Took Drug Money on Sergeant’s Orders, Deputy Says : Trial: The officer, one of seven charged with skimming evidence, was videotaped taking $30,000 during an FBI sting.

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who was videotaped taking money during an FBI sting testified Thursday that he took $30,000 from a suspected drug dealer at the direction of his former sergeant, who has turned chief accuser.

James R. Bauder said he spotted a nylon bag filled with cash while searching the drug suspect’s hotel suite and showed it to Sgt. Robert R. Sobel during an August, 1989, operation that turned out to be a sting.

“I took it out into the hallway and said ‘Bob, we got it,’ ” Bauder testified.

But Bauder said that Sobel, wanting to continue observing the suspected drug dealer who actually was an undercover FBI agent, told him to put the bag back and “just keep a little bit” of the money for evidence.

Bauder said he returned the bag to the suite and transferred $30,000 to a bag belonging to his colleague, Deputy Daniel M. Garner, who took the money to Sobel. Bauder said he never saw the cash again.

The officer was the third defendant to take the stand during the trial of seven deputies accused of stealing $1.4 million from suspected drug dealers and money launderers while members of elite narcotics units within the Sheriff’s Department.

Federal prosecutors claim that Bauder and the other deputies stole $48,000 of the $498,000 planted by the FBI.

Bauder denied any wrongdoing, refuting earlier testimony given by Sobel, a key witness for the prosecution who testified that Bauder was attempting to steal the money he took out of the drug suspect’s bag.

Bauder said that not only had he taken the money in response to an order by Sobel, but it was standard procedure to seize a portion of the money discovered during a drug raid in case the suspect escaped with the evidence.

His testimony followed that of Deputy John C. Dickenson, who was found to have sting money in his home during a search by federal investigators.

Dickenson testified that the morning after the sting he discovered in his station desk drawer a brown paper bag filled with nearly $3,000.

“I believed it must be money from the seizure the night before,” Dickenson said. “I thought it was a test. . . . Basically a test to see if I would take the money.”

Dickenson said he did not immediately go to Sobel or to another deputy because he did not know who put the money in his desk, or who he could trust. He said he opted instead to take the two bundles of $20 bills home until he could consult two friends in the department and decide what to do.

The next day investigators searched his home and discovered the money in a shaving kit in his closet.

No sting money was found in Bauder’s home. But the deputy has been accused of using thousands of dollars stolen during drug raids in 1988 and 1989 to pay for everything from flying lessons to an interest in a horse-racing syndicate.

Bauder testified that all his expenditures were paid for with money he and his wife saved, either in bank accounts or in a savings fund they kept at home. Bauder said that during their marriage, he and his wife had accumulated about $41,000 in savings, supplementing their income with money she earned baby-sitting and he earned refurbishing cars.

Bauder also denied allegations that he had ever lied in police reports or planted evidence on suspects.