Ventura Officer Charged With Removing File

A Ventura police sergeant, accused of removing a traffic accident report involving his son from department records, was charged Tuesday with misappropriating a government document.

County prosecutors filed the charge against Sgt. Perry Michael Goth in Municipal Court after a two-month investigation. The veteran officer has been placed on paid administrative leave, department spokesman Lt. Don Arth said.

Arth would not elaborate on the matter, nor would prosecutors with the Ventura County district attorney’s office.

But according to a police investigative report filed in Municipal Court, Goth is accused of removing a report of a non-injury accident, which cited Goth’s teen-age son as being at fault, from a file that was to be sent to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Goth could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, Paul Goyette, declined to discuss the matter, other than to say: “Sgt. Goth is very concerned over the situation.”

He is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 26. If found guilty, he could face up to a year in jail.

According to the investigative report, Goth told a records clerk on Dec. 3, the day after the accident, that he wished that the traffic accident didn’t have to go to the DMV--as required by law. He said he would “like to keep it from going to the state, but I’m too honest.”

He left and returned an hour later, according to the report, and asked the clerk where the department keeps the accident reports that are sent to the DMV.

Goth then filed through the documents and walked out with a white paper behind his back, according to the investigative report.

The clerk checked the documents and found that the accident report concerning Goth’s son was missing. She then contacted department officials to report the incident.

Arth said no decision has been made on whether Goth will remain on the payroll.

In August, a veteran Ventura police detective and community college instructor resigned from the force after pleading no contest to illegally displaying on his 1965 Cadillac a license tag that had been taken from an abandoned automobile.

Officer Ronald L. Wyatt, 45, was sentenced to a year’s probation and fined $210 by Municipal Judge Herbert Curtis III, who found Wyatt guilty May 23 of a misdemeanor involving personal use of a license stick-on tag that had been assigned to another vehicle.

A 1990 license for the 25-year-old Cadillac, which Wyatt had told investigators he was buying from a friend, would have cost about $30.