New LAPD scandal: sex

Chief William Bratton says in the LAT that the department is investigating the former deputy chief in charge of internal affairs over allegations that he exchanged preferential treatment and promotions for sex with female officers. Michael Berkow, now police chief in Savannah, Ga., is named in a lawsuit by Sgt. Ya-May Christle. Berkow was in Bratton's inner circle, the Times reports. "It's a personnel action. It's a lawsuit, so there will be no comment at all on any of it," the chief said. "He's an outstanding police officer, hardworking, dedicated."

According to the LAT, Christie's lawsuit claims she saw two of the deputy chief's female subordinates "leaving a department office that had been outfitted as a bedroom. Soon thereafter, Berkow was seen leaving the third-floor room dressed in a white T-shirt and pajama bottoms. After she complained, Christle said she was transferred and demoted. Christle also alleged that Berkow had a sexual relationship with a female captain under his supervision....The deputy chief also was accused in the lawsuit of having sexual relations with another female officer. At the time, she and her husband, also an LAPD cop, were under investigation by internal affairs after being arrested by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department on suspicion of making criminal threats, resisting a police officer and providing false information to authorities."