Target of Drug Task Force Sues : Law enforcement: He accuses officers of abusing him and planting evidence on suspects.

An alleged South-Central Los Angeles drug dealer, once the target of a special crime task force, has filed suit against several law enforcement officers, saying they violated his civil rights in their attempts to send him to prison.

One of the officers cited in the complaint filed by Ricky Donell Ross is former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Sobel, the key government witness in the current money-skimming trial of seven sheriff’s narcotics officers. He has testified in Los Angeles federal court that deputies abused and planted evidence on numerous drug suspects, including Ross.

The civil suit filed in federal court alleges that from March, 1987, to about November, 1989, several sheriff’s deputies and Los Angeles police officers violated Ross’ civil rights by denying him due process and subjecting him to excessive force--including beatings and a mauling by a police dog.

The complaint, which seeks unspecified general and punitive damages, also charges the officers with assault, battery, false arrest and false imprisonment.

Also named in the suit are Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, and the city and county of Los Angeles, which the complaint accuses of having maintained an “official” policy that permitted the civil rights violations to occur.

Ross, currently imprisoned for a drug conviction, could not be reached. His attorney, Robert Mann, also could not be contacted.

The plaintiff’s brother, David Ross, 38, said Tuesday he was aware of the lawsuit and shared its sentiments.

“This is to compensate for all the brutality the police did to my brother and all the harassment my family has suffered,” said David Ross, who, with his mother, was attending the trial of the seven deputies accused of stealing $1.4 million from drug dealers and money launderers.

Police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth declined to comment on the complaint.

A sheriff’s deputy named in the suit denied that he and his colleagues had done anything wrong and questioned the credibility of a suspected drug dealer.

“We did our jobs effectively and professionally,” said Deputy Ed Jamison, a former member of a task force that targeted Ross and other suspected drug dealers. “It doesn’t surprise me that (Ross) would come up with these allegations. . . . He’s responsible for putting hundreds of pounds of poison on the streets.”

Jamison was a member of the joint Sheriff’s-LAPD Southwest Task force, a unit once dubbed the “Freeway Rick Task Force,” because it initially was formed in January, 1987, to build a case against Ross.

In testifying recently against his fellow officers, Sobel--who once headed the task force--recalled how some of his crew members allegedly attempted to set up Ross in April, 1987.

The former sergeant, who has pleaded guilty to money-skimming and tax-evasion charges in the case, said he and other law enforcement officers once pursued Ross in an auto chase to a residential area, where Ross abandoned his car and climbed a fence to escape.