The Los Angeles police officer was charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old cadet amid an ongoing scandal that exploded into public knowledge after two of the department’s patrol cars were stolen and crashed by cadets last month in South L.A., officials said Friday.
The ensuing criminal investigation led officials with the Los Angeles Police Department to discover incriminating text messages between 31-year-old Officer Robert Cain and the 15-year-old girl, who was herself among seven cadets arrested in connection with the stolen vehicles.
Cain was charged late Thursday with two counts each of oral copulation of a person under the age of 16, lewd acts upon a child and unlawful sexual intercourse, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
He is accused of sexually assaulting the teen on three separate occasions at three different locations, prosecutors said. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has previously disclosed a “short-term relationship” the two recently became engaged in.
If convicted as charged, he could face a maximum possible sentence of nearly eight years in state prison.
However, Cain is separately facing 10 felony weapons charges in San Bernardino County after a search of his Rancho Cucamonga home turned up more than 100 firearms, including assault rifles and several weapons determined to be illegal in the state of California.
The discovery was made during the LAPD’s investigation into the stolen patrol cars. Detectives are probing whether Cain helped the cadets gain access to the department’s vehicle tracking and inventory systems, which the trainees were able to log into as a vacationing sergeant, according to Beck.
Cain was set to be arraigned Friday. He was expected to have an attorney appear in court on his behalf Friday while he remained in custody in San Bernardino.