Ex-cop pleads not guilty to having sex with teen cadet

LOS ANGELES — A former Los Angeles police officer pleaded not guilty Monday to charges he had sex with a 15year-old girl who was enrolled in the department’s signature youth mentoring program.

Robert Cain, 31, was charged with two counts of oral copulation of a person under the age of 16, lewd acts on a child and unlawful sexual intercourse last year, as part of an investigation into the theft of LAPD cruisers by teenage members of the cadet program.

He entered his plea in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom and will remain in custody in lieu of $240,000 bail. Cain is scheduled to return to court in early March.

The accusations against Cain first surfaced in June, after a wild car chase through South L.A. revealed that cadets had been stealing department cruisers, radios and other equipment.

Late last year, the Los Angeles Times obtained court records that showed the cadets had been driving the stolen cruisers around Los Angeles County for months undetected.

Seven cadets were arrested in connection with the thefts, and a search of one of the teen’s phones revealed Cain had sex with a 15-year-old girl in the program on several occasions, police have said.

He was personally arrested by LAPD Chief Charlie Beck as the investigation unfolded. Cain, who was last assigned to the equipment room at 77th Street Division, has since resigned from the department.

Police found more than 100 firearms during a subsequent search of his Rancho Cucamonga home, and Cain pleaded no contest earlier this month to manufacturing an assault weapon and possession of a "bump stock," a device that allows semiautomatic weapons to fire as if they are automatic weapons.