2 Sentenced for Illegal Use of Sheriff’s Computer File

A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reserve deputy and another man were each sentenced Monday to two years probation and fined $1,500 for accessing confidential information from a department computer.

Donald Ernstmeyer, 37, and Edward P. Kazarian, 44, were originally charged with conspiring to plant heroin on a woman to whom Ernstmeyer owed money. But those charges were dismissed after the men pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to illegal use of computer printouts obtained from the California Law Enforcement Telecom System, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Barshop.

Kazarian--who was carrying a .357-caliber magnum revolver at the time of his arrest, according to police--also pleaded guilty to possession of a loaded weapon but was assessed no additional jail time.

Ernstmeyer, who was a reserve deputy at the sheriff’s Santa Clarita Valley substation, was suspended after his arrest and was fired after pleading guilty to the lesser charge.

The prosecution agreed to drop the conspiracy charges because of insufficient evidence, Barshop said.

Officials said they were tipped off to the drug-planting scheme, and Ernstmeyer and Kazarian were arrested April 14 before the plan could be carried out.

Although no heroin was seized, Kazarian told police that Ernstmeyer hired him to plant the drug and gave him a printout from the sheriff’s computer system to use in locating several people who Ernstmeyer claimed owed him money.

The woman who was to have been the victim of the drug scheme once worked for Ernstmeyer at an equipment rental company he owned in the Santa Clarita Valley, police said. Ernstmeyer and Kazarian devised the plan to keep the woman from suing Ernstmeyer for a $3,700 debt, police said.