Former California officer charged with sexual assault

SACRAMENTO >> A former California police officer has been charged with more than a dozen counts of sexual assault and other crimes after misconduct allegations by multiple people spurred an internal affairs investigation at the Stockton Police Department.

Former Stockton Police Sgt. Nicholas Bloed was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with 15 counts, including assault while serving as an officer, forcible oral copulation, the pursuit of bribes and prostitution. The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office filed the charges with the Superior Court of the State of California.

“Officers have the ability to take your liberty, and when they threaten to use that power to force vulnerable victims to cooperate for their own devious purposes, it castes a long shadow over the entire profession,” said Tori Verber Salazar, the county’s district attorney, in a statement Thursday.

Bloed is at the San Joaquin County Jail as of Thursday. His next scheduled court date is Monday.

Bloed, who was placed on administrative leave in May, has not been working for the police department since last month, said department spokesman Joe Silva. The department would not disclose results of its investigation or whether he was fired. Silva declined to comment on Bloed’s arrest since he’s no longer with the department.

Allen Sawyer, a lawyer representing Bloed, said he resigned from the police department after making a “lapse in judgement” by engaging in what Bloed alleges was consensual sexual activity with people he met through his role as an officer.

“It may have been a horrible lapse of judgment. But it was not the criminal act that you see now,” Sawyer said of the charges.

Bloed, who graduated from the Ray Simon Police Academy in 2002, was hired by the Stockton Police Department in 2008 after serving as an officer in Modesto, California. He’s worked as a patrol officer, motor officer and field training officer.

At least three women made sexual misconduct claims against Bloed this spring, alleging he abused his power as an officer to take advantage of them.