A California police officer who was named “Detective of the Year” in 2019 was caught sending sexually explicit messages to someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, prosecutors say. Gregory Daniel Beaumarchais, 43, now faces a misdemeanor charge of annoying or molesting a victim believed to be under 18, Orange County District Attorney officials said Tuesday. “It is beyond disturbing that a sworn police officer would engage in inappropriate conversations with someone he believed to be a child,” Orange County district attorney Todd Spitzer said. “Our children should not have to worry about being preyed upon by the very people we teach them who are there to protect them.” An investigation into Beaumarchais was launched when the online decoy alerted O.C. Crime Stoppers to the graphic messages they’d been sent by someone saying they were a cop. Beaumarchais will face up to a year in jail and registration as a sex offender if convicted.