Officer Admits Error but Denies It Was Rape : Woman Consented to Have Sex With Him, Sheriff’s Deputy Says in Court Document

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy charged with raping a suspect in a criminal case he was investigating told authorities that he acted wrongly but that the woman had consented, according to a court document.

Investigator Robert J. Minty, 37, of Capistrano Beach pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape Wednesday at the West Orange County Municipal Court in Westminster. Minty, who was released on his own recognizance, is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing May 19.

Minty’s attorney, Byron McMillan, said, “Sexual intercourse does not constitute rape. (Minty) did not commit rape.”

According to a crime report by sheriff’s investigators filed in court, Minty, who is married, said he had sex with the woman and that “he was wrong to do so.”

Special Interest

Minty said he never planned to have sex with the woman but that she “insisted” he stay with her, the report said. Also, Minty said he took a special interest in the case after the woman mentioned on the phone that she would kill herself if she went to jail. Minty said he had a brother who had committed suicide, according to the report.

Minty, who is on paid administrative leave from the department, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

He faces a minimum of three years and a maximum of 24 years in a state prison if he is convicted on the three counts.

Minty is accused of raping a 20-year-old woman from Healdsburg, Calif., at a Midway City motel March 24. The woman was a suspect in a case involving solicitation of magazine subscriptions without a license and theft of money from a magazine customer in the Sunset Beach area of Orange County. The sales incident occurred earlier this year when she and two friends were selling magazine subscriptions.

Minty told the woman and her friends in February that he was investigating them in connection with a theft and obtained personal information from them. He later told the woman, who had called him and said she was worried about a possible jail sentence, that “the outcome of the case was in his hands,” according to the crime report.

Minty told the woman that he thought “she really wasn’t a bad person or that she should really go to jail,” the report continued. But, according to the report, he told her that “if she didn’t come down (to Orange County to answer charges), a warrant for her arrest would be requested and she would go to jail.”

After she agreed to appear in court, Minty made flight arrangements and later picked her up at Los Angeles International Airport, where he drove her in his own car to a Beach Boulevard motel room he had rented that day, according to Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department.

A Two-Hour Drive

According to the report, Minty told her that he would spend the night in the room with her because he had a two-hour drive home and had to wake up early to take her to court in Westminster. The woman said she did not object because “she was scared and afraid to go to jail.” Once in bed, she said, Minty forced himself on her and had sex with her three times, the report said.

The next morning, Minty drove the woman to the courthouse in Westminster, where she pleaded guilty and paid a $450 fine for a misdemeanor charge in connection with the magazine sales. Minty took the woman to lunch and then dropped her off at South Coast Plaza, promising to return after work and drive her to the airport for her return flight home, Olson said.

The woman said she believed that she had been left stranded and called a rape crisis center in Laguna Beach, saying she had been raped by Minty, according to the spokesman. She was told by the center to go to Hoag Memorial Hospital, where doctors examined her for sexual assault. They found that she had had sexual intercourse but could not find any signs of trauma.