The California Supreme Court refused Tuesday to review the case of a former Hollywood studio architect who was convicted of lewd acts on a minor.
Jeffrey Cooper, now 73, was sentenced to eight years in state prison and ordered to register as a sex offender after being found guilty in May 2022 of three felony counts of lewd acts against a child.
The charges involved a girl who was between 12 and 13 at the time — between 2005 and 2007 — at his home and later reported what had happened to authorities.
Jurors deadlocked in favor of acquitting Cooper of charges involving a second girl.
In a ruling last November upholding Cooper’s conviction, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal noted that the defense had raised a “plethora of arguments” challenging the grand jury indictment against Cooper, along with his conviction and sentence.
Cooper was known for his designs of movie theaters and sound studios and was a long-time member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
A top designer of movie theaters and sound studios, Cooper’s work included an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences theater, as well as more than two dozen mixing studios, according to the website of his Calabasas-based firm.
He also designed home studios for top Hollywood directors, including Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg and was the architect behind the Aish HaTorah World Center in Jerusalem.
Cooper was initially arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in June 2018. He was subsequently taken into custody again after the jury’s verdict.
The case stemmed from an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau.