Officer accused of molesting girl seeks dismissal

Bryce Alderton

Lawyers for former Huntington Beach police officer Mark Trachman, a

man accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl while on duty and allegedly

asking two other women to expose themselves during separate traffic

stops, will file a motion to dismiss the case.

Officials at the District Attorney’s office said it will go to trial.

Defense attorney John Barnett will file the motion to dismiss the case

against 36-year-old Trachman.

Trachman was arraigned Jan. 8 in the Santa Ana Central Justice Center

and is charged with four felony counts for allegedly fondling a

14-year-old girl at her home during a police interview in which she was

reporting an incident of sexual abuse to him, and two misdemeanor charges

for asking women to expose themselves during traffic stops.

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for March 8 at West Justice Center in

Westminster, said the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

A pretrial hearing will determine whether the case will be continued

to trial, be resolved with a plea or be dismissed.

Trachman has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.

In a preliminary hearing brief Barnett says, “Officer Trachman was at

all relevant times acting within the scope of his employment as a police

officer.” Barnett asks in the brief that Trachman be given immunity under

the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act.

Child abuse is defined by law as “a physical injury that is inflicted

by other than accidental means on a child by another person.”

Barnett said the law further states that “Child abuse or neglect does

not include an injury caused by a reasonable and necessary force used by

a peace officer acting within the course and scope of his or her

employment as a peace officer.” Prosecutors argue the officer did more

than his job allowed.

“We don’t believe he was only doing his job or else we wouldn’t have

filed charges,” said Tori Richards, district attorney spokeswoman. “We’ll

let the jury decide.”

Trachman was arrested in May.

He was then fired from the Huntington Beach Police Department in

August after two new charges arose, in which he allegedly asked the two

women to expose their breasts.

An investigator with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department testified

during the preliminary hearing that one of the women identified in one of

the misdemeanor charges revealed to him during an interview that Trachman

had pulled her over for wearing her seat belt improperly and she told

Trachman she was doing so because of surgery she had to pierce her

nipples.

She said she didn’t provide proof of insurance to Trachman and he told

her she would have to prove she had the piercing for him to believe her

story, which she said she did by flashing her breasts to Trachman, the

investigator testified.

The investigator later testified that the other woman identified in

the misdemeanor charges revealed during an interview that Trachman had

told her he pulled her over for tinted windows and began asking questions

about breast enhancement surgery and asked to see the incision, but she

refused and was not issued a citation.