Sheriff’s Drug Case Pall Grows : Deputies in 3 of 4 Elite Narcotics Units Suspected of Stealing

Members of at least three of the Sheriff Department’s four elite narcotics squads are now suspected of stealing money seized during drug raids, and prosecutors said Wednesday that more criminal cases against drug dealers will be dismissed as a result.

The Times has also learned that the home of a Los Angeles Police Department narcotics investigator was searched this week as part of the probe into money skimming.

Nine deputies were suspended Tuesday, bringing the number to 18 since the scandal broke Sept. 1. None have been charged.

No One Disciplined

A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said no officer in the department has been disciplined as a result of the probe and referred questions about it to the sheriff and federal investigators.

“This is an investigation conducted by the FBI, the IRS and the sheriffs, and I am not going to expound or expand on their comments at all,” Police Cmdr. William Booth said.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates later said in response to a question that he cannot rule out the possibility that one of his officers is involved in the scandal.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, which is directing the local and federal inquiry, refused comment.

Robert Schirn, head of the district attorney’s major narcotics division, said the new suspensions have undercut two more of his office’s drug cases because suspended deputies are key witnesses but cannot now be called to testify.

An undetermined number of smaller drug cases prosecuted by district attorney branch offices also will be affected, he said.

The first nine suspensions have already resulted in dismissal or withdrawal of three major drug cases, and about a dozen others are jeopardized, he said.

The second round of suspensions should have less impact, Schirn said, because the nine newly suspended officers do not all come from a single squad, unlike the first group of officers.

Possible to Save Cases

Since the implicated deputies are spread through at least two other squads, and perhaps three, other officers not implicated in the investigation will be able to testify and save the cases, Schirn said.

Sheriff Sherman Block has refused to identify the officers suspended this week, and Schirn said that is going to make prosecutions “a little tougher.”

“Defense attorneys are now going to make motions to discover whether sheriff’s officers in any narcotics case are among those suspended,” he said. That could lead to dismissals if Sheriff’s Department refuses to produce the investigative documents ordered by the court, he said.

The 18 suspended officers were members of four elite narcotics squads disbanded last month.

The dismantled units were each composed of about 10 veteran officers. The specially trained teams, equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipment, have investigated the most important drug distribution and money-laundering cases conducted by the department.

Officers from those teams were reassigned to individual stations throughout the county.

Block has said that narcotics cases previously developed by the disbanded units are being pursued from the local stations, but sources close to those units say some investigations have been paralyzed for more than a month.

“It’s undermined every kind of drug investigation (by the department),” one source said.

Called Far From Over

One sheriff’s source said that the investigation is far from over and that other officers, including some in other departments, are under scrutiny. “They’re looking at everybody who has had anything to do with majors (drug cases),” he said.

Block has dubbed the investigation Operation Big Spender and called it the worst scandal in his seven years as head of the Sheriff’s Department.

What impact it may have on his reputation is unclear, but he began preparations Wednesday for his reelection campaign next spring.

In a campaign kickoff, Block hosted a luncheon Wednesday at a downtown hotel for some of his strongest political supporters and to promote his first major fund-raiser next month.

One luncheon participant said the sheriff was in an upbeat mood and vowed that his department would weather what has been a series of damaging revelations.

Block could not be reached for comment.