Hearing Set for Detective in Narcotics Case

Police officials will conduct an administrative hearing this week to determine whether a detective suspected of cocaine trafficking should be fired.

The detective was suspended last week. But one top-ranking officer said the evidence against him may not be strong enough to support criminal charges.

“Based upon what I know,” Deputy Police Chief David Dusenbury said, “I don’t think the district attorney will issue any complaint. . . . At this point, what it looks like we’re going to end up with is a personnel matter.”

Police would not reveal the detective’s name.

But Michael Hannon, an attorney for the Long Beach Police Officers Assn., confirmed that the detective under investigation is Robert C. Roger, an auto theft investigator in his mid-30s. Roger was detained by narcotics investigators on Wednesday but not arrested.

Hannon, who is representing Roger, said that his client is innocent.

Police Chief Lawrence Binkley did not return calls for comment last week.

Dusenbury said the case began to unfold earlier this year, when an FBI informant, William T. Natale, told Long Beach officers that one of their fellow detectives and a civilian employee were dealing drugs.

The resulting inquiry encountered complications, however, when Natale died in August. In what police have classified as a murder-suicide, Natale poisoned his girlfriend with cyanide and then took a dose killing himself.

Then, on Tuesday, undercover narcotics investigators stumbled across the detective while conducting a surveillance of an alleged drug dealer, Dusenbury said. Investigators believed that the alleged dealer was going to meet with another dealer at a recreational spot. He said they were startled when they found the suspect talking with the off-duty detective.

According to Dusenbury, the detective recognized one nearby undercover officer and warned the drug suspect.

“Frankly,” Dusenbury said, “our narcotics officer was very surprised. And he was burned, if you will, by the off-duty officer.”

Police identified the alleged dealer as Robert D. Earnshaw, 33, who was arrested and held in lieu of $100,000 bail after a search of his home early Wednesday, according to Sgt. Conrad Nutzmann. Police seized about a kilogram of cocaine, worth about $12,000 wholesale, from a brown pickup truck parked at Earnshaw’s residence in Bellflower, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Art Lew.

“We believe that the contact that was made (by the detective) with Earnshaw was for the purpose of transacting some kind of narcotics,” Dusenbury said.

Roger’s attorney, however, paints a different picture of the events leading up to his client’s suspension.

Practiced Hitting Balls

According to Hannon, Roger was at some batting cages on Tuesday hitting baseballs with his two sons when he ran into Earnshaw, an acquaintance he has known since high school. “They said hello to each other, talked about baseball--big deal,” Hannon said.

Early Wednesday, Roger and his family were awakened by officers who searched his house and took him to police headquarters for questioning, Hannon said. Roger’s police locker was also searched. And at Roger’s request, he submitted to a drug test, according to Hannon. Later that day, Roger was suspended.

“They went out and served a search warrant on their house and they found nothing,” Hannon said. “The chief (Binkley) said they recovered some evidence, but the internal affairs officer told me they didn’t take anything,” Hannon said.

Dusenbury confirmed that some items were removed from the detective’s home, but he would not be more specific.

James Olds, president of the police union, said that Roger is a respected detective.

“He’s a good cop,” Olds said.

Others May Be Involved

Dusenbury acknowledged that there are “some allegations” that other officers may be involved in narcotics trafficking. But, he emphasized, “I have no information to believe that there are more people involved other than this one officer (and a civilian employee.)”

The civilian, whom police also refused to identify, will be fired, Dusenbury said. But he refused to say how the employee figured in the detective’s case, if at all.

Union President Olds said he believes the investigation is limited to one officer. “I would be tremendously surprised if there were other officers” under suspicion. But, he added, “there’s so much we don’t know yet.”

Olds said he does not know enough about Roger’s case to comment directly, but said that it has cast a cloud of suspicion over the entire police force.

“I think anytime there is an (allegation) of wrongdoing by a policeman, it causes a cloud to appear,” Olds said. “It doesn’t make us look good.”