Deputy Held on Gun, Harassment Charges

A longtime Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was ordered held on $250,000 bail Thursday on charges of sending lurid e-mails to a 15-year-old girl in the sheriff’s Deputy Explorer program, as well as of possessing illegal assault weapons and child pornography.

Deputy Richard Dario Comoe, 44, was arrested Wednesday after a sheriff’s task force served a search warrant at his Canyon Country home, authorities said.

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Jeffrey M. Harkavy ordered Comoe to appear at the downtown Criminal Justice Center on Sept. 3 for formal arraignment.

In court, prosecutors charged the 21-year department veteran with five counts of possessing illegal firearms, including a machine gun, a modified assault weapon and a sawed-off shotgun.

Comoe, a watch deputy at the East Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station, also was charged with one misdemeanor count each of annoying or molesting a child younger than 18 and possessing child pornography, prosecutors said.

Attorneys Alan Bell and Philip A. Gunning, who are representing the deputy, obtained a reduction in Comoe’s bail from $1 million to $250,000.

“Deputy Comoe intends a vigorous defense to the charges on both factual and legal grounds and believes that he will be exonerated,” his attorneys said in a statement.

Authorities said Comoe sent annoying and suggestive e-mails and partially nude photos to the teenage girl enrolled in the Deputy Explorer program.

According to the department, youths in the program assist deputies with such duties as report writing, bicycle licensing, crowd management at public events, anti-crime campaigns and gathering statistics.

The girl told a fellow Explorer that she was being harassed by Comoe’s e-mails, authorities said. Sheriff’s deputies were notified and began an investigation, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney.

Deputies served a search warrant earlier this month at Comoe’s home and found a safe that allegedly contained illegal weapons and a computer disc with child pornography.

If convicted on all counts, Comoe could spend up to five years, eight months in state prison and would have to register as a sex offender, Robison said.

Sheriff’s officials said Comoe has been relieved of duty pending the criminal investigation’s outcome.