Sheriff’s deputy pleads not guilty

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has pleaded not guilty to groping a 15-year-old girl as her dying father was in the hospital.

James Doyle, 45, of Long Beach, entered the plea Wednesday in an Orange County courtroom to a felony count of committing a lewd act on a child. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

Doyle, who works as a courtroom bailiff, is free on bail. He had taken his friend’s two daughters out to eat in June while the man was hospitalized. Prosecutors say that while driving the girls home, Doyle reached under the 15-year-old’s shirt and grabbed her breast. Authorities say the girl’s mother learned of the alleged incident a week later but delayed reporting it to Brea police until after the father died in September.