Ex-Cop in ‘Walt Disney' Hollywood Case Guilty of 2 Counts

Officer accused of fabricating report had faced 30 years behind bars

A former Hollywood police officer accused of fabricating an accident report for a crash his co-worker committed was acquitted of the majority of the charges against him Tuesday and found guilty of two counts of falsifying records.

Dewey Pressley had been charged with four counts of official misconduct, four counts of falsifying records, one count of conspiracy to commit official misconduct and one count of conspiracy to falsify records in the February 2009 incident.

Pressley had faced up to 30 years behind bars if he had been found guilty of all charges.

Attorneys for Pressley gave their closing arguments Monday, in the trial which began last week.

Pressley, 45, fellow officer Joel Francisco, and three other Hollywood Police Department employees were allegedly part of an elaborate cover up that included staged crime-scene photos, an imaginary cat and a coordinated lie that all happened to be caught on one of the cops' patrol car video cameras.

On Feb. 17, 2009, Francisco, an 11-year veteran of the force, crashed into the back of a car being driven by Alexandra Torrens-Vilas as she was stopped at a red light, authorities said.

Instead of taking blame for the accident, Francisco and Pressley allegedly began concocting a story which would pin the crash on Torrens-Vilas, who was arrested at the scene for DUI.

Pressley, a 21-year veteran of the force, was caught on a police dashboard camera telling the other officer they'd do "a little Walt Disney to protect the cop," and began making up a story about a cat.

"As far as I'm concerned. I'm going to put words in his mouth. She went to accelerate and a cat jumped out of the window at which point he thought it could have been a pedestrian, which distracted him," Pressley tells Sgt. Andrew Diaz, according to police. "I mean what's the chances of hitting a f---in drunk when a cat jumps out of the window?"

Torrens-Vilas, who was actually drunk, was handcuffed in the back seat while the cops allegedly conjured up the story to frame her.

"I know how I'm going to word this with the cat so we can get him off the hook. I'll write the narrative," Pressley says in the video. "We're going to bend this a little bit. We'll do a little Walt Disney to protect the cop because it wouldn't have mattered because she is drunk anyway."

The charges against Torrens-Vilas were eventually dropped and the participants in the would-be fairy tale were fired.

Francisco has pleaded not guilty.

Contact Us