San Jose Mercury News
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Under intense cross-examination by a prosecutor Tuesday, a San Jose police officer charged with fondling a teenager during a pat-down search claimed he didn’t know how to use a patrol-car computer to report as required by department regulations that he was driving the alleged victim home.
The claim may have raised jurors’ doubts, since Officer Julio Morales was a veteran who taught such procedures to recruits. But the ex-Marine may have won over the jury later when he nearly broke into tears.
Morales, 42, is charged with two felonies sexual battery and false imprisonment. Prosecutors allege he stopped the teenager for little cause, sexually touched her during a pat-search, then drove her home against her will.
His voice cracking, in contrast to his earlier defiant tone, Morales apologized Tuesday not for fondling the 18-year-old woman, which he vehemently denies, but for failing to report that he stopped her as she was walking on Keyes Street and was driving her home. Male officers are required to communicate with the dispatch center via radio or computer when they make stops on or transport girls or women.
The prosecution has made much of those procedural violations, saying Morales didn’t report in because he was trying to hide the Dec. 3, 2008, incident. Morales and several character witnesses have testified that officers routinely overlook them.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Morales said in a near-whisper as his eyes filled with tears. “I’m very sorry I violated that policy. If I could do it over again, I would never violate that policy.”
Morales faces a maximum of three years and eight months in state prison if he is convicted. No one witnessed the encounter, turning the trial into a credibility contest between the alleged victim and Morales.
For nearly two hours, Deputy District Attorney Ray Mendoza hammered away at Morales, trying to back him into a corner. At one point, Morales claimed he didn’t report the incident over the computer because he’d just returned to patrol after more than four years and didn’t know how.
“I did not know how to use the computer in that function,” Morales said. “To that level of sophistication, I failed to train myself.”
But Mendoza noted that Morales had graduated from San Jose State University’s school of engineering with a degree in aeronautics operations, so surely he knew how to use the computer.
Mendoza also raised questions about why Morales threw out the field interview card he filled out during the stop of the teen, dubbed Cecilia “Doe” by the court to protect her privacy. The prosecution believes it was because the officer was seeking to cover up an unwarranted stop. Morales, however, has testified that he stopped the young woman because she seemed terrified of the patrol car and appeared to be reaching for what he thought was narcotics or a weapon, but later turned out to be an mp3 player just as he drove by.
Mendoza asked Morales whether he ever tried to find the field interview card he threw out. “I wasn’t allowed to,” Morales said. But Mendoza pressed, “Did you ever direct anyone where it might be?”
“No, I did not,” Morales said, without explanation.
Copyright 2010 San Jose Mercury News