Friday October 10 4:12 PM EDT
Officer resigns over sex crimes
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 10 (UPI) _ A Los Angeles police officer has been ordered to resign from the force after pleading no contest to having sex with a minor and using the police department's computers to obtain unauthorized information.
Lt. Steve Twohy (``TOO''-ee) had been suspended from the LAPD's Internal Affairs Division, where he was a 19-year veteran, pending the outcome of the case. The Internal Affairs Division is the police department branch responsible for investigating police conduct.
The 43-year-old Twohy also was placed on three years probation and ordered to pay $1,000 to the state's Victim Restitution Fund and perform 100 hours of community service. The former police lieutenant is married and has children.
Twohy's attorney says his client admitted to having sex with a 17- year-old girl he met on the Internet between November 1996 and January 1997, but believed she was 18.
The girl told a Los Angeles TV station that she did everything possible to convince Twohy that she was 18 years old, but he had access to Department of Motor Vehicles records that would have revealed her true age.