Navy investigator pleads guilty to excessive force, concealing prior California police record
A Navy detective pleaded guilty Thursday to using excessive force against a detained man and lying about his previous career with the El Cajon Police Department.
Jonathan Christopher Laroche, 40, pleaded guilty to depriving the man of his rights in connection with an incident on Nov. 14 at Naval Base San Diego, federal prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Laroche was working as a detective with the Navy’s Criminal Investigations Division when a man, identified in court documents only by the initials G.D., was detained by Naval officers. Prosecutors said Laroche did not know why the man had been detained but followed the military law enforcement officers into a room G.D. was being held in.
Laroche admitted in his plea agreement that he entered the room and immediately took G.D. to the ground and used a carotid restraint for 17 seconds. The detained man then lost consciousness.
After the man regained consciousness he was taken into a main room of the security building and handcuffed to a bench, according to the plea. During the interaction, Laroche grabbed G.D. by the throat and pushed his head into the wall, the plea states.
“Laroche admitted that during both of these incidents, he acted willfully and intentionally, depriving G.D. of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, which includes the right to be free from the unreasonable use of force, under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” prosecutors said in a news release.
Court documents said that Laroche had applied to the Criminal Internal Investigation Division in 2022 but lied about why he left his prior employment with El Cajon police.
According to the plea agreement, Laroche had resigned from the department four years earlier after he was told he would be fired for two separate excessive use-of-force incidents against citizens in 2017. In 2015, he had been reprimanded for a third use of force incident.
Court documents said Laroche applied to be a detective with the Navy by lying and saying he had left El Cajon to work as a U.S. Department of Defense officer. Laroche told the Navy he had not been punished or reprimanded by the police department.
“This defendant’s violent acts against someone who posed no threat are reprehensible,” said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath. “Today, we stripped of power and held accountable an outlier who abused his authority and tarnished his badge.”
As part of the plea agreement, Laroche, a Spring Valley resident, agreed to resign his position with the Navy and not seek employment with any law enforcement agency in the future.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2.