Deputy Hit 2 in Jail Ward, D.A. Charges

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was charged Tuesday with slapping two patients in separate incidents in the jail ward of County-USC Medical Center.

Donald K. Stegmeier, 42, of Huntington Beach, who joined the Sheriff’s Department 26 months ago, was relieved of duties pending resolution of his case. He is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 18 in Municipal Court.

Stegmeier is accused of two misdemeanor counts of assaulting or beating a prisoner in his custody and one count, also a misdemeanor, of inhumanely or oppressively treating a prisoner, Deputy Dist. Atty. Herbert Lapin said.

Lapin said a Sheriff’s Department investigation began last fall when a parole officer reported that on Oct. 20 she saw Stegmeier hit a patient who had suffered a near- fatal knife wound to his neck.

The parole officer said the patient was handcuffed and in a wheelchair when Stegmeier slapped him across his bandaged neck with an open hand and then with the back of his hand, Lapin said.

In the investigation, it was learned that on Oct. 2 hospital ward personnel had seen Stegmeier slap another patient for “no apparent reason,” Lapin said.

Lapin said the assault charges carry a maximum jail term of one year. There is no jail sentence for the other charge, but a conviction on that count would disqualify Stegmeier from serving as a police officer.