Ex-officer faces several counts
Former member of Stockton police accused of sexual assault
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — 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 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 state Superior Court.
“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 casts a long shadow over the entire profession,” District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said in a statement Thursday.
Bloed was 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, department spokesman Joe Silva said. The department would not disclose results of its investigation or whether he was fired. Silva declined to comment on Bloed’s arrest as he is no longer with the department.
Allen Sawyer, a lawyer representing Bloed, said he resigned from the police department after making a “lapse in judgment” 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 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 allegations against Bloed this spring, saying he abused his power as an officer to take advantage of them. In one case, a woman is alleging Bloed pulled her vehicle over, later made her pose for photographs and eventually had unprotected sexual intercourse with her. The other two women also allege he raped them while still with the police department, said Dan Gilleon, a lawyer representing the three women.
Gilleon said he had not seen the charging document and therefore couldn’t confirm whether any of the confidential victims mentioned refer to his clients. The document mentions eight victims of the crimes Bloed is being charged with.