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OAKLAND
Officer charged with illegal stops
Police say he pulled over Asian women, came on to them
- Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, August 27, 2005


A veteran Oakland police officer has been charged with making illegal traffic stops of immigrant Asian women and then trying to kiss or caress them, authorities said Friday.

Officer Richard Valerga, 51, was charged Wednesday with seven misdemeanor counts, including two of false imprisonment and five of interference of civil rights, authorities said Friday. It was not yet clear when he would appear in court.

The charges stem from traffic stops on five women made between January and April, police said. Police would not reveal the exact location or date of each stop.

Valerga worked as a swing-shift patrol officer in the neighborhood just east of Lake Merritt and also worked on a beat in the Redwood Heights, Laurel and Dimond neighborhoods along MacArthur Boulevard between Fruitvale Avenue and High Street.

Valerga, who joined the department in 1999, has been on administrative leave since May, when accusers began coming forward. The allegations were jointly investigated by police and the Alameda County district attorney's office.

"During the course of the investigation, it was determined that most of the women recently immigrated to the United States and were illegally detained by the officer," according to a police department statement released Friday by Officer Danielle Ashford, a spokeswoman.

"He maintains that he has done nothing wrong, nothing inappropriate and certainly nothing that rises to the level of these allegations," said Valerga's attorney, Paul Brennan. "I have not yet seen charges, so I really cannot comment beyond that."

Police said Valerga would pull over the victims, attractive Asian women ranging from teenagers to women in their 40s, on a pretext -- and then come on to them. He is charged with one count of interference related to each woman. The two false-imprisonment charges stem from allegations by two women that when they asked Valerga to let them go, he refused, authorities said.

Valerga, who joined the department after serving in the U.S. Navy, will remain on administrative leave for the duration of the criminal and administrative investigation. The department may try to fire him as the criminal case progresses, police said.

Police said some of the victims had been tracked down by investigators who found that their license plates and driver's license information were run on the computer in Valerga's patrol car. Valerga may have victimized more women whom police could not locate, authorities said.

The Valerga case is the first time an Oakland officer has been arrested since two narcotics investigators were caught in a San Leandro brothel in 2002. Eric Richholt and Mark Neely Jr. each pleaded no contest in 2003 to one count of soliciting an act of prostitution, a misdemeanor. They were sentenced to probation and ordered to attend an AIDS education class.

Anyone with information about Valerga's case is asked to contact the Oakland Police Department at (510) 238-3455.