Off-Duty LAPD Officer Arrested

Los Angeles: An officer was arrested in the early morning hours last Saturday in South Los Angeles.

On July 7, 2007, Officer Hector Villalta was arrested after he allegedly sexually assaulted a female companion.  The alleged assault occurred at Villata's home after he and the victim returned from a nightclub in South Los Angeles.  After the assault, the victim ran from the residence to a local gas station where she phoned police.

Villalta was arrested at his home and booked for 289(a) PC. Bail was set at $100,000.

Villalta 23, a probationary officer, is assigned to West Los Angeles Area, and has been with the Department for eight months. 

Comments

[In The Know]

Another fine example of competency of the 1st class Psychologists who do the Psych Screening for the LAPD. (NOT)

The LAPD should get a clue and once and for all address the huge problem in the Psych Dep't of Medical Services and fire all the Psychologists and start using competent, independant Psychologists (who have their own successful private practices) to do the psychological screening, as most other Southern California Police Agencies do with great success.

[another one]

I have to agree with In the Know. LAPD has to tighten its hiring standards... Ensure that we perform a thoughrough background test, psych test, and ensure that we're attracting the best candidates. I read in an earlier blog that instructors caught gang members throwing their gang signs at each other in the academy hallway. Luckily they were caught by a savvy LAPD instructor and thrown out of the academy, but its scary to know that scumbags like that actually make it that far. If the LAPD wants to avoid another major scandal, they have to ensure that they get the best.

[the watcher]

What kind of people are the LAPD hiring? Are they that desperate to get the numbers up. Antonio Villagrosa probably wants to bump the numbers up real fast since he got caught cheating on his wife, and his face has been all over the news. LAPD, PLEASE hire some people with morals... oh yah, our mayor dosn't have any so why should his officers... People please, let's get our act together!

[THE.CASTLE]

Well the chief wants numbers, so this boot will get a few days off. then admin'd to another div. don't want to go below 9500.....

[Jeff]

This should raise red flags.... I knew it woul dbe mater of time before something like this happens.

Thx to civilian city workers who dont have a clue about how to do backround check for police officers candidates..

They have gave the all clear to gang members to get hired on and the only way it was discovered was when actual academy staff saw the GANG TATOOS on the persons.

Tell me what does your average civilian city worker who generally has their head up,,,, know anything about how to identify a gangmember applying to be a police officer.. Common sense says person with police expierance , has worked the streets, has made arrests in his / her career can pick up on the signs of someone trying to get on the job who should not be hired.. Trying to save a few bucks will end up costing the city alot more when they get sued by victims of some thug cops the city hires.. Get some bean counters out of inside jobs and put in some real backround investigators. Makes to much sense to do huh???

[Jim Reed]

The Department has been agressively recruiting and hiring new officers. Has the process been so compromised to lower the standards to such a level that LAPD is now getting this type of officer?

I agree that the Psych Department is a joke and bends to the political pressures of those in charge of recruiting/hiring.

Who is going to take a critical review of the new "lax" procedure in the hiring process to insure that LAPD does not hire any more like Rafael Perez?

[More to come]

The mayor and chief want the department staffed with 10,000 officers in the next couple of years or so. They are more concerned with quantity over quality. This incident is just an example of the type of candidate getting through the hiring process today. Trust me, there will be another Rafael Perez-type scandal coming soon. The LAPD is hiring recruits with shady backgrounds and psych issues, none of which would get hired anywhere else. The academy is a joke and doesn't weed out the weak, overweight, or borderline criminal recruits. Its all about numbers these days, I feel sorry for the residents of the city.

[Loves LA LEOs]

Amen, and amen. Thank you In the Know; finally my voice is not the only one in the wilderness. It is a conflict of interest for them to pretend to be there for officers when they are really hired to (and fail to) protect the public from officers. This breach of ethics is depriving officers of any real care, since they have intimidated private sector practitioners from seeing officers. They have deprived officers of choices regarding treatment, and they have breached confidentiality; these two components are essential to any theraputic relationship. And just for the record, PTSD requires medical, not just psychological, treatment. This department has stigmatized any officer who tries to get help outside of LAPD Psych Services. The results have really hurt the whole community. I am grateful for your post, because there are those of us who literally cry every day for what we have lost because of this situation, yet we are vilified for broaching the topic. They would rather the officers who fall victim to stress be vilified. Maybe this officer should have been screened out, and/or maybe he is a war veteran. We lose more officers and soldiers to PTSD related suicide than any other cause of death.

