By Robert Salonga and Tracey
Kaplan,
SAN JOSE -- A Santa Clara police
sergeant was convicted Monday of misdemeanor indecent exposure by a jury
convinced that he masturbated nude in front of a Santana Row sales clerk last
year, likely ending a 24-year police career.
Thomas William Leipelt was silent
as a court clerk read the jury's verdict and bowed his head as he absorbed the
gravity of the conviction. Judge Paul Bernal remanded him to jail. He was then
handcuffed in the courtroom and taken into custody by a bailiff.
The victim, identified only as
"Danette Doe," testified Leipelt propositioned her while naked and
masturbating in the Annieglass boutique's storage room after having sex in the
restroom with his girlfriend, who also worked there as a clerk. At the time,
Leipelt was having a secret extramarital affair that started about a year
earlier.
Deputy district attorney Lindsay
Walsh said the verdict was a sound rejection of the Leipelt's starkly
contrasting contention that he was simply urinating in restroom when the clerk
walked in on him.
"I think justice was
served," Walsh said outside the courtroom. "This was very egregious
since he was a police officer. It's sad."
Leipelt faces a maximum of 180
days in jail when he is sentenced, currently scheduled for Wednesday. But the
more damning consequence is that he must register as a sex offender for life.
Leipelt's attorney, Cameron
Bowman, was stoic upon hearing the verdict and voiced his disapproval.
"I'm very disappointed in
what happened here today," Bowman said.
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The veteran officer, with 24
years' experience -- 14 with the Santa Clara Police Department -- has been on
paid administrative leave since his arrest in July, about six weeks after the
encounter the evening of May 15, 2015. The department has the final word on his
future with the agency, but it is unlikely he could stay on given his imminent
sex-offender status.
Lt. Kurt Clarke declined to
comment on Leipelt's conviction, citing it as a personnel matter, but said now
that the criminal case has concluded, the department will soon
"finalize" its administrative review of the sergeant.
The jury of six women and six men
deliberated for about two days after a two-day trial that began last week. Both
Leipelt and Doe took the stand in a case that, like most, came down primarily
to a credibility contest.
Leipelt did not deny the woman's
accusation at the time. Instead, he just said he was sorry it happened and
departed from Annieglass, which sells jewelry and handmade glass housewares. He
testified under repeated questioning by Walsh that he didn't proclaim his
innocence because he wanted to be "respectful."
"I used her bathroom and
made an uncomfortable situation," Leipelt said.
Doe initially testified that this
was the first such incident she had experienced. But Bowman, Leipelt's lawyer,
produced evidence that she had filed a restraining order in 2009 against a
former tenant who allegedly exposed himself in her Santa Cruz County home.
When questioned about why she
didn't divulge the previous incident earlier, Doe said several times, "I'm
perimenopausal." She also said it slipped her mind because it was her
friends, not her, who were the victims. Bowman seized on that statement and
noted that Doe had filed a restraining order after the previous incident,
claiming under penalty of perjury that she had been a victim.
Walsh said the scrutiny of the victim
was an anticipated defense strategy and credited the jury for seeing through
Leipelt's own explanation of events.
"(The victim) was very
believable and was consistent the whole time," Walsh said. "His story
was completely unreasonable and unbelievable."
Leipelt's case marks the third
Santa Clara police officer to be arrested or convicted in the past year.
Officer Kiet Nguyen, a 25-year veteran, was given probation after pleading no
contest in December to misdemeanor shoplifting and possession of burglary tools
after he shoplifted a smartwatch from a West San Jose Target store in May.
And last week, Officer Tyson
Green, who has been with SCPD for 14 years, was charged with running a chop
shop and possessing stolen car parts.
Contact Robert Salonga at rsalonga@mercurynews.com.
Contact Tracey Kaplan attkaplan@mercurynews.com.
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