Navarrete

—Neftalí Navarrete appeals from the judgment following his conviction for committing a lewd act upon a child. Because of willful misconduct on the witness stand by a Maywood police officer, who in front of the jury intentionally violated a court order suppressing a statement by appellant, we reverse for retrial.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Appellant Neftalí Navarrete lived in Maywood. His sister and her husband, Ayde and Jose M., lived on the same property, which appellant owned with a third party. Appellant lived in a house at the front of the property; his sister and her husband lived at the back in a separate house that they rented from appellant and the other owner.

On August 11, 2007, Ayde and Jose M.’s adult son, Antonio, moved into his parents’ house with his wife, Alma, and his three young children. The next day, the oldest of those three children, four-year-old K., who was the granddaughter of Ayde and Jose M. and thus appellant’s grandniece, went outside to play in the property’s front yard. When K.’s mother, Alma, went outside to find K., she did not see her. Alma did, however, see appellant’s van parked “across the yard” with its driver’s side door wide open.…