SoCal cop was among Hollywood producer’s rape victims. She died days before his sentencing
La Mesa Police Officer Lauren Craven was struck and killed by a vehicle on Oct. 20. (La Mesa Police Department)
It’s unknown whether self-proclaimed “entertainment professional” David Pearce knew the fate of the women he was prosecuted for drugging and raping over a 14-year period.
What is certain, however, is that one of those women — who transformed her sexual assault trauma into a service career — wasn’t there to witness his sentencing.
Pearce was handed a 146-year prison sentence Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court after being convicted of first-degree murder for the overdose deaths of model Christy Giles and architect Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, as well as the rape of seven other women from 2007 to 2021.
Among Pearce’s victims was La Mesa Police Officer Lauren Craven, according to the L.A. County district attorney’s office. The 25-year-old officer was struck and killed by a vehicle on the 8 Freeway near San Diego on Oct. 20.
The New York Post first reported her connection to the case.
Read more: Hollywood producer receives nearly 150 years in prison for two murders, multiple rapes
Craven was helping motorists involved in a traffic collision when she was fatally struck. One of those individuals also was killed by the same driver. A suspect has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Craven was honored with a funeral procession from San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium to Skyline Church in Rancho San Diego on Tuesday.
The L.A. County district attorney’s office did not confirm any details other than that Pearce was accused of sexually assaulting Craven in February 2020.
“Somebody dropped something in her drink, and then when she was unconscious applied IV drugs and kept her for a day and a half,” her father, David Craven, told NBC 7 San Diego.
Read more: L.A. man convicted in drug overdose deaths of two women, serial rapes
Afterward, “she decided right then and there, ‘I’m going to become a police officer,’” he told the outlet.
At the time, Craven was a student at Loyola Marymount University. She graduated in 2023, entered the police academy and joined the La Mesa Police Department in February 2024.
Her father said his 115-pound daughter took close to a year off to build her strength for the rigors of training.
“It was her dream,” her father said of graduating from the police academy.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
