Sheriff’s Findings Dismiss Complaints Against Deputies

Of 22 formal complaints of ill-treatment by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies filed with the city of West Hollywood last year, including several involving gays and lesbians, all but one were determined by the Sheriff’s Department to be unsubstantiated.

The findings were reported in a private memo to the city manager and members of the City Council that was obtained by The Times.

The memo did not specify how many of the complaints involved gays and lesbians, but a source familiar with the memo said a substantial number of the complaints involved gays.

Incidents Cause Friction

And City Councilman Steve Schulte, who has criticized the Sheriff’s Department for being insensitive to gays and lesbians, said he had serious concerns that so many of the accusations “could be without merit.”

The disclosure comes at a time when the Sheriff’s Department, which provides police protection to West Hollywood, has come under increased criticism by city officials for failing to hire acknowledged gays and lesbians.

In addition, two recent incidents involving deputies’ treatment of gays that were not included in the memo have caused friction between the Sheriff’s Department and city officials.

Gays have long complained of being mistreated by the Sheriff’s Department. They have been especially critical of the way the department handles accusations against deputies.

The memo was prepared by Public Safety Coordinator Jack R. Bollen, who serves as the city’s liaison with the Sheriff’s Department.

It said “many additional complaints” were referred directly to the Sheriff’s Department, most of which “were resolved without formal complaints through the city.”

Sheriff’s Department officials declined to discuss the substance of the complaints, but they insisted that the department does not tolerate discrimination against gays or any other group.

“If there is the perception that there is a problem (with the gay and lesbian community), I think that’s all there is, a perception,” Cmdr. Bill Baker of the Sheriff’s Department said. “We want to assure everyone that they have the same access to our services as anyone else.”

City Manager Paul Brotzman and other city officials declined to discuss the memo, which covered the first 10 months of last year. Brotzman said state law prohibits officials from disclosing statistical information based on confidential complaints about a law enforcement agency.

“I will say that we have been involved in ongoing talks with the Sheriff’s Department about the perception in the gay and lesbian community that there is insensitivity there, and we’re trying to resolve some of the problems,” he said.

Meanwhile, Schulte and Councilman Paul Koretz said this week they may not favor renewing the city’s five-year contract with the Sheriff’s Department, which expires next year, unless the department improves its image among gays and lesbians.

Under the contract negotiated in 1984 after West Hollywood was incorporated, the city pays the Sheriff’s Department $8.5 million a year for police protection.

Schulte and Koretz each called for the Sheriff’s Department to begin “affirmative recruitment” of gays and lesbians as deputies, and to provide “policy assurances” that gay deputies already in the department would not be harassed if they choose to make their sexual orientation known.

“We’ve talked about these things privately for a long time. I think it’s time to see some concrete progress before I can support (renewing) the contract,” Schulte said.

He and Koretz praised the Sheriff’s Department for providing excellent police protection, saying they preferred that the city continue to use the department’s services.

But Koretz said that “in terms of sensitivity to the gay and lesbian community, there is some homophobia that surfaces from time to time among individual deputies, and it has definitely created problems.”

For several months, city officials have privately stepped up their efforts to persuade the Sheriff’s Department to actively recruit gays and lesbians as deputies in a manner similar to the way the department recruits racial and ethnic minorities.

Sheriff’s Department officials have said repeatedly they do not discriminate against hiring gays, but Schulte has criticized such statements “for not going far enough to address the issue.”

Schulte, one of two acknowledged gay members on the City Council, said that several gay and lesbian deputies have told him that “the environment within the department is such that they feel it would be impossible for them” to make their sexual orientation known.

“They’re concerned about being harassed by their peers, and I think that says something about the mental disposition that too often results in strained relations between some deputies and members of the gay and lesbian community they come in contact with,” he said.

Two recent incidents have strained the relationship between city officials and the Sheriff’s Department.

Schulte said last week that he was disturbed that the arrest of a stockbroker and another man charged with lewd conduct “violated an unwritten policy,” established in 1984, that plainclothes deputies would not make lewd conduct arrests.

The men were arrested in West Hollywood Park in December by plainclothes officers who Capt. Rachel Burgess said were part of a special unit assigned to the West Hollywood sheriff’s station.

Burgess, who assumed command of the station in November, defended the use of plainclothes officers in making the arrests. She said the Sheriff’s Department had received numerous complaints about sexual activity in the park, including complaints from homeless people about individuals trying to coerce them into sex acts.

As part of a plea bargain arrangement, the men pleaded no contest in Beverly Hills Municipal Court on Tuesday to reduced charges of disturbing the peace. They each were fined $100 and placed on probation for six months.

In the other incident, also in December, a West Hollywood hairdresser accused deputies of abandoning him rather than taking him to a hospital after he and a companion were attacked by “gay-bashers” on the street.

But deputies said the men refused help, and Burgess said the deputies “acted appropriately.”