U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford verbally lashed the Fullerton Police Department in its handing of allegation by sexual misconduct of an officer, calling the police department actions as “shocking” in its failure to take serious steps to preserve and act on evidence.

Officer Albert Rincon is accused of a pattern of detaining women and using the detention to make sexual propositions or even grope women. Notably, he not only routinely failed to call for a female officer for pat-down, as required “whenever practical” under city policy, but actively shut off his digital audio recorder. On the later issue, Guiford wrote, “This is different than simply forgetting to switch it on. This means that Rincon chose to leave no audio recording of the arrest.”

Nevertheless, the Fullerton district attorney found the allegations without proof beyond a reasonable doubt despite seven women alleging abuse. Prosecutors insisted that there was evidence that the women had spoken with each other about their allegations. However, Guilford called the city’s handling of the situation “weak” and “shocking” and noted that the officer was just required to go through pat-down training.