A retired Santa Monica police officer accused of having a long-term sexual relationship with a minor dismissed his public defender Monday and postponed his sentencing until next month.
Gregory McElveen, 55, agreed in a plea bargain earlier this month to spend a year in state prison for his alleged illicit relationship with a teenage girl. He was scheduled to be sentenced Monday by San Fernando Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen.
But Andrew Stein, McElveen’s newly hired private attorney, continued the case to May 19 so he can consider retracting McElveen’s guilty plea. He said McElveen should be put on probation and kept out of jail.
McElveen, of Agoura Hills, was arrested by the L.A. Sheriffs Department Feb. 26 and charged with performing a lewd act upon a child, two counts of penetration with a foreign object and two counts of oral copulation.
He is currently in custody at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in L.A. with a bail of $215,000.
McElveen pleaded guilty on April 14 to performing a lewd act on a child and agreed to spend one year in state prison as part of a plea bargain that dismissed the other four counts against him.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 29, 2003. Read the original PDF.