COUNTY SETTLES SEX ASSAULT SUIT WOMAN SAYS ON-DUTY DEPUTY COERCED HER.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- A woman who says a deputy sexually assaulted her after he stopped her vehicle will be paid $325,000 by Los Angeles County to settle her federal civil-rights lawsuit.

The woman said the deputy told her he would not arrest her -- after she told him she was driving without her driver's license while on probation -- if she engaged in a sexual encounter with him, county officials said.

``A jury is unlikely to find that the encounter was consensual, since the deputy was in uniform and carrying a gun,'' assistant county counsel Roger Granbo said in a report to supervisors.

The deputy admitted the sexual encounter, but said it was consensual, Granbo's report said. Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against the deputy, whose name was not released by county officials.

County, Sheriff's Department and Office of Independent Review officials said state law forbids them from identifying the deputy or disclosing whether he was fired or otherwise disciplined.

``Administrative action was taken, that's all I can say... significant administrative action,'' sheriff's Lt. Gordon Carn said. ``When the incident was brought to our attention it did prompt an immediate criminal investigation.''

An attorney with the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review, a watchdog agency that reviews Sheriff's Department disciplinary proceedings and deputies' use of force, said sheriff's officials investigated the woman's allegations and took action.

``The department did a thorough job and the resulting administrative disposition was, I think, quite appropriate,'' said Rob Miller, the office's deputy chief attorney.

The county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize the payment of $325,000 to settle the lawsuit.

If the case went to trial, jurors are likely to award the woman -- whose name was withheld because of the sexual nature of the allegations -- $1.25 million, Granbo said.

Under federal law, a police officer who sexually assaults an arrestee is liable for a civil-rights violation. Under state law, the county is liable for a sexual assault by an on-duty peace officer, Granbo said.

The woman said she was driving on a Lancaster street in January 2005 when she was pulled over by a deputy, according to Granbo's report for supervisors.

When she told the deputy she did not have her driver's license on her and was on probation, he frisked her and put her in the back seat of his patrol car, the report said.

The woman said the deputy then drove her to a remote location and told her that if she engaged in a sexual encounter with him, he would not arrest her, the report said. The deputy then came around to the back seat and forced her to engage in a sexual act with him, the report said.