Sheriff’s Inquiry to Focus on Deputies in L.A. Club Brawl

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department will conduct an independent personnel investigation into the off-duty conduct of four deputies involved in a brawl at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Lt. Dick Olson said the four are still on assignment because there have been no charges, “strictly allegations.”

While the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigates the Sunday night incident involving the deputies and the manager and four employees of the Sunset Strip nightspot, the Orange County agency will independently review whether the lawmen’s off-duty behavior warrants administrative action, Olson said.

Accused of Beating Doormen

The Whisky’s manager, Louie Maglieri, who had a tooth knocked out in the incident, accused the deputies of severely beating his doormen without provocation.

According to Los Angeles County officials, however, one of the deputies contended he had been struck first.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Rod Shanks identified the deputies Tuesday as Michael Elliott, Daniel Rowland, Ivan Budiselich and John Rice.

He said he believes that the four work at the Orange County Jail, but Olson declined to reveal their assignments.

The others involved in the fight, according to Shanks, were Maglieri, Mark Garrelts, John Colamarino, Marcello Alvarez and Claudio Scandella. Maglieri said the four are doormen employed to maintain security.

Shanks said Tuesday that no decision will be made regarding charges until he has interviewed all nine involved in the fight--now all considered “victim-suspects”--as well as witnesses.

“I don’t know (yet) who’s the bad guy and who’s the good guy,” Shanks said.

According to the report of the Los Angeles County deputies who responded to a call for help from the nightclub, the fight began after a “pushing incident” between one of the deputies and an employee, he said.

“Apparently, the employee tried to get him (the deputy) off a stairwell, physically tried to get him off,” Shanks said. “During the incident, somebody hit somebody else. . . . The deputy said he was struck first, and the other fellow said he was struck first.”

That led to a fight, “and then things escalated” into a wider melee, the detective said.

But the nightclub personnel offered a different version.

Flashed Badges to Get In

Maglieri said his employees told him that the deputies entered by flashing their badges at doorman Scandella, who admitted them without the $10 cover charge, and that it appeared that they had been drinking before they entered.

The fight began later when one of the deputies was standing at the bottom of a staircase, blocking it, said Colamarino, who said he told the deputy “excuse me” and asked him to move to keep the stairway clear.

Colamarino said the man--who he did not know was a deputy at that point--asked where he should move, and when Colamarino replied that he should stand somewhere else, “before I knew what happened, he threw a right hook into my cheek.”

Colamarino and another doorman, Alvarez, hustled the deputy out to the entrance; the deputy’s three friends followed.

“Then they all retaliated on me and began beating me up,” Colamarino said.

Another doorman, Garrelts, was also beaten when he tried to pull the men apart, Colamarino said.

The deputies were “kneeing me in the face,” poking their thumbs in his eye and biting his ear, Colamarino said.

He and Garrelts were finally able to break free and run for help, but the deputies then turned on Scandella, Colamarino said.

Before Los Angeles County deputies arrived, Scandella had been knocked to the ground, bleeding, and one of the off-duty officers “was standing on his neck with his foot,” Colamarino said.

He added: “They were crazy. These guys were really nuts. . . . They came at us viciously.”

Upon hearing Maglieri’s version of the incident, Shanks said other versions of the event would probably come out in his investigation.

“When there are nine people involved, there’s a lot going on, and not all of it might be entirely correct or accurate,” he said.

Lt. Olson of Orange County said the personnel investigation will be conducted regardless of whether charges are filed.

Even if no crime is committed, deputies can be subject to administrative action, he said.

“What you have to look at is that they are peace officers, and they know the difference between right and wrong. There are certain standards of conduct they are supposed to live up to. That’s what (investigators will) be looking at,” he said.