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LEO Stages Fake Arrest of Daughter's Would-Be Romeo

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SAN JOSE, CA – Most fathers would have taken him aside for a quiet chat.

But when one police officer found out a 15-year-old boy had slept with his 14-year-old step-daughter, he took things a little bit further.

The unnamed California motorcycle cop went round to the youth’s house in uniform and staged a fake arrest, claiming that he was being detained for sexual assault.

As his parents looked on, the officer handcuffed the boy and gave him a five-minute dressing down about his conduct before letting him go.

The policeman has now been put on administrative leave whilst an internal investigation and a district attorney probe are carried out.

The case has echoes of the 2000 comedy ‘Meet the Parents’ in which Robert De Niro plays a retired FBI officer who quizzes the man who wants to marry his daughter on every aspect of his personal life.

But this real-life version has divided opinion as to whether or not the officer went too far or was just doing what most fathers in his position would do.

The officer drove to the boy’s house on his police motorbike and went inside where mobile phone footage taken by one of the boy’s parents shows him standing in the middle of the room lecturing the youth.

On the footage the officer says to the boy: ‘It does not bode well for you. Do you know what that means? No?

‘Not a good thing that the person you had sex with is a cop’s daughter. The district attorney will probably file charges.’

The family’s lawyer said the officer’s behaviour amounted to ‘scared straight’ tactics that went too far.

‘He made comments like, ‘You don’t mess with a cop’s daughter.’ That’s a show of authority, that’s inappropriate,’ attorney Tony Boskovich said.

‘Applying force, applying handcuffs, threatening the young man with things such as rape in prison.

‘He acted like a cowboy. He lost it, he came in and he abused his authority.’

Lawyers for the policeman have suggested that the boy’s parents were complicit either by giving their permission or doing nothing to stop the tirade.

Attorney Terry Bowman said: ‘At no time did you hear the parents of the young man objecting, getting upset, crying. So the video is absolutely exculpatory from the cop’s perspective,’ she said.

‘The officer was essentially invited to use ‘scare straight’ tactics, and there were no objections to the lecture or the handcuffing.

‘Everything was done in the spirit of reaching a troubled young man who is heading down the wrong path.’

She added that early in the video the boy’s stepfather advises his handcuffed son: ‘Use your head. Think about what he is talking to you about. Listen to his words. Replay them in your head.’\

The boy’s parents filed a complaint with the police and both the boy and the girl were cited for unlawful sexual intercourse.

The misdemeanour, for minors who are close in age and have consensual sex, is rarely prosecuted.

None of the adults have been identified to protect the identities of the two minors.

San Jose Police Department spokesman Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said the officer may have violated some of the force policies which relate to conduct involving personal feelings and policing ones own neighbourhood, but could not comment further.

Should the district attorney file criminal charges the officer could face jail for false imprisonment.