U.S. Grand Jury Investigating Drug Officers : Narcotics: LAPD detectives among those targeted. The inquiry is revealed during testimony in the corruption trial of seven sheriff’s deputies.

With the corruption trial of seven Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies nearing an end, a federal grand jury has been investigating misconduct allegations against other narcotics officers including several Los Angeles Police Department detectives, it was disclosed Wednesday.

The Times had reported earlier that the Police Department officers, along with other sheriff’s deputies who worked together on an anti-drug task force in South Los Angeles, had been under scrutiny in the law enforcement scandal.

The disclosure Wednesday that a grand jury is reviewing the activities of the narcotics officers represented the first official acknowledgment that such a probe is under way and that more indictments may be forthcoming.

The revelation surfaced on the final day of testimony in the money-skimming trial of seven sheriff’s deputies who are accused of stealing more than $1.4 million during drug raids and came as Police Detective Ronald Michel was questioned by a federal prosecutor.

Michel had been called to testify on behalf of one of the indicted deputies, but Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey C. Eglash seized the opportunity to question the officer about his participation in the anti-drug team known as the Southwest Distribution Crew.

That group, which consisted of sheriff’s narcotics deputies and Los Angeles police officers, was formed in 1987 to investigate rock cocaine dealers in South Los Angeles--primarily suspected drug trafficker Ricky Donnell Ross.

Michel testified that Ross was targeted by his crew as the biggest crack cocaine dealer in the area, but Eglash charged that the zealous narcotics officers planted a kilogram of cocaine on Ross in 1987, beat up a friend of Ross and falsified police reports to try to cover up their actions. Eglash also charged that team members lied about finding cocaine during another raid so they could plant it on a drug suspect.

“You are aware that the activities of (the Southwest) crew has been the subject of an investigation by the federal grand jury?” Eglash asked Michel.

“I have been made aware of that,” the officer replied.

Michel, however, told Eglash that he was unaware of any beatings, false police reports or planting of cocaine as a member of the narcotics team.

Following the court hearing, Hank Hernandez, associate general counsel for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said he had advised Michel and other Los Angeles police officers under investigation not to comment about the allegations, although he acknowledged that they are targets of a federal grand jury probe.

“We are aware of the investigation,” he said. “We’re just standing by to see what the outcome of that investigation is. We’re hoping for the best.”

Hernandez would not name his clients nor identify how many were involved but said that all had worked on the Southwest team and that none has been formally interviewed by federal authorities.

He added that Wednesday’s courtroom exchange was the “first time that someone has indicated officially and with some specificity what the allegations are.”

Michel, a 17-year department veteran who is now assigned to traffic accident investigations, had testified on behalf of Deputy Terrell H. Amers, one of the seven defendants on trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

In addition to Amers, the defendants include Deputies James R. Bauder, Eufrasio G. Cortez, Ronald E. Daub, John C. Dickenson, Macario M. Duran and Daniel M. Garner.

Among the final witnesses was a former Riverside County sheriff’s deputy who was called by prosecutors to rebut deputies’ testimony that they had stopped a cocaine trafficker in 1988 in Moreno Valley and discovered two duffel bags of cocaine in the back seat of his car.

The drug dealer, Oscar Danilo Lovo, testified earlier that the deputies had lied about finding the cocaine in the back seat.

The former deputy, Douglas Carruthers, who now lives in Atlanta, told jurors that he was off duty and returning from a softball game when he saw the defendants stop Lovo’s car. Carruthers testified that the deputies appeared to find the bags in the trunk, although he acknowledged that he did not have a complete view of Lovo’s back seat from his car.

Carruthers also told jurors that while working at the Riverside Jail, he later met Lovo, who offered him a $100,000 bribe to testify on the drug dealer’s behalf. Carruthers said he turned down the offer and reported the bribe attempt to the district attorney’s office although Lovo was never prosecuted.

Earlier, the dealer had testified that he never made any bribe offer and only offered Carruthers “100,000 thanks” if he would testify.