Former Ukiah police sergeant convicted in assault case

A former Ukiah police sergeant was convicted Thursday on lesser charges in a case involving multiple allegations, such as of rape and sexual assault.

Kevin Murray pleaded no contest in Mendocino County Superior Court to one count each of witness intimidation and false imprisonment. All other charges have been dismissed.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 24 and could receive 24 months of probation, his attorney, Stephen Gallenson, said Friday.

He added his client is not in custody and has not expressed interest in returning to law enforcement.

“He has not really moved on much,” Gallenson said. “He’s done some work and he’s done some jobs. But because this has been pending, he hasn’t been able to move on.”

A prosecutor with the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office did not return a call for comment Friday, and Ukiah Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley said the city is withholding comment pending the outcome of sentencing and a related civil case.

Murray had been with the Ukiah Police Department for about 10 years. He started as a patrol officer and was promoted to sergeant in April 2020.

He was arrested in January 2021 and faced charges of burglary, sexual battery, drug possession, rape and oral copulation stemming from a series of incidents dating back to 2014.

His trial was scheduled to begin later this month before the charges of witness intimidation and false imprisonment were filed this week as part of a plea agreement, Gallenson said.

Details on each incident have mostly been limited save for the one that led to Murray being charged with two counts of burglary and one count of sexual battery.

On Nov. 25, 2020, he was on duty when he unlawfully gained access to an occupied room at Super 8 motel on South Orchard Avenue in Ukiah, according to a criminal complaint.

He was accused of forcing a woman in the room to touch his penis against her will and using his authority as a police sergeant to violate her civil rights, according to the complaint.

The drug possession and witness intimidation charges pertain to a Dec. 1, 2020, incident.

The oral copulation allegedly occurred in April 2014 and the false imprisonment and alleged rape were from an incident between June and July 2014. He was armed with a gun during that incident, according to the complaint.

Murray will not need to register as a sex offender since he did not plead guilty to any of the sex-related allegations, his attorney said.

Though, he is still at the center of a civil lawsuit involving a former Ukiah police officer who accused him of sexual assault and the police department of harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

Another civil suit involved the use of excessive force during a 2018 911 call that left a Ukiah man with four broken ribs, a punctured lung and other injuries.

That suit was settled last year, Riley said.

Murray’s plea comes weeks after the city terminated its police chief, Noble Waidelich, shortly after he had been placed on administrative leave.

He was placed on leave due to a criminal investigation being conducted by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. Riley, however, said his termination involved an unrelated violation of police department policy.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi