Probation Officer Charged With 2 Cocaine Violations

A supervisor for the Los Angeles County Probation Department was charged Monday with one felony count of trying to sell cocaine and another count of possessing the drug, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney said.

The probation official, Paul Taken, 43, of Burbank, worked at Sylmar Juvenile Court. He was arrested Dec. 5 when Los Angeles police served a search warrant on his motor home after it was pulled over on a street in Woodland Hills, Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond said. Inside the motor home, police found a small vial containing a little less than one-half gram of cocaine, Diamond said.

Taken’s arrest stemmed from his alleged offer Nov. 28 to sell cocaine to an undercover police officer, Diamond said.

Taken had been working for several years in a unit of probation officers that supervises about 50 juvenile offenders, according to Dick Oren, superintendent of the San Fernando Juvenile Hall. Oren said he did not know Taken’s current work status.

Police had been investigating Taken for several weeks after receiving complaints from his neighbors in Burbank, who said “suspicious-looking” people visited him several times a day, Diamond said.

Prosecutors said Taken is not under investigation for selling cocaine while on the job in Sylmar.

He is free on $2,500 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Van Nuys Municipal Court.