working, met a 12-year-old boy and later called the boy at home to invite him to the desert to shoot guns.

Sgt. Daniel Tregarthen, who conducted the investigation for the Los Angeles Police Department’s internal affairs division, concluded in the search warrant affidavit that “Craig is a pedophile with abnormal sexual interest in young boys.�

Police seized numerous color photographs, sex-related magazines and books and lists of names and addresses from Craig’s home.

Several Los Angeles police officers who worked with Craig testified during Wednesday’s hearing, one of them saying that “he (Craig) is the most reliable person I know.