Victim of L.A.P.D. ex-Officer Michael Kapalungan’s On-duty

Criminal Sexual Battery to Urge the Judge for Full Jail Time in the Sentencing

The Case Gains Attention Because of Rare Prosecution of Ex-LAPD Officer’s Sexual Crimes on the Job

News Conference



WHEN: March 16, 2005,

12:45 P.M.

WHERE: In front of:

Metropolitan Courthouse

1945 S. Hill Street, L.A., 90007-2995



For the first time, Ms. H, the victim of a criminal sexual battery by ex-L.A.P.D. Officer, Michael Kapalungan, will make her Victim Impact Statement to the court and urge the maximum sentence for Kapalungan who was convicted on February 9, 2005 of four counts of misdemeanor sexual battery. The victim, who’s identity was shielded from the public during the trial, had called the L.A.P.D. for help because a man was beating her home in her home. Officer Kapalungan answered her 911 call, but rather than delivering her from harm, took her into a bedroom and sexually battered her and then arrested her, falsely accusing her of a crime.

This rare prosecution of ex-LAPD officer’s sexual crimes on the job was a result of the work of the new L.A.P.D. Ethics Enforcement Section, created as a result of the Federal consent decree imposed on the L.A.P.D. by Federal Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, as a result of the infamous LAPD Rampart scandal. The Ethics Enforcement Section believed Ms. H’s complaint and did a "sting" operation, which caught Officer Kapalungan on videotape sexually battering other undercover policewomen and masturbating, just as the victim had reported to L.A.P.D. Kapalungan was prosecuted and convicted. The victim wants to encourage the new LAPD Ethics Enforcement Section to continue this work, to urge women who are sexually battered to report such crimes, and to urge the Judge to sentence Kapalungan to maximum jail time.

The sentencing hearing will be held at 1:30 p.m., March 16, 2005, before Judge Egerton, in Division 71, located at Metropolitan Courthouse, 1945 S. Hill Street, L.A., 90007-2995.

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