CITY CHARTER PANELIST FACES SEX CHARGES.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

Elected charter reform Commissioner Marcos Castaneda was charged Wednesday with lewd conduct and misdemeanor loitering following his arrest Saturday.

City prosecutors filed one charge of lewd conduct and one charge of loitering to solicit an act of prostitution after officers said Castaneda was engaging in sexual activity with a prostitute in a parked car in Hollywood.

``Based on the evidence the police provided us with, the decision was made to file two charges and the case was filed this morning,'' said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the City Attorney's Office.

Deputy City Attorney Bill Sterling said the loitering-to-solicit-a-prostitute charge was filed based on the belief that ``there was sex for money'' involved.

Castaneda, 39, of Sylmar did not return calls for comment Wednesday, but was said by sources to be consulting with an attorney, while also reporting briefly to work as a deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre.

Castaneda was elected last year by residents of the 7th City Council District in the northeast San Fernando Valley to represent them on the city's elected Charter Reform Commission. There was no indication Wednesday that he planned to resign that position, sources said.

He was arrested at 1:30 a.m. Saturday by Hollywood Division vice detectives who said they found him receiving oral sex from 18-year-old Kimberly Douglas in a car parked in a residential area in the 1800 block of North Stanley Avenue, Los Angeles Police Department officials said.

The arrests of Castaneda and Douglas were among 25 made that night by a prostitution task force of vice squad detectives, officials said.