April 3, 2012
Former Seaside cop Salvador Reynaga is not guilty of sexually abusing six women while on duty, a Monterey County Superior Court jury found yesterday.
The 2008 Seaside Officer of the Year had faced more than three dozen counts of assault and battery against the women, known in the case only as Jane Does, over the past two years. He was fired from the Seaside Police Department after an internal investigation and arrested last spring.
If convicted, he could have faced more than 20 years in prison and a lifelong sex offender registration. The jury acquitted him on all counts, prompting an emotional response from Reynaga.
"It's just been a nightmare for him, and so this is the first chapter of moving on," defense attorney Daniel Humbarger told reporters.
But Seaside Police Chief Vicki Myers told KSBW Action News that Reynaga would not be offered his job back.
Reynaga's attorneys had maintained that the women, whom they characterized as troubled with drugs and gangs, had fabricated the allegations. Two of the women were minors.
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