A former Los Angeles Police Department officer was convicted Monday of taking $350,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a 17-year-old in a 2024 home invasion robbery.
Witnesses in the two week trial described how Eric Halem and three other men posed as police serving a search warrant to enter a high-rise apartment in Koreatown rented by a teenager who had amassed a small fortune in crypto.
Prosecutors said the 17-year-old — sworn-in to testify under just his first name, Daniel — gave up a hard drive containing Bitcoin after Halem and his alleged accomplices threatened to kill him.
After deliberating for less than a full day, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found Halem guilty of kidnapping and robbery.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 31.
Halem, 38, who appeared in court in an orange jumpsuit, served 13 years in the LAPD.
By the time he left the department in 2022, he had developed lucrative side businesses, including renting luxury cars and launching an app that allowed actors to audition remotely.
He was also flirting with the idea of developing a reality show about his life, former associates told The Times.
At the time of the robbery, he was still serving as a reserve officer with the department.
In her closing argument last week, Deputy Dist.
Jane Brownstone told jurors that Halem broke the oath he took as a police officer.
"Instead of protecting, he preyed on the community," she said.
"Instead of serving, he schemed." According to trial testimony and evidence, Halem and his alleged accomplices drove to Koreatown in a green Range Rover and an orange Lamborghini Urus owned by the former officer's....