[Joe]

Isn't everyone jumping the gun here. Isn't this officer, presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. I'm kind of surprised, to hear other police officers on this forum making comments about this officers guilt before he's had his day in cout.

[J.D.]

I don't get it, I know of several persons with college along with military experience, who happen to be children of respected tenured LAPD officers, who the department did not hire, citing general reasons, nothing specific. Those personS, have since gone on to be hired by other agencies(LASD). Way to go! who is monitoring those who hire, maybe they are the problem?

[Dairenn Lombard]

I wonder what the psych screening process exactly is? I've been seen by a private practice psychologist and didn't understand why the city psychologist decided against my eligibility to join the department while guys like this are able to become officers. It's very troubling.

[X]

Hmmm, interesting. Some newer officers getting arrested for various serious crimes, there's talks about gang signs being thrown up in the academy by "new" recruits.

And wait a second, I've even heared talk about our mayor having former ties with street gangs from his younger years. And to this day, he supposdly (and I stress supposdly) still has the gang tattoos from those past ties.

Not sure if that's true or not, but interesting set of circumstances. And interesting how those same circumstances all come together.

[In The Know]

Progress is being made. There was recently an article in the LA Times that said the Director of the Medical Services Division is finally GONE, however there is still work to be done.

The Psychologist are all still there. There's a really good reason these Genius's of the Psychological profession are not enjoying successful private practices (as the Psychologists who do the screening for other agencies are) and rather work in jobs where it's nearly impossible to fire them and who are also untouchable by the California Psychological Board.

Good candidates get disqualified for petty issues and guys who get arrested for sexual battery and the Gang Bangers sail through.

This is yet more evidence to justify closing down the entire Medical Services Division and start outsourcing to competent professionals who know what they are doing.

[PDhog]

I know this P1 appears to be a poster child for the gripes most of us have against the hiring process but I sincerely hope there is "more to the story" and what we have read in the paper is not the whole story. I have also heard that runiing in the academy is now "optional" and that a current female recruit is so rotund she has to use a seat belt extender during EVOC training!!!

[Joe]

What happened to the presumption of innocence.I'm really shocked to hear other police officers on this forum, assuming that he's guilty, without the benefit of having all of the facts of the case. Maybe there's more to this story than has been revealed.

[In The Know]

I recently spoke to an instructor who said that the Academy will be changing from Low Stress to No Stress. I guess they want to make sure the Academy Training will be the same as the real life and death situations that Cops face every day. These stupid decisions are really becoming Officer Safety Issues. The Academy is supposed to be stressful to weed out those who aren't cut out for this work...DUH

Has anyone watched "The Academy" on Fox Reality Channel? The LASD puts the screws HARD to those recruits every day. The LAPD Academy as well as every aspect of the hiring process that is handled by the Medical Services Division have become a huge embarassment in the law enforcement community. Not because the LAPD Instructors aren't good...they are, but they aren't being allowed to do what they are capable of doing and are being paid to do.

I hope someone considers how bad the long term results are going to be by having so many incompetent people making such important decisions for the Department.

Sadly, this is no longer the LAPD of Dragnet or Adam-12 fame. What would Chief Parker say if he could see what has become of his beloved LAPD?

[JC]

I agree with J.D. I am one of the people who did not get hired. I have a college education, come from a military/law enforcement family, and work for the Dept.'s City Jail. It disgusts me that new recruits like this one gets hired onto the department and they are not weeded out in the beginining of the process. Most of the background investigators are not regular civilians. Most are retired police officers. I am too frustrated with the way I have been treated as a civilan employee of this Department and I too will apply somewhere else. There have been quite a few Detention Officers who have been passed over to be sworn. It seems that even though we go through the same hiring process, an academy and receive the same training as sworn personnel that we get looked over for an outside civilian. Whast a shame!

