Edmonds police officer
convicted of having sex with a woman he had detained in May 2012 was sentenced
today to a year in jail.
A Snohomish County jury last month
convicted Daniel Lavely, 48, of custodial sexual misconduct.
“Your conduct exploited a vulnerable
woman and disgraced your profession,” Superior Court Judge Janice Ellis told
Lavely at his sentencing, The Herald of Everett reported.
Lavely declined to speak at his
hearing. He must register as a sex offender and be supervised for a year
after his release from jail.
Lavely resigned from the department
in January after an internal investigation into the incident resulted in him
learning that he could possibly be fired. Lavely, 48, had been with the police
department for eight years.
According to charges filed by the Snohomish County prosecutor’s office,
Lavely first contacted the victim, a then-28-year-old Seattle woman, after she
reportedly jaywalked on Highway 99 in Edmonds on the night of May 6, 2012.
Early the next morning, Lavely
encountered the same woman while responding to a 911 call about her fleeing the
emergency room at Swedish Medical Center, Edmonds Campus. Lavely found the
woman at a nearby motel and placed her in the back of his patrol car, according
to charges.
The Seattle woman told investigators
Lavely drove her to the “poorly lit back parking lot” of the Burlington Coat
Factory in Edmonds and forced the woman into sex, charges said.
It’s a crime for an officer on duty
to engage in sex with a person being detained, even if that sex is consensual.
While Everett police, who were
brought in to investigate the incident, say the woman was not handcuffed, the
charges say she was “detained, under arrest or in the custody of the
defendant.”
Everett police investigated the
sexual-misconduct allegation and forwarded the case to Snohomish County
prosecutors, who filed charges in November.