Los Angeles Times

Ex- cop accused of having child porn

Former LAPD officer released on $ 20,000 bond after seizure of computer equipment.

- By James Queally

A former Los Angeles police officer has been accused of possessing child pornograph­y, court records show.

Clark Warren Baker, 61, was arrested this month and charged with one count of possession of child pornograph­y, roughly six months after police searched a residence associated with him in the Hollywood Hills, officials said.

Los Angeles police officers arrested Baker on April 10, according to online jail records. He posted $ 20,000 bond and was released the same day, records show. Attempts to contact Baker were not successful Wednesday, and it was not clear whether he had an attorney.

An LAPD spokesman previously told The Times that detectives had searched Baker’s home on Greenvalle­y Road and “taken possession of some computer equipment” in November 2018.

Baker was employed by the Los Angeles Police Department from 1980 to 2000, according to a department spokeswoma­n. She declined to comment further about the investigat­ion into Baker or his work history, and a spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office could not provide additional informatio­n on the charge.

Baker is set to make his f irst appearance in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom May 1.

The former officer was convicted of battery in 1992 after he was accused of slapping, kicking and dragging a 21- year- old Salvadoran immigrant while assigned to the Valley’s traffic division. An internal LAPD panel had previously cleared him of wrongdoing.

Baker’s conviction was later overturned by an appeals panel, which ruled a prosecutor improperly referred to the Rodney King trial and turned Baker’s case into a referendum on police reform at the time.

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