From cop to convict.

Byline: The Register-Guard

As he was being sentenced to more than five years in prison for crimes he committed while on duty, former Eugene Police officer Juan Francisco Lara on Thursday thanked his wife for forgiving him for his behavior. He will need to take whatever forgiveness he can find, because it's unlikely any will be forthcoming from the women he victimized, who may never again feel safe alone with a police officer.

Lara also shouldn't expect easy forgiveness from the colleagues he betrayed, all of whom will have to live down the stain he has brought to their honor and to the uniform they wear.

The 30-year-old father of two pleaded guilty last month to three counts of official misconduct and one count of public indecency. Using a legal device called an Alford plea, the court then entered guilty pleas on his behalf on another count of official misconduct, four counts of coercion and one count of harassment. Under an Alford plea, a defendant agrees that the state can prove his guilt but denies any actual guilt.

Lane County Circuit Court Judge Charles Carlson sentenced Lara to 68 months in prison for the four counts of coercion. He also ordered that Lara serve one year in jail for harassment, six months in jail for public indecency and a total of 180 days in jail for official misconduct. The jail time will be served concurrently with the prison sentence.

Judge Carlson's sentence was measured and appropriate. Lara was, on one hand, a sympathetic defendant, supported throughout the proceedings by family and friends, including the minister of his church. He steadfastly denied the charges against him and maintained that any sexual activity was voluntary and consensual.

But the prosecution made a compelling case to the contrary. The women who testified against Lara told terrifying stories of being stalked, coerced into sexual contact and harassed if they rebuffed his advances. Deputy Lane County District Attorney Caren Tracy said these women had no reason to lie, and many of them told strikingly similar stories despite never having met one another.

What became increasingly clear as the hearing progressed is that Lara flat didn't get it. He didn't get that the power imbalance between a civilian woman and a uniformed police officer is so great that the term "consensual sex" as defined by Lara is almost without meaning. Lara's victims testified that the abuse they suffered at his hands destroyed their self-confidence, left them fearful of police officers, damaged their relationships with friends and family and caused them physical, psychological and emotional trauma.

Eugene's new police Chief Robert Lehner, who has demonstrated keen sensitivity to the effect that police sexual misconduct can have on community trust, summed it up well in a statement on Thursday:

"The impact on the department and the community will far outlast the investigation and legal proceedings occurring now. To the general public, the actions of this man were not simply the actions of an individual, but an indictment of the entire profession."

Judge Carlson has sent an important signal to that profession and the community it serves that behavior like Juan Francisco Lara's is a ticket to hard time in prison.