Ex-Hawthorne Officer Caught in Cocaine ‘Sting’ Fined $1,650

A former Hawthorne police officer convicted of grand theft and possession of cocaine and marijuana after being the object of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s narcotics “sting” was fined $1,650 Friday and placed on probation for three years.

Lee Stewart Schramling, 43, who was fired from the police force after the charges were filed against him in 1983, was also sentenced to one year in county jail by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz. But Munoz stayed the sentence for a year and said it would be dismissed then if Schramling follows the conditions of his probation, including taking periodic drug tests to prove he is not using narcotics.

“In a certain sense, you’ve been punished more than I can punish you--you’ve lost your career,” said Munoz, who presided over Schramling’s non-jury trial in July.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James E. Koller, who prosecuted the case, took no position on incarceration at the sentencing hearing. Afterward, he said of Munoz’ action, “It’s the kind of sentence that a (civilian) would (also) have gotten for a first offense.”

Schramling had admitted during his trial that he found what he believed to be five or six grams of cocaine in a purse that had been left near a public telephone at a Hawthorne shopping center. He later placed the purse, which had been planted by sheriff’s deputies, in the back seat of his private car.

The Burbank resident, who plans to appeal his conviction, said he had intended to book the cocaine, which totaled 22 grams, into evidence at the station the next morning.