Sentencing is scheduled Friday for a former Los Angeles police officer who pleaded guilty to sex-related charges involving a friend’s 13-year-old daughter at her home in Torrance.
Kenneth Collard, 52, is facing five years in state prison in connection with his guilty plea to two counts of committing a lewd act on a child, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Collard — who was employed by the Los Angeles Police Department at the time — entered the girl’s bedroom in the middle of the night and sexually assaulted her while staying at his friend’s home a year ago April 4, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The Los Angeles Times reported last year that the girl is the daughter of another Los Angeles police officer.
When Collard admitted guilt on April 5, the LAPD issued a statement saying the “plea closes a disturbing chapter for this department. Ken Collard resigned from the LAPD shortly after he was charged for these deplorable crimes. When any individual harms a child it is tragic, but when an officer betrays the trust of the residents he or she has sworn to protect it is unforgivable. Collard tarnished the badge that we all wear and the department remains committed to building faith in our professionalism and integrity.”
Collard was previously in the news almost a decade ago, when he was involved in the fatal shooting of a suspect while on duty in West Los Angeles.
Late on the night of July 6, 2009, Collard was in full uniform driving a unmarked police car when he heard a radio call of a robbery and attempted carjacking by two suspects, at least one of them armed with a gun, according to an LAPD statement issued two days later. As he was driving east in the 11300 block of Iowa Avenue, he saw two men matching the description of the suspects, “and one of them was fighting with another man, as a woman stood nearby,” the LAPD reported then.
The man and woman were later determined to be victims of an attempted robbery, according to the LAPD, which reported that Collard stopped and got out of his car and identified himself as an LAPD officer.
One of the suspects immediately ran from the location, but the second suspect, who had been fighting with the other man when Collard drove up, “advanced towards the officer with an object in his hand,” prompting Collard to open fire, according to the LAPD.
Pedro Fernandez, a 24-year-old Tarzana resident, died at the scene, and the other suspect was subsequently arrested.