Local News in Brief : Deputies Plead No Contest

Two former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pleaded no contest Wednesday to auto theft and insurance fraud charges stemming from a plan to illegally ship cars to Mexico for sale, using the connections of a jail inmate.

Paul Darrell Orrin, 37, a 13-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department who was assigned to the downtown Hall of Justice jail, faces a maximum four-year prison sentence for possession of a machine gun and attempted grand theft.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Herb Lapin said that one of Orrin’s accomplices, Richard Carl Reynoso, 35, who left the Sheriff’s Department in 1984, faces up to 3 1/2 years in prison for insurance fraud and filing a false police report. A third defendant, Janette Morgan, 39, pleaded no contest to conspiracy to file a false police report and also faces up to 3 1/2 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for April 15.

Lapin said the three were arrested April 30 on information provided by inmate Michael Lynne Thompson, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. According to court records, Orrin sought Thompson’s help in disposing of two cars, one of which had been fraudulently purchased, the other fraudulently reported stolen.