Officer charged with stealing police radio
Jessica Guzzetti is also accused of nonpayment for a stroller and illegally accessing a database.
A Los Angeles police officer has pleaded not guilty to theft of a police radio, an illegal search of a law enforcement database and other criminal charges.
Prosecutors also allege that Jessica Guzzetti failed to pay for a baby stroller, according to a criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Guzzetti, 27, entered the plea in a Van Nuys courtroom Monday, her first court appearance since she was charged July 25 with the three misdemeanor counts.
The officer could not be reached for comment. Her attorney, R. Alex Comley, told The Times that his client “acted without criminal intent.”
“She tried to make things right, and we’re going to show this in court,” Comley said. He declined to comment further.
The first count alleges that Guzzetti stole an LAPD radio valued at $3,470 in 2013. Another count alleges that she accessed information from a Justice Department computer database in 2014. Prosecutors also contend that Guzzetti failed to pay for the baby stroller in August 2015.
Jackie Robnett, who is listed in court records as the owner of the stroller, told The Times that Guzzetti and her boyfriend responded to a Craigslist ad in 2015 for a stroller that retailed for about $1,200. Robnett said she was selling it for about $250.
Guzzetti and her boyfriend inspected the stroller and offered to pay for it with a check. Robnett said she doesn’t normally accept checks in Craigslist transactions but made an exception.
“We trusted her because she was a police officer,” Robnett said. “She said she was with LAPD and that made us comfortable.”
When the check didn’t go through, Robnett repeatedly tried to reach out to Guzzetti and her boyfriend for the payment or for the return of the stroller. But Guzzetti responded that she wanted to keep the stroller.
“I offered so many other options: PayPal, Venmo,” Robnett said. “There’s so many ways to transfer money.”
With mounting frustration, Robnett learned that Guzzetti was working at a police station in the San Fernando Valley, called a supervisor there and reported the incident. She provided testimony to a detective with LAPD’s internal affairs, she said.
To date, Robnett has not received her stroller or the money. She was not informed that Guzzetti had been charged until a reporter contacted her Monday evening.
The prosecution of Guzzetti, a resident of Lancaster, is the latest twist in her LAPD career.
Guzzetti sued the city in January 2014, alleging she had been sexually harassed by a supervisor in the LAPD’s jail division and retaliated against for spurning a supervisor’s sexual advances.
She eventually was reassigned to the Rampart Division, according to her complaint. There, she learned that her nickname was “the black widow” and that she had a reputation for complaining about officers who made sexual advances toward her, according to the complaint.
Guzzetti contended in her lawsuit that fellow officers did not want to work with her as a partner, and that in roll call, colleagues laughed when a partner was assigned to her.
During her first day in the Rampart Division, according to the lawsuit, a female lieutenant told Guzzetti: “We heard about you. We heard you’re trouble.”
Guzzetti’s attorney in the sexual harassment lawsuit, Greg Smith, later asked a judge to release him and his firm from the case.
“Differences have arisen in the handling of this matter which would prevent my office from ethically representing this plaintiff and making it impossible to diligently prosecute [Guzzetti’s] claims,” Smith wrote in a declaration filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Guzzetti later represented herself, but a judge dismissed the lawsuit after she failed to show up to two consecutive hearings, according to court records.
While on patrol in the Rampart Division — which covers Silver Lake, Echo Park, Westlake and the Pico-Union neighborhoods — Guzzetti was one of three officers who opened fire at 16year-old Moises Palacios on the night of May 17, 2013. Palacios, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was armed with two knives, according to court papers.
Police said Palacios taunted officers, saying he would throw the knives at them. Palacios reportedly stepped toward the officers and they opened fire. Ten gunshots struck the boy, mostly in the abdomen and chest, according to court papers.
The boy later told authorities he wanted police to kill him, according to the LAPD’s review of the shooting.
Palacios survived his injuries after major surgery, which included the removal of parts of his small intestine, according to court papers.
Palacios later sued the city and the LAPD, naming Guzzetti and the two other officers. The case is pending in federal court.