3 More Drug Cases Dropped as Result of Deputy Scandal

Los Angeles County judges dismissed three cases against alleged cocaine dealers Thursday as the repercussions of alleged money skimming by Sheriff’s Department narcotics officers continued to spread.

Defendants in the dismissed cases claim that deputies, who are among the 18 officers suspended since Sept. 1, seized a total of about $195,000 in cash plus 200 gold coins during raids and that it was never turned in as evidence.

With the three dismissals, six cases have now been withdrawn or dismissed because suspended deputies were key witnesses. Prosecutors say at least a dozen more cases are jeopardized.

Documents Withheld

Two cases were dismissed because the Sheriff’s Department refused to provide documents about its investigation of the suspended deputies, and the judges would not allow the officers to testify if that information was not made available to defense attorneys.

Another judge declared the third case in Torrance so tainted by the involvement of suspended deputies that he could not let it proceed. Prosecutors argued unsuccessfully that Brea police officers who participated in the drug raid could testify in the case.

Sheriff Sherman Block suspended the first nine deputies last month and another nine this week as part of an ongoing local and federal investigation into allegations that deputies stole hundreds of thousands of dollars during drug raids.

Block has refused to identify the second nine deputies. Defense attorneys say the sheriff’s refusal allows them to challenge any case where sheriff’s narcotics officers are key witnesses.

In one such challenge, attorneys for members of an alleged U.S.-Colombian drug ring that authorities say once sold more than a ton of cocaine a week have filed motions to try to force the Sheriff’s Department to surrender investigative documents about all 18 suspended deputies.

Lawyers for Brian Bennett, Ernesto Villabona-Alvarado and 11 other defendants said they are not sure whether a sheriff’s narcotics officer involved in their case has been suspended. However, the prosecution without explanation already had withdrawn as evidence a declaration by the officer--a key investigator in the early stages of the case. The prosecution also had withdrawn evidence gained through a search warrant supported by the officer’s statements.

In the largest of the three cases dismissed on Thursday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge released from custody a 48-year-old man who had been caught with nearly 800 pounds of cocaine in his Sylmar home.

“I do not believe I have any other alternative but to grant the motion to dismiss the case,” Judge Bert Glennon said.

Glennon described the circumstances that dictated his ruling as “a very sad commentary on the state of affairs,” but said he was legally bound to dismiss criminal charges against Orlando Martinez Yepes after the Sheriff’s Department refused to provide investigative documents about five suspended officers.

Those officers were among the first group of nine suspended deputies.

Conflicting Numbers

Yepes, who was arrested in August, 1988, claims he was asked to store the cocaine but denies that he was part of a Colombian trafficking ring, as alleged by prosecutors. A narcotics team, led by sheriff’s officers, confiscated 392 kilos of cocaine and more than $5,000 in cash at Yepes’ home, prosecutors said.

However, Thomas V. Johnston, Yepes’ attorney, said his client maintains that the officers failed to report $40,000 seized at his residence. Johnston said he told the district attorney’s office last fall about the alleged theft.

“The response (from the district attorney) was one of incredulity, that that’s a typical allegation of a Colombian (and) was beneath contempt,” Johnston said.

The attorney would not identify the prosecutor with whom he spoke.

Robert Schirn, head of the district attorney’s major narcotics division, said his office did hear the money-skimming allegations, but that Johnston was told to forward any complaints to the internal affairs bureau of the Sheriff’s Department or to the district attorney’s special investigations division, which handles cases against public officials.

‘Grain of Salt’

Schirn also said that such allegations are not unusual in drug cases. “Many defendants who are facing lots of time in jail try to extricate themselves by implicating officers,” he said. “Sometimes, you do have to treat it with a grain of salt.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Arthur Lew, who prosecuted Yepes, confirmed Thursday that Johnston had also raised the issue of missing money well before the scandal broke last month and gave him similar advice about contacting the Sheriff’s Department or the special investigations division.

Lew said that the recent drug case dismissals have demoralized prosecutors as well as sheriff’s deputies.

Johnston said the blame for disrupting the criminal cases rests with the suspended officers. “Even if this results in the loss of some guilty defendants, that’s the necessary price of the actions of the officers involved,” he said.

The lead investigators in the case were suspended Deputies Eufrasio G. Cortez and Daniel M. Garner. Michael J. Kaliterna and Sgt. Robert R. Sobel were also involved in the case, the attorney said.

More Names

The other suspended officers who have been identified by the department are Deputies Terrell H. Amers, James R. Bauder, Nancy A. Brown, Ronald E. Daub and John C. Dickenson.

Van Nuys Municipal Judge Leslie Dunn dismissed drug trafficking charges against Mitchell Podwal, 26, of Northridge, after prosecutors said they could not proceed without testimony from six deputies who raided Podwal’s home last April.

Charges against three co-defendants charged with conspiring with Podwal were also dismissed.

“You don’t like to lose cases this way, you don’t want them dismissed this way,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Korban said. “Frustrating is probably the right word for it.”

The investigative team, headed by Bauder, turned in about 500 grams of cocaine, $100,000 in cash and 730 gold coins. Also participating in the raid were Amers, Sobel, Cortez, Daub and Kaliterna.

Ronald S. Miller, Podwal’s lawyer, said his client claims that $150,000 in cash and about 200 gold coins are missing.

Claims Entrapment

In the Torrance case, four defendants were arrested last May and accused of possessing five kilograms of cocaine for sale. But Debra Smith, attorney for one of the defendants--27-year-old David Estrada--claimed her client was entrapped by the narcotics officers, who included six of the suspended deputies.

Municipal Judge Karl W. Jaeger dismissed the case.