RICHARD WINTON, KATE MATHER,
JOSEPH SERNA
An LAPD officer charged with
attempted murder this week threatened to kill and then choked his estranged
wife until she passed out, prosecutors said.
Jose Robert Figueroa, 29, was
charged Wednesday with three felony counts: attempted murder, injury to a
spouse and making criminal threats, according to the Los Angeles County
district attorney's office.
If convicted of all the
charges, prosecutors said, he faces a life sentence.
Figueroa, who is being held in
lieu of $2.5-million bail, is scheduled to be arraigned June 4. A bail hearing
is set for Friday.
In a criminal complaint filed
this week, prosecutors allege Figueroa committed crimes Sunday "under
circumstances involving domestic violence."
Figueroa went to his wife's
Inglewood apartment that day and threatened to kill her, the district
attorney's office said in a statement. He then allegedly choked her until she
passed out.
"When she awoke, she was
tied up," the statement said.
The woman called authorities,
district attorney's spokesman Ricardo Santiago said, and the officer turned
himself in at LAPD's Newton station, where he was assigned.
Online jail records show he was
arrested by Inglewood police at 1:45 a.m. Monday and booked about a half-hour
later. Inglewood police did not immediately return calls or emails from The
Times.
LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said an
internal investigation into Figueroa began immediately after he was arrested.
The officer has been removed from the field and assigned to home, Smith said.
Department records showed he
had been with the LAPD since June 2007.
Court records show the couple
married in 2006 and have a child. Figueroa filed for divorce in April, citing
irreconcilable differences.
Figueroa's wife spoke to
KTLA-TV about the allegations, saying her husband tried to strangle her. She
told the television station that she reported the alleged attack to set a
strong example for her son, who is 6.
