Whoa.

IRVINE – A Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputy was charged today with torture, mayhem and sexual assault for an attack in which he allegedly tried to force his wife to castrate a man she was planning to leave him for, prosecutors said.

Police took Robert Avery McClain, 34, into custody on Monday, hours after the male victim was found at an Irvine apartment complex. Prosecutors on Wednesday detailed an attack they say was spurred by McClain’s wife’s announcement that she was leaving him for another man.

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Upon arriving at the apartment complex in the in the 1000 block of Peyton, Prosecutors say McClain led the two into a kitchenette area in the back of the leasing office, where he began to argue with them. As the argument escalated, McClain is accused of punching and kicking his wife and the other man, before taking out a knife and forcing them both to undress.

McClain undressed as well, prosecutors said, at which point he is accused of unsuccessfully ordering his wife to perform oral sex on both him and the other man, then giving his wife the knife and ordering her to castrate the other man, which she pretended to do.

Prosecutors said McClain is then accused of using the knife to repeatedly slice the other man’s face before forcing his wife to leave with him.

After leaving the leasing office, McClain is accused of forcibly sodomizing his wife, chopping off her hair with the knife and driving her back to their nearby Irvine home.

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If convicted, McClain faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. His arraignment date is still undetermined, district attorney’s official said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced Tuesday that they plan to fire McClain.

Emphasis added in the hopes the LACSD doesn’t change its “plan.” I’m all for “innocent until proven guilty”…but c’mon now.

Filed under: Profiles in Governance