Judge Slaps Gag Order on Trial of 7 Deputies

The federal judge in the money-skimming trial of seven Los Angeles County sheriff’s narcotics officers Tuesday clamped a gag order on participants after a defense attorney persisted in linking the case to allegations that drug money was used to fund Central Intelligence Agency operations.

Harland Braun, who represents Deputy Daniel M. Garner, had told reporters--without providing evidence--that the U.S. government was laundering drug money for South American cartels and siphoning some of the cash for its own clandestine operations abroad.

In contesting an attempt by prosecutors to restrain himself and others from talking to the media, Braun has claimed in court papers that in 1986 his client searched the Southern California home of a CIA agent who had ties to a major drug- and money-laundering ring.

According to Braun, the unnamed suspect acknowledged that he was a CIA agent and the narcotics officers discovered “numerous documents indicating that drug money was being used to purchase military equipment for Central America.” In particular, he said, deputies found links to the funding of Contra rebels fighting the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

Shortly after deputies seized the documents and booked the material as evidence, however, federal agents “swooped down” on the Sheriff’s Department headquarters and removed the recovered property, as well as other records of the search and seizure, Braun said.

One officer who was at the search scene with Garner, but asked not to be identified, told The Times that the suspect asked the deputies if he could make a phone call to his CIA contact in Virginia. He purportedly was allowed to make the call.

“It was strange, because here we are chasing this drug dealer and we end up with this guy,” said the officer, who added that the man was not arrested because no drugs were found at his home.

Peter Earnest, a CIA spokesman in Washington, said the agency’s policy was not to comment on anything under litigation. However, without commenting specifically on the allegations contained in Braun’s affidavit, Earnest added: “The CIA has not and has never been directly involved in laundering drug money.”

Undersheriff Robert Edmonds called the assertions “preposterous” and said Tuesday he was unaware of either the 1986 case or Braun’s version of events.

“I’ve got to tell you that I would be startled if federal agents swooped down on one of our stations and I wasn’t aware of it,” Edmonds said. “I would be rather astounded if this has any credibility in fact.”

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie, who is presiding over the trial of Garner and six other narcotics officers, chastised Braun for raising the matter in opposing the gag order.

In seeking the restraining order, federal prosecutors claimed defense attorneys were making prejudicial comments about the case in which the narcotics officers are accused of skimming $1.4 million in drug money, evading taxes and various other charges.

Prosecutors singled out Braun’s comments about the alleged CIA connection with laundered drug money and Nicaraguan Contra rebels as irrelevant to the case and a subject that “will serve only to confuse the jury and waste time.”

Rafeedie also suggested that the allegation was irrelevant and said he had been uncertain whether to grant the gag order until he read Braun’s legal brief, which he described as a ruse to get the CIA story before the media.

“Even if everything you say in the document is true, it has nothing to do with whether your client has filed a false income tax return or has (unexplained) expenditures,” Rafeedie said.

In his court document, Braun maintained that the CIA agent questioned by deputies had ties to “the Blandon family which was importing narcotics from Central America to the United States.” He did not identify the family further.

In his court filing, Braun said that he had asked for--and never received--a letter from federal officials stating explicitly that no drug money was used by the U.S. government or any government agency to purchase weapons for the Contras or for weapons to be traded for hostages in Iran.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas A. Hagemann, one of the prosecutors in the deputies’ trial, would not comment directly on the allegations. But in his own court papers, Hagemann said prosecutors would seek to exclude court testimony about “any alleged CIA plot.”

“Such matters are entirely extraneous to this case and would be nothing more than a ‘smoke screen’ to divert the jury’s attention from the issues which are properly before it,” he wrote.

Garner and some of the other deputies on trial have said that, as part of their job, they sometimes worked with federal agencies on money-laundering cases that would actually send drug money back to the cartels as part of the undercover operation.

After receiving tips from informants that large sums of money needed to be laundered, federal agents would alert local undercover operatives such as sheriff’s narcotics deputies who would pose as money launderers and meet the drug trafficker’s representative, they said. After turning the money over to federal officials--who would actually launder it--other deputies would follow the trafficker in hopes of uncovering more of his drug operation.

Testifying Tuesday, Robert R. Sobel, a former sheriff’s sergeant and the prosecution’s chief witness, said his deputies were told by federal agents whether to follow a money courier, seize the cash or arrange for the money to be laundered by federal agencies.

“And to keep up the credibility of the informant, they would launder money back to the cartel?” Braun asked.

“That’s right,” Sobel replied.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this story