Former police officer arrested

Authorities arrested a Fountain Valley man and former police officer who failed to show up to court to be arraigned for more than 60 charges related to defrauding clients of his unlicensed private investigation business.

Kevin Michael Sianez, 53, was arrested June 29, the same day officials issued a warrant for his arrest, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s records.

Sianez was supposed to be arraigned June 28, but never showed up. His arraignment has been rescheduled for July 21 and he has been released on bail.

The former police officer in Santa Ana and Stanton between 1979 and 1986 is charged with 51 felony counts and 12 misdemeanors, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. He faces sentencing enhancements for aggravated white collar crime of more than $100,000 and property damage of more than $65,000.

Sianez faces a maximum sentence of 38 years in state prison.

The Fountain Valley resident is accused of operating a private investigation company without a license in his home city under multiple names between November 2005 and June 2010.

Through the companies, he allegedly took clients’ money and then did little to no investigating on their cases, or subcontracted them out to a real private investigator, never paying them, according to the district attorney’s office.

Sianez is accused of trying to intimidate clients who were going to report him by threatening to use his police background and file false police reports or, in one case, burn down the house of a private investigator.

The California Department of Consumer Affairs received a complaint about Sianez in March, and the ensuing investigation uncovered ads he posted online from October to January looking for women to engage in bestiality with his Labrador retriever.

—Britney Barnes