Former Cathedral City police officer suspected of attacking women pleads not guilty
A former Cathedral City police officer already facing drug charges and suspected of violating terms of a protective order and attacking a woman was charged today with a felony count of making criminal threats.
Claudiu Murzea, 46, was also charged with one misdemeanor count each of battery on a spouse and violating a court order to prevent domestic violence, according to court records.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges Friday afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
Accusations arose against Murzea on Tuesday that he violated the terms of a standing protective order, according to Riverside County District Attorney's office public information specialist Brooke Beare. On Wednesday, he allegedly threatened and then attacked a woman, Beare said.
The victim was identified in court documents only as ``M.M.'' No other information was immediately available on the accusations.
Murzea was previously charged in a separate case with two misdemeanor counts of possessing a controlled substance and one misdemeanor count of destroying or concealing evidence, according to court records.
In that case, charges were filed against him Nov. 16, 2022 and he had a warrant issued for his arrest, according to court records. He pleaded not guilty to the charges Feb. 1 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
According to the declaration in support of the arrest warrant filed by Riverside County Sheriff's Department Investigator Grant Grasso, Murzea responded to an undisclosed location in Cathedral City on May 10, 2022, to conduct a probation search and at some point was watching two detainees, one who later said in an interview that he had drugs in his pocket at the time he was detained.
No police reports or interviews that were reviewed indicated that any drugs were recovered from the detainee, according to Grasso. About two hours after detaining the two unidentified suspects, Murzea was allegedly found unconscious and suffering from a drug overdose behind the Cathedral City Police Department.
He was taken to the Eisenhower Medical Center, where a nurse allegedly found powdered fentanyl in Murzea's wallet and toxicology tests allegedly showed that fentanyl and other drugs were in his blood, Grasso wrote. It's also alleged that DNA analysis from the bag of fentanyl in Murzea's wallet showed both his and the detainee's DNA.
Murzea was terminated as an officer in July 2022. He was charged for allegedly possessing fentanyl taken as part of an investigation, according to Beare.
According to a declaration in support of increasing his bail, it's alleged that he was terminated due to drug offenses and has since made criminal threats to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, Cathedral City Police Department and law enforcement officers.
Court papers say that his emails and voicemails also allegedly demonstrated "erratic behavior."
The Riverside Police Department's Multi Enforcement Tactical Response Operation arrested Murzea Wednesday afternoon in Rancho Cucamonga, according to Beare.
He was subsequently booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, where he remains held on $1 million bail, according to inmate records. He was arrested in the area of Foothill Boulevard and Milliken Avenue.
If convicted in all of the charges that were filed Friday, Murzea could be sentenced to serve three years in state prison.
