LAPD Officer Sentenced in Comp Fraud Case

A Los Angeles Police Department officer convicted last month of collecting disability benefits for on-duty injuries while working as an armed security guard at Staples Center and Dodger Stadium was sentenced this week, the District Attorney’s office announced.

Deputy District Attorney Renee Korn of the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Division said Superior Court Judge Anita H. Dymant sentenced Mariana Carmen Gallegos to 180 days in jail, three years formal probation and ordered to pay $11,191 in restitution.

Last month, when a jury took just 30 minutes to find her guilty of three felony counts, it marked the first time an LAPD officer was convicted of workers’ compensation fraud.

Gallegos, 36, was charged in January 2004 after an investigation by the LAPD’s Internal Affairs Division. It was alleged that she was an armed security guard at the parking lot at Staples Center and the concession area of Dodger Stadium in the summer of 2003.

At the time, she was collecting benefits because she could not perform her duties as a police officer due to an on-duty injury that caused her to be off duty on total temporary disability.

At the time she was charged, Gallegos was working in the Internal Affairs Division. She had been with Internal Affairs for 2 1/2 years.