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Ex-bar manager sentenced following pleas in rape case
by Robb Fulcher
After day-long negotiations with the prosecution and tearfully kissing his 9-month-old girl goodbye, a former Pier Plaza bar manager on Tuesday pleaded no contest to raping one woman he met at the bar and attempting to sodomize another, then was sentenced to four and-a-half years in state prison.
In exchange for the no-contest pleas, which have the same legal force as guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to drop five other charges against Nicholas Charles Temkey, 32, former general manager of the Beach Club bar. Temkey agreed to the plea bargain moments before he was to go to trial, sparing himself the risk of a 15-year sentence.
Superior Court Judge Andrew Kauffman reduced Temkey's prison time by almost one year to make up for time he has already served. Temkey is likely to be paroled after serving about half his full sentence.
Once freed, Temkey must register as a sex offender with police wherever he chooses to live. Kauffman told him that failure to register is a felony, and would be the "third strike" against him after his conviction on the sex crimes. A third strike is punishable by a sentence of 25 years to life in state prison.
Throughout the day Temkey's attorney, Barry Greenhalgh of Encino, had shuttled information between Temkey, who was in custody within the Torrance courthouse, to Temkey's girlfriend, Shara Au, who sat inside the courtroom, and Deputy District Attorney Shanna Batten.
In the end, with the judge urging Temkey to make a decision, he chose the prosecution's deal.
"Bailiff, can I ask you for a big favor? Can I kiss my baby, just once, please?" Temkey asked shortly before the sentencing.
The bailiff allowed Au to carry 9-month-old Kamea to the defense table, where Temkey, wearing jail-issue T-shirt and pants with his hands cuffed behind him, kissed the girl on the cheek.
"I'm doing this for us," Temkey said to Au.
Then Batten read off the charges to which the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Temkey would plead no contest: that he raped an intoxicated woman inside the club and attempted to forcibly sodomize another inside her apartment.
Temkey originally had been charged with attacking a total of four women. Batten said the plea agreement spares the women a "tremendous amount of trauma" that they would have suffered from testifying at a trial and from press and public "scrutiny."
Outside the courtroom Greenhalgh told reporters that his client insists upon his innocence, but took the plea bargain to avoid the risk of a longer sentence.
"You have to understand, having four different people make accusations, three of them after a campaign in the press...it makes it very difficult for you to argue that all four are lying," Greenhalgh said.
He said that the allegations came from women whose advances had been rebuked by Temkey.
"Mr. Temkey is a very attractive guy. He has great appeal to ladies, and he had a very public job when he managed the Beach Club," Greenhalgh said. "...He literally had to fend them off."
Greenhalgh said that the four women previously testified to an initial attraction to Temkey.
Temkey nearly went to trial on the charges in April, but at the last minute two jurors bowed out, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial. The last-minute exits had left the 12-person jury with only one alternate member. Alternate jurors replace any regular jurors who are dismissed during a trial, or must leave for their own reasons. ER