Probation Officer Held on Drug Charges

A veteran Los Angeles County probation officer and his two roommates were in jail Thursday after being arrested in Lancaster on suspicion of narcotics possession, the Sheriff’s Department reported.

Barry Linn, 43, who has worked for the county Probation Department for 14 years but has been on a stress-related leave from the Van Nuys office since Aug. 1, was arrested Wednesday morning by sheriff’s narcotics detectives at his residence in the 1000 block of West Avenue J-8, Sgt. Ernie Roop said.

Also arrested at the house were Linn’s roommates Kathleen Topper, 33, and Marsha Gutshall, 39. Linn was being held at the sheriff’s Antelope Valley station jail in lieu of $1,500 bail, and the women were being held there in lieu of $1,000 bail each, Roop said.

A fourth roommate, a 39-year-old man, was not arrested because he was suffering from heart problems and was under medication, but deputies will ask the district attorney’s office to charge him too, Sgt. Ron Shreves said.

Searched the House

Deputies said detectives searched the house and confiscated seven grams of methamphetamines, worth about $500, along with scales, plastic bags and business records that indicate the drugs were being sold. A computer that had been reported stolen was also found in the house, deputies said.

Shreves said the investigation began a month ago when deputies received information in a call on the station’s anonymous “We Tip” phone line that drugs were being sold from the suspects’ house. He said an investigation is continuing to determine the amount of drugs sold.

Harold Haesche, director of the Probation Department’s Van Nuys office, which covers northern Los Angeles County, said Linn will also be investigated by his department.

“We have an internal affairs department that will certainly investigate the matter,” Haesche said.

Linn could be fired by the department if the drug charges are substantiated, Haesche said. Before Linn went on leave, he was assigned to a unit that supervises low-risk individuals placed on probation for minor crimes, Haesche said.