At least six current or former Inglewood police officers are under investigation for allegedly having sex with female employees of massage parlors and other adult businesses that have been the target of a high-profile law enforcement crackdown. The internal affairs investigation by the Inglewood Police Department began after federal authorities launched an investigation of money laundering and prostitution involving women smuggled into Los Angeles from Asia.
That probe, which resulted in charges against more than two dozen people, led to allegations that Inglewood officers engaged in the sexual liaisons -- sometimes in uniform -- during work hours and off duty, according to several local and federal sources familiar with the case. The ledgers, the source said, had the names of customers and the amounts they paid except when the customers were police officers.
In those cases the women allegedly entered a symbol. Word of the inquiry comes less than two months after the FBI confirmed that it was investigating two Inglewood police officers in the alleged rape of a woman they stopped on suspicion of prostitution.
Though he and other city officials would not disclose details about the new inquiry, Inglewood Councilman Ralph L.
Franklin said it was aimed at determining whether the alleged sexual misconduct involved a large number of officers over an extended period of time. He said the FBI was assisting police in the investigation. Franklin also said the department was trying to determine if any ranking officers in the department were involved in collusion with the officers suspected of misconduct. To date, sources say, none of the officers has been fired, though some have retired or left the city for other departments.
