An off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy has been charged with filing a false police report against her ex-husband and firing a weapon in her Westminster home that endangered nearby children, authorities said Monday.
Patricia Margaret Bojorquez, 43, is accused of falsely reporting to Huntington Beach police Nov. 18 that her ex-husband was sexually assaulting a 13-year-old female relative, the Orange County district attorney's office said.
She allegedly lied about the incident because she was upset over custody issues.
[Updated: 5:01 p.m.: Bojorquez was a sheriff's deputy at the time of the alleged crimes but left the department June 29, Capt. Mike Parker said. "This is a tragedy for everyone involved," he said of the incident.]
Bojorquez is currently on probation for two DUI convictions in Orange County, the district attorney's office said.
Bojorquez is charged with firing a weapon in her home Jan. 9. The bullet pierced a window and hurtled toward a frontyard where children were playing, prosecutors said. They allege that Bojorquez showed disregard for the safety of the youngsters, who were directly in the line of fire. Her brother and fiance were in the home at the time of the shooting and called police.
She was charged Thursday with a felony count of discharging a firearm with gross negligence and a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report, prosecutors said.
She is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 24 at the courthouse in Westminster.
-- Robert J. Lopez
Photo: Patricia Margaret Bojorquez. Credit: Orange County district attorney's office