SANTA ANA – A veteran Los Angeles Police Department officer was convicted and sentenced Monday for stealing nearly $2,000 from a luxury Laguna Beach hotel where he moonlighted as a security guard.

Jeffry Paul Quinton, 47, of Anaheim Hills pleaded guilty to a court offer to one felony count each of grand theft and commercial burglary, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald sentenced him to 120 days in jail, three years of formal probation, and ordered him to pay restitution. Prosecutors sought a sentence of one year in custody.

LAPD has relieved Quinton of duty but he’s awaiting a disciplinary hearing to determine his penalty, said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, a department spokesman. Convicted felons cannot be police officers, he said.

The 21-year LAPD veteran was assigned to the central division.

According to prosecutors, Quinton worked while off duty at the Surf and Sand Resort in Laguna Beach, where he had access to an online “lost and found” logging system for the hotel.

On Oct. 17, hotel staff recovered $2,000 from a hotel room, secured it into a lost-and-found safe and logged in the information, according to the District Attorney’s Office. The next day, Quinton accessed the system and changed the $2,000 to list a “gold watch” in its place and stole $960 out of the safe, prosecutors said. He changed the room number where the money was found, falsely logged that the watch was returned to its owner and stole $960 out of the safe, prosecutors said.

On Dec. 26, Quinton covered a surveillance camera and stole $680 out of a safe deposit box, according to the news release.

On Jan. 24, the defendant disappeared for more than an hour during his shift, stole $290 in bedding from a locked hotel storage room and put the items in his car.

The Laguna Beach Police Department reviewed the surveillance at the request of the hotel and discovered the theft, prosecutors said.

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