Deputy Testifies He Refused Suggestion to Steal

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s narcotics officer accused of stealing thousands of dollars in seized drug money testified Wednesday that his former sergeant once suggested they take some of the cash but that he refused.

Deputy Daniel M. Garner, testifying for the second day at the money-skimming trial of seven deputies in federal court, recalled a conversation in late 1987 in which Sgt. Robert R. Sobel told him that since federal agencies, the Sheriff’s Department and even the cocaine cartels were getting their share of seized drug money, the deputies should skim some for themselves.

“He said people were getting money up and down the line,” said Garner, “and we might as well get ours.”

The deputy said he ignored Sobel’s suggestion but remained suspicious of the sergeant, who as head of the elite narcotics investigation unit often controlled seized drug cash, photographing it and placing it in evidence.

Garner said it was Sobel who last had in his possession the $30,000 that Garner and another deputy are accused of stealing during a videotaped FBI sting operation last August.

One of seven veteran officers accused of stealing $1.4 million from suspected drug traffickers and money launderers, Garner said he and his fellow crew members confronted Sobel several times about his suspected mishandling of money.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas A. Hagemann challenged Garner’s assertions that he had never skimmed money. The prosecutor pointed out that shortly after a major drug cash seizure by Garner and his colleagues in May, 1988, Garner stopped writing personal checks and began using cashier’s checks bought with cash to make his $1,240 mortgage payments.