Deputy Beatings, Thefts Detailed : Court: Ex-sergeant testifies that narcotics team stole cocaine stored as evidence and planted it on suspects.

In a wave of police “lawlessness,” Los Angeles County sheriff’s narcotics deputies savagely beat suspects, stole money and planted cocaine from their own evidence supply on suspects, a former sheriff’s sergeant testified Friday.

But Robert R. Sobel, the prosecution’s chief witness in the money-skimming trial of seven narcotics deputies, told jurors that he did nothing to stop the practice even as victims were wrongfully terrorized or jailed.

“I didn’t care about drug dealers,” said Sobel, who testified that narcotics officers he supervised in the Lennox sheriff’s station and on a joint-agency task force had committed dozens of criminal acts while pursuing suspected drug dealers in South Los Angeles.

On four or five occasions, Sobel said, deputies at the Lennox station stole cocaine that had been stored as evidence and replaced it with a substance resembling the drug. The deputies would then take the cocaine and plant it at homes or in vehicles of suspects who were arrested on drug possession charges.

“I never liked to do it myself,” Sobel said. But he condoned the practice and approved the falsified police reports, he said.

The testimony came on the first full day of cross-examination by defense attorneys representing the seven narcotics officers on trial for allegedly skimming $1.4 million during drug raids.

The veteran deputies--all former members of the Sheriff’s Department’s elite narcotics investigation teams--had worked with Sobel, who now is their chief accuser. The defendants include deputies Ronald E. Daub, James R. Bauder, Daniel M. Garner, John C. Dickenson, Terrell H. Amers, Eufrasio G. Cortez and Macario M. Duran.

All but Duran were members of the same team headed by Sobel, who has since pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion charges.

But in his cross-examination, defense attorney James Riddet sought to show that Sobel, 45, was implicating his former colleagues merely to avoid a lengthy prison term. Riddet also had Sobel acknowledge a history of thefts, perjury and other misconduct long before he joined the major investigative team.

Riddet, who represents Cortez, questioned Sobel about his activities between 1985 and 1987, when he led the Lennox narcotics team and an anti-drug task force--dubbed the Southwest Crew--made up of sheriff’s deputies and Los Angeles Police Department officers. Sobel testified that those teams were involved in beatings, filing false police reports, lying in search warrant affidavits, planting evidence and stealing money.

“You were supervising a team of complete lawlessness, would you agree?” Riddet said.

“I guess you could say that,” Sobel said.

“I just did,” Riddet said.

“Well, I agree,” Sobel said.

Sobel testified that in December, 1985, he watched as two of his Lennox deputies--Robert Tolmaire and J.C. Miller--beat a drug dealer so badly that they almost “caved in his skull.” Although the man was screaming and begging the deputies to stop, Sobel said, he did not intervene.

Later, Tolmaire sat down with the man and drank some cognac, Sobel said, and suggested he become an informant. Tolmaire and Miller often used excessive force, Sobel said.

But three years later, when the Sheriff’s Department conducted an internal investigation into complaints that Tolmaire and other deputies used excessive force, Sobel said he lied to protect them and told the investigating officer that Tolmaire had a “magnetic personality” and was extremely effective with informants.

“He could beat up a guy and roll him up as an informant in the same day,” Sobel told jurors.

Tolmaire, who has been suspended by the department as part of the ongoing money-skimming investigation, could not be reached for comment. But Miller, who also has been suspended, was in the courtroom listening to Sobel’s testimony. He later denied that he used excessive force while working at Lennox.

“I can tell you that we sometimes had to use force--these were hard-core dealers and gang members we were dealing with--but we didn’t use excessive force,” Miller said. “Sobel is just manipulating the system.”

Throughout his testimony, Sobel spoke matter-of-factly, occasionally correcting defense attorneys on dates and details of the theft cases and beatings. Sobel said he was not disturbed that planted drugs and lies had once sent a “pretty prolific” drug dealer to prison.

But Riddet suggested that Sobel’s admitted fabrications and lies--in police reports, courts and internal investigations--were more to cover up the $40,000 he skimmed and other acts of misconduct than to go after narcotics dealers. He said Sobel honed that skill as a supervisor at Lennox.

“You were a pretty good liar in those days, weren’t you?” Riddet said.

“Yes, sir,” Sobel said.

“In fact, you are a pretty convincing liar, aren’t you?” Riddet added.

“I suppose so,” Sobel replied.