SAN FERNANDO, California — A Los Angeles Police Department officer pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, to four felony counts — one count of kidnapping and one count of assault with a firearm involving a woman described in reporting as his romantic partner, and two counts of child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death. The officer, Anthony Guiterrez, 30, entered the plea in a San Fernando courtroom, according to City News Service reporting carried by MyNewsLA.

Guiterrez was arrested on Monday, October 26, by officers from the LAPD's Mission Community Police Station, the station that covers the Sylmar and Mission Hills area of the northern San Fernando Valley. He was released on a $350,000 bond shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the same day the charges were filed and the plea was entered.

What the Times' sources allege happened

The Los Angeles Times, citing two law enforcement sources familiar with the case, reported that Guiterrez allegedly forced his romantic partner out of a San Fernando Valley home at gunpoint during a domestic dispute at their home. One of those sources told the newspaper that he was arrested by officers who had responded to a 911 call made by the woman. Those details are allegations from unnamed law-enforcement sources reported by the Times; they have not been tested in court, and Guiterrez is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Source: Los Angeles Times reporting, via MyNewsLA

LAPD spokesperson Lt. Elpidio Orozco told the Los Angeles Times that the department was aware of the officer's arrest, which occurred at a residence in Sylmar, and the Times reported that the department declined to comment further. The reporting available on Wednesday did not state Guiterrez's current duty status, how long he has served with the department, or whether an internal LAPD investigation is running alongside the criminal case — points the department has not addressed publicly so far.

The charges, in plain terms

The four counts break into two groups. The first group concerns the woman: one count of kidnapping and one count of assault with a firearm. The second group is two counts of child abuse framed in the wording prosecutors use in California for conduct said to occur under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death. The published reporting does not name any child, does not describe any child's injuries, and does not say how the children are related to the adults in the case, and no further detail about them was released.

A not-guilty plea at this first court stage is the normal opening step in a California felony case: it keeps every option open for the defence and puts the burden on prosecutors to prove each count. Nothing in Wednesday's hearing decided whether the alleged events happened — that question belongs to the evidence hearings and, if the case gets that far, a trial.

Why a case like this draws Valley-wide attention

The San Fernando Valley is policed day to day by stations such as Mission, and residents judge the department most directly by the officers who answer their own 911 calls. When one of those officers is himself arrested by colleagues from his own area station after a 911 call from a home, it becomes a test of whether the same rules are applied inside the department as outside it. That is the question Valley residents — including the Valley's large immigrant and Punjabi-speaking communities, for whom the local station is often the first point of contact with city government — will watch this case to answer.

What happens next

Guiterrez is due back in the San Fernando courtroom on December 4, 2026. At that appearance, a date is scheduled to be set for a preliminary hearing — the proceeding at which a judge decides whether prosecutors have enough evidence to allow the case to proceed toward trial. Until then he remains free on bond, and the presumption of innocence applies in full.