State Investigators Leery of S.D. Probe

Some members of the state attorney general’s office protested the agency’s move to join the law enforcement task force investigating possible police corruption because police detectives were helping with the probe, The Times has learned.

A source close to the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force said some officials in the state attorney general’s office still believe that the state either should have taken full control of the police corruption probe or stayed out of the investigation entirely because of the potential conflict.

“There was a feeling of how can the police department investigate itself?” the source said. “It is policy that the state attorney’s office prefers to do that kind of investigation itself. Some people in the office think it’s a bad idea to have police involved.”

Critics of the two-year old investigation have said it is impossible for police detectives to objectively investigate members of their own department.

In response, the task force--which includes representatives from the district attorney’s office, Sheriff’s Department and Police Department--invited the state attorney general’s office last month to participate in the investigation and assigned one of its attorneys to head a team that would investigate possible police corruption.

A second unit is assigned to investigate the murders of 43 prostitutes and transients since 1985. A third is concentrating on the murder of prostitute Donna Gentile, whose nude and battered body was tossed off Sunrise Highway shortly after she testified against two police officers. Her mouth had been stuffed with rocks, a sign of possible retaliation.

The task force has 23 members in all, more than a third from the police department. It is run by Sheriff John Duffy, Police Chief Bob Burgreen and Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller.

In late August, the task force named Deputy Atty. Gen. Gary Schons of the special prosecution division to lead the police corruption unit. Last week, two investigators from the state attorney general’s office joined Schons and four police detectives already assigned to the unit.

Schons refused to comment on the internal debate within his office. Nor would his boss, John Gordnier, the head of the state’s special prosecution unit in Sacramento, who said any official comment would have to come from the homicide task force.

Bonnie Dumanis, spokeswoman for the task force, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

While some state attorney general’s officials were against joining the task force, it was agreed that the police detectives would stay on the case.

“The thought was that the task force needed P.D. investigators who knew some of the people under investigation,” the source said. “The P.D. knows that this guy can be trusted and that guy can’t and what are their hidden motivations? If the task force started bringing in Department of Justice police, do you think anybody would talk to them?

“You send in P.D. investigators and these (police officers under investigation) have known some of these people for 10 years and are willing to trust them,” the source said. “There’s no substitution for that.”

State prosecutors also believed that it would take about a year for members of its office to get up to speed on the investigation and would need the help of police investigators who knew the files and what information had been gathered on various police officials.

At least five police officers and one former officer are under scrutiny for their possible connections to Gentile and missing prostitute Cynthia Maine, who disappeared in late February, 1986, after telling internal affairs investigators which police officers were involved with prostitutes, Maine’s family said.

Her family said she was intimately involved with Police Officer John Fung and spoke often of meetings with former Sgt. Dennis Sesma, Detective Les Oberlies and Sgt. Sal Salvatierra.

Salvatierra’s home was searched last week. His attorney, Everett Bobbitt, said police have nothing to link Salvatierra to Maine’s disappearance. Sesma has denied any wrongdoing; Oberlies and Fung have not returned repeated telephone calls from The Times.

The state attorney general’s participation in local law enforcement investigations is not unusual. The office routinely lends investigators and prosecutors to cases when a request for help is made. But it is not often that the office works with members of a law enforcement agency that is under investigation, sources said.

In cases where that does occur, the office may build a “Chinese Wall” to keep information separate from the law enforcement agency it is investigating, according to a law enforcement official who requested anonymity.

The same official said that if the attorney general’s office comes up with damaging evidence that tie police officers to the murders, the department may be asked to drop out of the investigative unit. There is no evidence of that magnitude in the case so far, the official said.

However, the official said, it is wrong to assume that police officers cannot investigate members of their own department.

“Police officers investigate police officers every day; that’s what internal affairs divisions are all about,” the official said. “And police departments are anxious to weed out bad officers. That way they can avoid criticism.”

The internal debate in the attorney general’s office also underscores the view of task force critics that unless an outside agency takes complete control of the investigation, no police officer will ever be criminally charged in the prostitute slayings even if evidence strongly suggests an officer was involved.

Lori Helle, Maine’s sister, said her brother contacted the FBI but agents there refused to investigate.

“I wish the FBI would get involved,” she said. “Anybody but the San Diego Police Department. It’s a conflict of interest to the have the San Diego Police Department investigate itself.”

Federal officials interviewed this week say their involvement in the prostitute slayings investigation never has been discussed and would be difficult to justify.

U.S. Attorney William Braniff said San Diego County is well-equipped to deal with the investigation of prostitute murders with its use of the state attorney general’s office, the county grand jury and the district attorney’s office.

He said his office does not plan to get involved.

“The idea that police departments may not be all that you want them to be does not warrant federal involvement,” Braniff said. “Right now, everything I’ve read leads me to believe that these are state offenses that the district attorney’s office can handle.”

One federal senior law enforcement officer who asked not to be named said it would be easier for the U.S. government to get involved if police had tried to extract bribes from prostitutes, transported prostitutes over state lines, or kept them from giving information to federal officials, all of which are federal offenses but none of which were alleged.

However, he said, the FBI could get involved if someone made a legitimate complaint that the civil rights of prostitutes had been violated by police.

“I can see someone raising the question,” the federal official said. “Very often we are required to do a preliminary investigation to see if there’s anything more we can do.”

Because law enforcement agencies jealously guard their investigations, it would take a task force invitation to the FBI for the U.S. government to join the probe, the federal official said.

He speculated that such an invitation would not be offered unless the task force felt it needed more broad-ranged federal laws, such as those dealing with extortion or racketeering, to indict someone.