08:38 AM PST on Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. -- While former police officer Juan Francisco Lara admittted to sexual contact with several women while on duty, the acts were consensual, his lawyer said during a sentencing hearing Monday.

The investigation that led to his arrest Aug. 5 was a "comedy of errors" brought about by a drug dealer and the dealer's girlfriend, said attorney Dan Koenig.

He said what should have been an administrative matter became a criminal case.

"Mr. Lara committed sins that many men have failed to resist, but they are sins and not crimes," Koenig said, prompting a man in the audience to shout profanities. The man, a friend of one of the victims, was expelled from the court. Another was thrown out later.

Lara faces up to 20 years in prison on four counts each of official misconduct and coercion and one count each of harassment and public indecency.

He was convicted last month after accepting a plea deal that dropped sexual abuse charges.

The hearing was to continue Tuesday.

Lara's pregnant wife, Margaret, due to give birth to the couple's third child in March, sat through the entire day's testimony.

One woman said Lara, 40, once let a friend of hers out of a drunken driving ticket in exchange for oral sex. She said she witnessed the incident.

She said when she became engaged to another man, officers raided the couple's home and found 80 marijuana plants.

She said Lara assured her she wouldn't be charged, and she wasn't.

Several women told other stories of contact with Lara.

Koenig described the sex acts as consensual, saying none of the women reported the actions.

Some said they were afraid of retaliation, of going to jail, of not being believed.

"I felt powerless, intimidated. I felt terrible," one woman said. "Who's going to believe me?"