[Big Chad]

didn't you read...he lives in South LA, he's a gangster....hahahaa

[Los Angeles Resident]

This is not just a problem of the LAPD under Chief Bratton and Playboy Mayor Villaraigosa.

I guess the LAPD cops do not read or watch the news. There have been numerous cops from various police departments involved in criminal acts. This has happened since there have been police departments.

The cops are not sent down from heaven, but are just ordinary folks, who can also commit crimes such as killing their own wives.

The police have been involved in some of the biggest scandals in history, but when it involves the police I guess it by nature is a big scandal.

[it's different for us]

Joe, by law, government employees are not even allowed the appearance of impropriety. Getting arrested, needing restraining orders, having personal problems at work, drinking a little too much at the Christmas party, accepting a gift all are cause for at least disciplinary action. The more time on the job, the less significant these things are, but when you can't even make it through your first five years of employment without melodrama resulting in negative publicity for your agency, you have to go. Period. Of course, the mayor and the city attorney have lowered the bar considerably in the last sixty days.

[J.P. Bell]

Just to pile on: I got DQ'd in 2000 and non-selected in 2005 but guys like this got hired?

[Coffee break]

The city workers in LA are the worst. In my recent hiring experience I saw first hand how lazy, unprofessional, rude, and clueless most of them are. Where do they find these people? They are the ones doing most of the "work" in hiring LAPD officers, which I don't understand. All other departments that I'm aware of conduct their hiring "in-house". They don't rely on civilians to mess with the process. This is significant because the officers hiring these recruits may have to rely on them one day to save their life. Of course you need civilians for some of the steps such as the psych, medical, etc. However, most civilian workers are indifferent to who gets through. I know of countless qualified candidates who got passed over by LAPD, or went to other deparments after waiting obscene amounts of time during the hiring process, yet I have seen first hand the poor quality of recruit in the academy that is now being hired. Removing the civilians from the hiring process will improve the process.

[1BnMarine]

I agree with everyone on this post. LAPD standards are wayyy too weak, and the academy is way too easy. I passed 4yrs ago with my eyes closed. I had so many people in my class that couldnt keep up with the runs, couldnt even do 5 pull ups, and had such a hard time dealing with that non-stress environment. If someone wants to experience a stress boot camp, join the Marines. I did and it was great!!! LAPD has to raise the bar, or else we will continue to let these guys that slip through the cracks make us look like a bad police department.

[In The Know]

The problem is that due to political correctness, Raphael Perez and Nino Durden were allowed on the Department even though it was well known that both had known gang members in their families or orgin. They were criminals who were given badges, guns and LAPD uniforms. They continued their criminal capers and framed gang members under the color of Law and when they were busted, lied their asses off and basically played the department to get lighter sentences, claiming to know about wide spread corruption that never existed. This became the "Rampart Scandal".

Careers were runined and the City had to pay out tens of millions in legal settlements for those who were framed by these two criminals. As a result, the LAPD now has to work under a Federal Concent Decree because supposedly they cannot police their own ranks, (according to the bogus claims of Perez and Durden). This Concent Decree costs the tax payers 50 Million dollars a year to comply with and many of the hiring aspects that used to be handled in-house by the LAPD are now being handled by these total zeros who work for the Personnel Department and Medical Services Division. It's like going to the DMV for healthcare or to hire a private investigator...You wouldn't think of it, but the City Of Los Angeles does.

Applicants rightfully have to go through thorough background investigations and Psych evaluations, but Background Investigations and Psych Evaluations aren't done on the Psychologists, Background Investigators or Polygraphers.

I hope someone wakes up!

[Hhhmmm...]

I'm going to submit this post, but I'm betting myself it won't get published.

Let's cut through a lot of the b.s. on the hiring process - if you're a white male, you can pretty much forget even being considered by LAPD unless you score 99-100 on the written. Even then, they will probably find some way to DQ you, either through the background, psych, etc. Unfortunately, whether they want to admit it or not, the Department is under pressure to make sure their candidate pool is "balanced", which means that you have to pass over many qualified applicants and take less qualified ones, to pacify the special interest groups, Police Commission, City Council, the Mayor, the ACLU, the Consent Decree people, the media, etc, etc, etc... God forbid the Department hires the most qualfied, because then they would be accused of being racist...can't have that.