LOS ANGELES _ The Los Angeles police officer at the center of a scandal roiling the department's signature youth initiative has been charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old member of the cadet program, prosecutors announced Friday.
Robert Cain, 31, was charged 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.
Cain's arraignment in a downtown courtroom Friday morning was delayed as he remains in custody in San Bernardino County in connection with felony weapons charges that arose from the investigation into the cadet scandal.
Cain is accused of sexually assaulting the cadet in three separate incidents at three different locations on June 14. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of seven years and eight months in state prison.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck personally arrested Cain on June 22 after an investigation into the alleged theft of police cruisers and other equipment by cadets revealed accusations that Cain had sex with the teen.
Seven cadets have been arrested in connection with the alleged thefts.
The cadets stopped at least one motorist while driving the stolen vehicles, giving the driver a warning, police said. The alleged thefts became public knowledge last month, after three cadets were accused of leading police on two separate car chases through South L.A. that ended in crashes.
A review of text messages between Cain and the 15-year-old cadet, who was among those arrested, detailed an "inappropriate relationship" between the two and also suggested Cain was aware of the thefts, including radios, Tasers and a bulletproof vest, and may have helped facilitate them, Beck said last month.
A subsequent search of Cain's Rancho Cucamonga home led to the recovery of more than 100 firearms, including modified assault rifles, police have said. Last week, he was charged with 10 felony weapons counts in San Bernardino County. Cain pleaded not guilty to those charges.
He is being held in a San Bernardino County jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, records show.
Cain's attorney, Bill Seki, suggested that his client is being made to take the fall for larger problems within the cadet program.
"They wanted a scapegoat, and Robert has become that scapegoat," Seki said.
He also defended his client's ownership of a weapons cache at his Rancho Cucamonga home. Cain is a military history enthusiast, according to Seki, and had been trying to modify the weapons to get them in compliance with California law. Of the more than 100 weapons seized, only four are the subject of prosecution in San Bernardino County, Seki said.
The scandal has sparked internal reviews of the cadet program and the ways that the LAPD tracks its equipment. City Councilman Mitchell Englander has also called for an audit of all the department's youth programs.
Beck suspended cadet programs at the 77th Street and Pacific divisions, where the cadets accused in the thefts had been assigned.
It remains unclear if any of the cadets arrested in the thefts had been charged. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office did not respond to questions about the case Thursday.
Cain has been with the LAPD for 10 years, and previously worked in the Van Nuys station. He was not assigned to work with cadets, and worked in the equipment room at the 77th Street Division at the time of his arrest.
