High-Ranking Officers Cleared in Probe

Lieutenants and the captain who oversaw narcotics operations were investigated as part of the widespread probe of alleged money-skimming among Los Angeles County sheriff’s officers, Sheriff Sherman Block said Wednesday.

But investigators uncovered no wrongdoing by these high-ranking supervisors, Block said during his monthly meeting with the news media.

“The lieutenants, the captain, all of the people who are in the chain of command have been looked at very thoroughly,” the sheriff said. “And we are satisfied to this point there is no evidence of any wrongdoing--either administrative malfeasance . . . or criminal conduct, other than on the part of those individuals who have been so charged.”

Capt. Robert N. Wilber, who was head of the sheriff’s narcotics bureau when the scandal broke last September, has since been transferred to another bureau. Block said the transfer was not punitive and was made because Wilber “deserved to be relieved of this pressure cooker.”

One sheriff’s sergeant and nine deputies have been indicted on charges that they allegedly stole more than $1.4 million from suspected drug dealers and money launderers. A total of 26 narcotics officers also have been suspended in the probe, and two deputies were relieved of duty for refusing to cooperate with the investigation.

Block’s statements marked the first time that a top official has confirmed that high-ranking officers were among those investigated during the 18-month corruption probe.

Attorneys for both indicted and suspended deputies claim that rank-and-file narcotics officers have been unfairly blamed while their supervisors have remained unscathed in the scandal.

But the sheriff insisted Wednesday that there were adequate controls by his narcotics supervisors and that a group of wayward officers “who conspired to do wrong” had created the current crisis.

“The system that was in place was a good one and still is a good one,” he said, “But when everyone gets together to violate the system, then you’ve got a different problem.”

The sheriff, however, said his department has taken steps to impose “integrity tests,” financial disclosure checks and limits on the number of years that an officer can serve in the narcotics division.

The integrity tests can include small-scale sting operations to ferret out dishonest officers, Block said. Mandatory drug testing has also started among high-ranking officials in the department, he added, with the hope that it will also be used throughout the department.

Richard Shinee, the lead attorney for the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, which represents about 6,500 deputies, said Wednesday that some of the proposals have not yet been agreed upon by the union, including a suggestion that narcotics officers and their spouses submit information on their personal finances.

“The issue of financial disclosure has not been negotiated at this time and still remains open,” Shinee said.

He added that his union has agreed to an assignment system that will limit deputies to serving a maximum of five years in the narcotics division.

Some critics have said that the absence of such a restriction may have helped create the climate for the current money-skimming scandal.