Tape Provides Inside Look at Sheriff’s Drug Scandal

Immediately after he was suspended in a money-skimming scandal, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy John Hurtado was ushered last week into an interrogation room where two federal agents were waiting to solicit his cooperation in the broadening investigation.

The investigators began by appealing to Hurtado’s patriotism, reminding the 10-year sheriff’s veteran that he was a former Marine.

They sympathetically suggested a rationale for any misdeeds, saying they understood that the systematic skimming had started small--as a way for under-financed narcotics officers to better arm themselves and pay off informants.

But by the time the half-hour interview had ended, the federal agents had turned aggressive, spreading Hurtado’s tax returns out before him and threatening--in carefully couched terms--possible indictment and conviction.

“You can see where potentially you are in a real vise,” warned an FBI agent.

“You know we’d hate to be in your position right now,” his Internal Revenue Service partner chimed in.

Hurtado was indeed in an uneasy circumstance as one of eight deputies suspended April 18 in the corruption scandal. He had surrendered his badge and gun. He had been told by superiors that he was confined to his home on work days. And now came the questions from federal agents.

But in agreeing to talk voluntarily to investigators, Hurtado also took the unusual step of tape-recording his interview. A copy of that tape, obtained by The Times, provides a rare inside view of a scandal that has devastated the Sheriff’s Department’s narcotics teams.

The tape also captures the methods of federal investigators as they try to coax and pressure a deputy into cooperating with them.

While Hurtado remained silent for much of the interview, FBI Special Agent John R. Kingston and IRS Special Agent Robert B. Warren told the suspended deputy that:

The U.S. attorney’s office has roughly a 98% conviction rate--”something you should keep in the back of your mind.”

The proof is “fairly strong” that there sometimes were discrepancies between the money seized from drug dealers and the amounts actually turned in to the Sheriff’s Department.

A former co-worker, indicted Deputy Macario M. Duran, had maintained a ledger listing the amount of money stolen from drug dealers or money launderers.

Investigators had photographs that contradicted the denials of two other narcotics officers in the alleged theft of $40,000 from a convicted drug dealer.

Additional indictments probably will be handed down against an unidentified deputy who had worked with Hurtado on a major investigations team and another officer on “the Southwest crew” in the Lennox area.

FBI Agent Kingston also told Hurtado that the massive skimming of drug money apparently began as a series of small thefts by officers to pay informants, buy guns and “other stuff that isn’t available when you need it and you don’t have to go through the bureaucracy.”

Kingston, who called the original intentions “a very good rationale,” claimed the thefts “got a little bit out of hand and people started taking more.”

The FBI agent then told Hurtado, a former Marine, not to be blinded by any misguided loyalty to his sheriff’s colleagues who may have stolen money.

“It’s just not right,” Kingston said, “and I think if I were confronted with that fact at this point, with being suspended and everything, I would start with this kind of realization, that I got to do something about it. You’ve either got to be on the right side of the fence or the wrong side.”

After producing the deputy’s income tax returns, IRS Agent Warren reminded Hurtado that he could also face tax-related charges. But Hurtado remained noncommittal, expressing only surprise at the allegations.

“I don’t underestimate your capabilities or powers, sir,” he told his investigators. “You’re just doing your job. But I just have to contend with you. And, as far as loyalties are concerned, I’m loyal to my country, my government, this department and also to my friends. So, let’s clear that matter up.”

“In that order?” he was asked.

“In that order,” Hurtado replied.

The tape recording ended abruptly as Hurtado was being questioned about his personal finances.

Hurtado refused comment when contacted by The Times, saying that the Sheriff’s Department had instructed him not to speak with reporters. Neither Kingston nor Warren would speak about the tape recording, which was made with their knowledge. Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey C. Eglash, a co-prosecutor in the case, also declined comment.

But Terrence A. Roden, an attorney for Deputy Duran, called the allegations raised by the federal agents “ludicrous” and disputed any suggestion that his client had stolen any money or had kept a ledger of such thefts.

“I believe that it’s just police tactics where they try to get someone to affirm rumors by whatever means available, and that’s what these are--rumors, pure fabrication,” Roden said.

Harland Braun, an attorney for indicted Deputy Daniel G. Garner, said the tactics used by the investigators may not be illegal but are intended to be coercive.

“It sounds to me like they’re desperate for someone to turn (into a government witness),” Braun said. “I read it all as weakness on the government’s part.”

In addition to Garner and Duran, federal prosecutors already have obtained indictments of eight other officers for allegedly stealing more than $1.4 million from drug dealers and money launderers. Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert R. Sobel, who has since left the department, subsequently pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

The latest suspensions, tersely announced by Sheriff Sherman Block, brought the total number of suspensions to 26. Two additional deputies were relieved of duty because they would not answer questions without any attorney present.

The Sheriff’s Department would not identify the newly suspended officers, although sources close to the investigation said they include officers who worked on narcotics cases at local sheriff’s stations as well as members of an elite narcotics team.

In individual meetings last week, the newly suspended deputies were offered a chance to resign but all refused, the sources said.

Some of the suspended deputies are members of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. Richard Shinee, the union’s lead attorney, said some officers have been “coerced into giving statements (to investigators) out of fear of retaliation” by the department.

During the Hurtado interview, the questions by agents indicated that the team known as Majors III is a primary target in the inquiry. The squad was one of four sheriff’s teams that investigated major narcotics cases before being disbanded last fall.

Formed in July, 1987, the seven-member crew had been one of the department’s most productive. In its first six months of existence, the Majors III team seized 856 kilograms of cocaine, $4,053,072 in cash and 20 rifles, shotguns and handguns, according to an internal Sheriff’s Department memorandum. The team also was credited with closing down a cocaine processing lab.

Included in those seizures were twin busts in Maywood and Hacienda Heights that netted more than $3.2 million in cash, nearly 1,800 pounds of cocaine and a flurry of publicity for the department.

Now those cases, along with other drug raids conducted by the Majors III team, are reported to be under scrutiny by federal investigators.

According to federal documents unsealed last month, the investigators also contend that members of that team are suspected of skimming money during drug raids in 1988 and 1989--including stealing “several bushels of currency” from one major bust.

FBI Agent Kingston told Hurtado that investigators were looking into an April, 1988, raid where $1.945 million in cash was turned in. Kingston contended, however, that the actual seizure was closer to $2.2 million.

On the tape, Hurtado had no response.

Nor would he comment on a drug dealer’s allegation last year that two of Hurtado’s colleagues stole $40,000 hidden in a paper bag. Kingston told Hurtado that the two other officers were questioned, then were shown a photograph that contradicted their statements--but they still did not cooperate with investigators.

The interview with Hurtado was generally cordial, although he and Warren sparred verbally when the IRS agent asked how much cash the deputy had in his personal possession.

Despite persistent questioning, Hurtado insisted that he could not remember the maximum amount of money he had at any one time.

“I don’t know,” he said repeatedly.