Suspended Deputy Charges His Former Captain With Battery

A suspended Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy charged Wednesday that his former captain shoved him and ordered him out of a public lobby in the department’s regional headquarters in Whittier.

James R. Bauder, one of 10 deputies indicted on charges of skimming money seized in drug raids, filed a formal complaint with the department, charging Capt. Robert Wilber with battery for allegedly shoving him with his forearm during a heated argument Wednesday morning.

Undersheriff Robert A. Edmonds denied Bauder’s allegation, saying “at no time did Capt. Wilber place a hand on Deputy Bauder.”

Bauder said the incident began when he and Deputy Daniel M. Garner, who was also indicted for skimming money, went to their old office to have Wilber sign their grievances protesting the department’s plans to suspend them without pay. Obtaining the signature is a routine step in the administrative process, Bauder said.

“Capt. Wilber signed the form, denying the grievance,” Bauder said.

The deputy said Wilber then directed him out a side door. Bauder said he left and re-entered the public lobby to wait for Garner, who was “going through the same grievance procedure.”

Bauder said he was chatting with other deputies when Wilber “comes around a corner, obviously upset, points to the door and says, ‘Get out of here.’ I told him I was waiting for Garner. And he said I was not waiting for anybody.

“He placed his forearm on my chest and shoved me backward. That was the extent of the physical altercation. I don’t want it to sound like the guy beat me up.”

Bauder said Wilber had no authority to order him out of the lobby, adding that Wilber “tried to intimidate me by his rank.”

Bauder and Garner worked in the department’s elite narcotics unit, all of whose memberswere charged with stealing more than $1.4 million from drug dealers.