D.A. Under Investigation Is Off Penn Case

A San Diego County prosecutor twice implicated in theft cases will have no further involvement in the retrial of Sagon Penn, charged in the death of a police officer, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said Monday.

The spokesman, Steve Casey, said there had been no formal action taken to remove Deputy Dist. Atty. Wayne Mayer from the case. Nonetheless, he said, Mayer “is not at work, and I do not anticipate a return soon.”

Mayer has chosen to remain on leave since shortly after it was reported three weeks ago that he was under investigation by the state attorney general’s office and the San Diego Police Department in the theft of some tools from the back of a pickup truck parked at De Anza Cove.

The Times reported a few days later that Mayer had never informed the district attorney’s office that he had been charged with petty theft in 1982 and later pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of trespassing.

Casey said Monday it made no sense for Mayer to play a further role in the highly publicized Penn case.

“Quite honestly, I don’t think it’s good for him, or good for us or good for the case, given the uncertainty of his own personal situation, for him to go down into the vortex of a media hurricane,” Casey said.

The district attorney’s office, meanwhile, is planning to make no decisions about Mayer’s future until the investigation into the recent alleged theft is completed and the Penn jury returns its verdict.

“We have an employee off work, an investigation ongoing and a jury out,” Casey said. “All those things seem to tell me we ought to bide our time for the moment.”

Deliberations in the case were canceled Monday because one of the jurors was ill. The jury is scheduled to return to San Diego County Superior Court today for its 18th day of deliberations.

Penn is charged in the March, 1985, shooting death of San Diego Police Agent Thomas Riggs and the wounding of Police Agent Donovan Jacobs and civilian ride-along Sarah Pina-Ruiz.

Penn’s first trial ended a year ago with his acquittal on the most serious charges against him, including murder in the death of Riggs. The jury is weighing five remaining felony counts against the 25-year-old Southeast San Diego man. The defense contended that Penn was defending himself against an attack by Jacobs, whom defense attorney Milton J. Silverman portrayed as a racist hothead.

Except for Penn, none of the key actors in the prolonged courtroom drama will be in San Diego if the jury returns its verdict in the next few days.

Silverman is out of town, but may try to return in time to hear the verdict read, according to his office. Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Carpenter, the lead prosecutor in both trials, is beginning a lengthy vacation. Robert Phillips and James Pippin, both deputy prosecutors, will handle the case during the absence of Carpenter and Mayer, according to Casey.

Meanwhile, Judge J. Morgan Lester returned Monday from military reserve duty--but to his permanent assignment in the Vista courthouse, rather than the downtown San Diego courtroom where he was temporarily assigned to preside in the Penn trial.

Lester said he would handle most matters in the case by telephone.