A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy convicted of pulling over female drivers and asking them to have sex with him was sentenced Friday to nine years in state prison and ordered to register as a sex offender once he is released.
Jose Rigoberto Sanchez, 29, pleaded no contest last month to rape and bribery charges, crimes that prosecutors said took place while he was on duty.
Sanchez pulled over a 24-year-old woman in Palmdale while on duty Sept. 22, 2010 and allegedly offered not to arrest the driver on an outstanding warrant in exchange for sex, prosecutors said.
Investigators said he later drove the woman into the desert and sodomized her.
Two nights later, he pulled over a 36-year-old woman on suspicion of drunken driving and solicited a bribe in the form of sexual favors, officials said.
Sanchez was relieved of duty with pay in 2010 after the sheriff's department opened an investigation. His pay was suspended in July 2013 after he was arrested and changed with 11 criminal counts.
Sanchez, a deputy for seven years who had previously worked at the county's jails and later patrolled the Palmdale region, resigned in September.
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