Former police officer Kevin Michael Sianez pleaded guilty Thursday to 17 felony counts of grand theft by false pretense, 11 felony counts of fraudulently using an access card, two felony counts of identity theft, four felony counts of possession of a firearm by a felon stemming from a 1998 conviction for stalking, six felony counts of obtaining services through false representation, one felony count each of perjury by declaration, computer access and fraud, and possession of ammunition by a prohibited person, one misdemeanor count each of unlawful representation as a private investigator, engaging in the business of private investigation, and doing business without a valid license with sentencing enhancements for aggravated white collar crime over $100,000 and property damage over $65,000.
But we don't care about all that; we want to know what happened to the dog-fucking counts.
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When the Fountain Valley 56-year-old was originally charged in June 2010 with defrauding clients and intimidating detractors of his unlicensed private investigations business, he was also accused of posting Craigslist ads seeking women to screw his labrador retriever. For this he faced three counts of conspiracy to commit sexual assault upon an animal.
Those counts, according to a district attorney's office spokesperson, have been dismissed “in the interest of justice.”
Sianez worked as a police officer between 1979 and 1986 with the Santa Ana and Stanton police departments (before the latter was absorbed by the Orange County Sheriff's Department). Between November 2005 and June 2010, Sianez owned and illegally operated private investigation services without a license under the names KMS Investigations, Fore-Front Investigations and 4Front Investigations.
He falsely identified himself as a licensed private investigator, and he posted false reviews of his various businesses on Internet investigator and referral websites. “He used these fabricated reviews to mislead potential clients into believing his businesses had nationwide offices and investigators, when in fact he operated out of a small suite in Fountain Valley with less than five employees, who were primarily family members,” reads the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) conviction statement.
Sianez defrauded clients by performing little or no work on their cases after receiving payment, and he defrauded properly licensed private investigation firms by subcontracting investigative work to them and failing to pay for their services. This led to complaints to the California Department of Consumer Affairs, an OCDA investigation and Sianez's arrest on June 24, 2010.
Under his plea deal, he was sentenced to four years in state prison that were stayed pending the completion of a year in jail and monthly $5,000 restitution payments until he fulfills total losses exceeding $187,000.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.