LOS ANGELES – A 41-year-old police officer assigned to the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk was charged on Thursday with a dozen counts of sexual molestation involving a 14-year-old girl, the District Attorney’s Office announced.
Mario Uribe Estrada was arraigned at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Downtown Los Angeles after his arrest and prosecutors with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is asking that his bail be set at $535,000.
Estrada was arrested on Tuesday by South Gate police officers who said the officer befriended the girl earlier this year and engaged in sexual relationship with her. The alleged victim is not connected to the hospital where he is assigned, police said.
Estrada is charged with three counts of sodomy of a person under 16, one count of oral copulation of a person under 16, four counts of lewd act on a child, and four counts of sending harmful matter to a minor – all felonies.
If convicted, he faces seven years, four months in state prison.
–Randy Economy
