Officer Guilty of Lewd Conduct

A Board of Rights panel, in a session that lasted past midnight, found a Los Angeles police sergeant guilty today on three counts of lewd conduct with male prostitutes and recommended the department’s harshest penalty short of firing. The three-member hearing board recommended that Sgt. Emmanuel Valencia, 37, be suspended without pay for six months for engaging in lewd conduct with a male prostitute on two occasions, Lt. Larry Goebel said. Sources within the department said it was the first such case involving an officer engaging in improper activities with male prostitutes while on duty and in uniform. The punishment can be either upheld or reduced by the police chief.