Former Officer Sentenced to Prison for Off-Duty Threat
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 | Updated 3:03 PM PST
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A former officer is sentenced to four years and four months in state prison.
A former Los Angeles police officer, who was off duty when he pulled a gun and threatened a man at the Redondo Beach Pier, was sentenced Tuesday to four years and four months in state prison.
"Your conduct does require state prison," Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Marcus told David Woon Chong following his no contest plea to making a criminal threat. "Your actions were not justifiable."
Chong, 39, also admitted using a gun during the commission of the March 15, 2008, crime.
"I do think the conduct by the defendant was very, very serious," the judge said.
Noting that Chong had served 10 years in the Los Angeles Police Department and three years in the U.S. Army, Marcus said he believed the former officer could create a new life after being released from prison. As a result of his plea to the criminal threat charge, Chong withdrew his May plea to an assault with a firearm charge stemming from the same incident.
Authorities said he pointed a handgun at the man's head during one of two confrontations.
"I think that given the (defendant's) actions and everything that I know about the defendant, that it's a fair sentence," Deputy District Attorney Amy Pellman Pentz said afterward.
"I'm very disappointed," Chong's attorney, Gerson S. Horn, said of the prison sentence. "In my mind, this is a perfect case for probation."
Chong has since been diagnosed as bipolar, "finally put on the appropriate medication" and stopped drinking, his lawyer said.
Chong -- who received "all kinds of commendations" during his LAPD tenure -- has since been fired by the department, according to his attorney.
