Ex-San Clemente Officer Gets 7-Year Term for Sex Assaults

SANTA ANA —  A former San Clemente police officer, described by a judge as “a person who was running amok,” was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday for raping a colleague on the force and sexually assaulting another woman.

David Wayne Bryan, 33, who has been in custody since his conviction Dec. 20, will be eligible for parole in about 3 1/2 years, prosecutors said. Bryan was convicted of raping a rookie policewoman in June, 1990. He also was convicted of entering the home of a San Clemente woman in 1989 and fondling her before she forced him to leave.

Bryan was acquitted of two rape counts and one count of forced oral copulation involving a third woman. The jury deadlocked 8 to 4 for conviction on another rape count involving that woman.

Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, citing Bryan’s numerous commendations and more than a dozen character witnesses who appeared in court Friday, called the case a tragedy and said Bryan’s alcoholism was a chief cause of his downfall.