O.C. deputy knew of impending arrest

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy found dead shortly after being charged with molesting a 12-year-old boy had learned of his impending arrest by accessing an internal computer system, authorities said Friday.

Gerald Stenger, 41, who was found about 2 p.m. Wednesday at an Aliso Viejo parking structure with what law enforcement officials believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, had discovered the charges filed against him that morning from a county computer system, said Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors had entered the case into the system about 9:30 a.m., she said, unaware that, as a law enforcement officer, Stenger had access to it from the computer in his Santa Ana office. Later, Schroeder said, prosecutors discovered that Stenger had accessed the Case Management System more than 400 times in the last several weeks, most recently about 9:40 a.m. Wednesday – just 10 minutes after the complaint had been entered and an hour before officials, fearing that Stenger might be suicidal, asked a court to seal it.

The case was sealed before noon, but by then it was too late. “We had planned on arresting him about the time he was found,” Schroeder said.

Stenger, a 20-year veteran, was charged with molesting a boy he met through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County, where he had served as a volunteer from 1991 to 1995.

david.haldane@latimes.com