Ex-officer awaits assault arraignment

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- Former Long Beach Police Officer Michael McDonald waits

in a Costa Mesa Jail cell for an arraignment hearing after police say he

lured a 14-year-old boy to his Costa Mesa apartment and sexually

assaulted him.

McDonald, 60, is being charged with three counts of lewd acts with a

child younger than 16, three acts of child abduction and six other counts

of sexual assault.

The arraignment, originally scheduled to be heard last week at the

Harbor Justice Center, has been continued until Feb. 2, court officials

said Tuesday.

An investigation began three to four months ago in El Dorado County in

Northern California, where the victim is from, said Costa Mesa Police Lt.

Dale Birney.

It began when the boy’s parents found correspondence between their son

and McDonald on their home computer.

McDonald allegedly befriended the boy via the Internet sometime late

last year, police said.

During the course of several months, multiple meetings between the

victim and McDonald were arranged in his Costa Mesa apartment.

It was on these trips that the lewd acts and assault allegedly took

place, Birney said.

When the El Dorado deputies came to Costa Mesa two weeks ago to

question McDonald, they found the boy at his apartment and arrested

McDonald, Birney said.

McDonald could face three to nine years in prison for each of the 12

counts, police said.