An ex-vice cop in California was convicted Wednesday for forcing prostitutes to have sex with him, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Jose Jesus Perez, of Menifee, was found guilty of making two prostitutes have sex with him while he was a San Bernardino Police Department officer in 2011. The 46-year-old was convicted of two counts of deprivation of rights under the color of law and a civil rights offense, the newspaper reported.
Perez is expected to appear in court again on August 18. He faces life in prison.
"The charges in this case describe disgraceful abuses of police authority that simply cannot be tolerated in our society," U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said in a statement obtained by the LA Times.
The sex workers "engaged in sex acts demanded by Perez only because they feared for their well-being because he was a police officer," the U.S. attorney's office said last year, according to the newspaper.
During one incident, Perez stopped one prostitute while patrolling and obtained her phone number. He then sent her sexually explicit text messages over the next few days.
On April 25, 2011, Perez found the prostitute walking down the street and forced her behind a convenience store. He told her to perform oral sex on him, but when she said "maybe next time," he grabbed her arm, according to an FBI agent's affidavit obtained by the LA Times.
"No. We are going to do it now," Perez told her according to the affidavit.
Perez sexually assaulted the second prostitute on three occasions in August 2011, once in a vacant field and the other times at motels, according to the agent's affidavit. Perez admitted he had sex with the second prostitute but said it was consensual.
He denied having sex with the first prostitute, the LA Times reported. Both prostitutes told authorities that Perez never offered to pay for the illicit acts. Their claims were confirmed by Perez.
The San Bernardino Police Department fired Perez in December 2012.
