Beating, Theft by Deputies Alleged : Trial: A convicted money launderer testifies that sheriff’s narcotics officers stole $65,000 and abused him while he was handcuffed during a 1988 drug raid.

A convicted money launderer who claims Los Angeles County sheriff’s narcotics officers stole $65,000 from him testified Thursday that deputies beat him while he was handcuffed and one officer placed a revolver to his head in a mock execution during a 1988 drug raid.

Arturo Rojas Zavala, 22, told a Los Angeles federal court jury that deputies Terrell H. Amers and Eufrasio G. Cortez--who are on trial with five other sheriff’s officers for alleged money-skimming--roughed him up after he was stopped by members of their narcotics investigation team.

Rojas, who used the alias Carlos Luis Soto, testified that the deputies had taken him back to his West Covina motel, where he was beaten while handcuffed for reportedly refusing to give officers the combination to his locked briefcase.

“They put me on top of the bed, put a pillow on my back and Amers got on top of me and hit me,” Rojas said in Spanish while pointing to his lower back.

Rojas, through an interpreter, said he was pummeled by Amers and then kicked in the face by an unidentified deputy before he was taken from the room. When he refused to sign a disclaimer form disowning $200,000 found in his pickup truck, Rojas said Cortez socked him in the stomach before he finally signed the document that allowed the deputies to seize his cash. Rojas said he later learned that only $135,000 of the money was turned in to authorities.

Rojas, who pleaded guilty to a money-laundering charge, said the cash was earmarked for a cocaine deal. And he acknowledged that he worked for a Mexican drug ring that had stored 311 kilos of cocaine in a nearby warehouse.

But as he was being driven to that warehouse by Amers, the deputy “took his gun out and put it up to my head . . . and looked like he was going to fire it,” Rojas testified. “Then he took it away.”

Attorneys for both Amers and Cortez declined comment on Rojas’ testimony, citing a gag order imposed this week by U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie.

But in cross-examining Rojas, Cortez’s attorney, James Riddet, suggested that the drug dealer had lied about the beatings and was cooperating with federal prosecutors after his prison sentence had been reduced from a maximum of nine years to two years.

Meanwhile, another admitted drug dealer claimed in testimony Thursday that the defendants had stolen $70,000 during a 1988 raid at his Wilmington duplex. But when asked if he could identify any of the deputies, the man pointed to a defense attorney and one defendant--Macario M. Duran--who was not at the raid.

The other defendants include Ronald E. Daub, Daniel M. Garner, James R. Bauder and John C. Dickenson.

In addition to the drug dealers, prosecutors Thursday called a string of witnesses to show that some of the deputies had paid thousands of dollars--much of it in cash--for vacation homes, satellite dishes, furniture, boats, helicopter flying lessons and a share in a race horse.

Billy Earl Harp, a real estate agent from Bullhead City, Ariz., testified that Cortez made a $5,000 deposit in cash for some property near the Colorado River. “We were in the garage because the wind was blowing, and it was hard to hold onto the money,” he recalled.

When questioned by Cortez’s attorney, however, Hart acknowledged that there was nothing illegal about paying in cash and that the deputy never tried to conceal his ownership or method of payment.

A witness subpoenaed by the government to testify against Amers sparked a heated moment in the trial.

Deputy Virgil Bartlett, who prosecutors said is “a subject of the federal corruption investigation,” told jurors that he had sold his 19-foot boat to Amers for $18,000 in cash and acknowledged that the government had agreed not to prosecute him for any statement he made in court.

But when Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas A. Hagemann routinely asked Bartlett if the government had made any other promises, Bartlett shot back: “More threats than promises.”

Under cross-examination by defense attorneys, Bartlett claimed that Hagemann had threatened to take him before the grand jury unless he testified against Amers--an assertion that was challenged by the prosecutor.