54-year-old had sexual relationship with fellow police officer’s daughter
A retired Santa Monica police officer was sentenced to one year in jail this week for engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl, then released the following day.
Gregory McElveen, 54, pleaded no contest in Van Nuys Superior Court to two counts of oral copulation, two counts of penetration with a foreign object and one count of performing a lewd act upon a child.
McElveen faced a maximum sentence of five years in state prison, but Judge Michael Hoff sentenced him Tuesday to one year in prison and five years’ probation, ordering him to register as a sex offender and stay away from the 15-year-old victim.
Because McElveen had been in police custody since his Feb. 26 arrest and earned time credits for good behavior, he was freed the very next day.
The ordeal capped a drawn-out effort by McElveen to stay out of state prison, where his status as a former peace officer and convicted sex offender would have made him a likely target by his fellow inmates. As a result of Hoff’s sentence, McElveen served his entire time behind bars in a county jail.
Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the LA District Attorney’s Office, said McElveen would have been protected in state prison, where prosecutors had wanted to send him.
“We objected to him getting probation,” she said. “We thought he deserved to be in state prison.”
A year in county jail is considered a probation sentence because it can often be served through house arrest or in a halfway house, partially due to overcrowded prisons.
McElveen, who retired in May of 1999, served with the department for 19 years. He began a 10-month sexual relationship with the 15-year-old daughter of another SMPD officer in August of 2000.
Attorney Andrew Stein did not return calls seeking comment. Stein has said in the past that he wanted to keep McElveen out of state prison, where he would have stayed separate from the general population, except during the “intake” period, which can take between 30 and 90 days.
Though McElveen agreed in March to plead guilty to one count of performing a lewd act upon a child and serve one year in state prison, Stein, who took over the case from a public defender just before McElveen was to be sentenced in April, asked a judge to let McElveen withdraw his plea.
After having the case continued several times, Stein orchestrated having a battery of psychological and physical tests performed on McElveen. The tests took 90 days, during which time McElveen remained in protective custody in county jail.
The plea hearing and sentencing was originally scheduled for September, but Stein successfully postponed it four more times, often sending a stand-in attorney to appear before the court, officials said.
On Tuesday, McElveen abandoned his earlier plea agreement, pleaded no contest to all five counts against him and threw himself on the mercy of the court, Robison said.
Because his good behavior credits reduced McElveen’s sentence by one day for each two days served, McElveen had served his entire sentence, plus two additional days, and was released the following day.
Judge Hoff declined to comment on the case.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 1, 2003. Read the original PDF.