2 Witnesses Pressed About IDs, Pistols in Suit Against Sheriff

Did deputies for Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates have good reason to investigate a private detective on suspicion of impersonating an officer and carrying a concealed weapon? Or were they merely persecuting one of Gates’ political foes?

Lawyers for the private investigator, whose $5-million suit against Gates is in its second week of trial in U.S. District Court here, called two witnesses Tuesday in an attempt to show that the detectives’ report on Preston Guillory was exaggerated and untrue.

Which Side Won?

But by day’s end, it was hard to tell which side had scored the most points.

Guillory was working on behalf of one of Gates’ political opponents in 1984 when he went to the Oakwood Apartments in Anaheim to serve legal papers on a sheriff’s informant who lived there.

According to the sheriff’s reports, Guillory misrepresented himself as a law enforcement officer and was carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. Guillory was acquitted of those charges in 1985, however, and sued Gates, alleging that the sheriff’s investigation was a conspiracy to deprive Guillory of his civil rights.

On Tuesday, Guillory’s attorneys called two employees of the Oakwood apartments who had encountered Guillory and later told their stories to sheriff’s investigators.

David S. Santee, assistant manager of the apartments in 1984, said that Guillory had been accompanied by another man whom Guillory had introduced as “an off-duty LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) officer.”

Santee said he presumed that Guillory was an officer. “I assume the ‘LAPD officer’ stuck in my mind,” he testified. He said Guillory showed him some sort of identification card, but he doesn’t recall what it was.

One of Guillory’s attorneys, Michael Cisarik, read portions of the sheriff’s investigation reports that quoted Santee as saying Guillory had identified himself as “some sort of federal officer” and had showed credentials. Santee testified that he had not made those statements.

The reports also quoted Santee as saying that Guillory and his companion had drawn pistols from under their shirts and had replaced them in their holsters later. Santee said that at one point, he saw the men with guns in their hands but did not see where the guns had come from or where they had been replaced.

‘Terrible’ Memory

But under cross-examination by Gates attorney Eric L. Dobberteen, Santee conceded that he has a “terrible” memory. Dobberteen read from Santee’s testimony given during Guillory’s criminal trial in which Santee had said that he had seen Guillory draw a gun from his side and replace it under his shirt.

“Didn’t you see them (draw and replace the pistols)?” Dobberteen asked.

“I guess I did,” Santee replied.

Santee had testified that he felt pressured by sheriff’s investigators. In response, Dobberteen played the tape recording of the sheriff’s investigators’ interview of Santee.

In it, investigators asked Santee several times how Guillory had introduced himself, but Santee repeatedly answered that he could not remember. As investigators persisted, Santee said, “I assumed him to be an FBI agent, something like that.”

“Did something trigger that?” an investigator asked.

“Yeah, something . . . ,” Santee answered. “That’s what I’ve been trying to remember.” He said he had a hangover that day and couldn’t remember details.

Investigators persisted, and Santee said he remembered Guillory introducing himself as “Detective Guillory, initially.”

During the tape recording, one investigator asked Santee about pistols Guillory and his companion had. “Where did they pull the guns from?” an investigator asked. Santee paused a while, and the investigator added, “like right in here, at the hip?”

“Yeah,” Santee replied.

Another witness, Georgiana Lostlen, was a bookkeeper at the apartments in 1984. She, too, denied statements attributed to her in sheriff’s reports: that Guillory had identified himself to her as a law enforcement officer. She testified that she believed him to be an officer, but only because she was told so by Santee.

She said that Guillory had left a business card with her and that later when she read it, she was “totally shocked” to see that he was a private, not a police, investigator. Had she known that, she would not have shown tenant files to Guillory, she testified.

The tape recording of her interview with investigators was played, and an investigator asked her about her actual contact with Guillory. She quoted Guillory as saying, “I am working with the police department and the FBI.” She later repeated, however, that Guillory had made no such statement to her.