Defense Lawyer Suggests Witness Framed Deputies
A lawyer for one of seven Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on trial for alleged money-skimming suggested Wednesday that the prosecution’s chief witness framed his former deputies to hide his own thefts of drug money.
Attorney Jay Lichtman told a federal court jury that former Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert R. Sobel lied when he testified that the deputies shared in the thefts. And Lichtman said Sobel may even have planted “bait money” from an FBI sting on two deputies to implicate them.
Lichtman said his client, Deputy Ronald E. Daub, and another defendant, Deputy John C. Dickenson, may have been victimized by Sobel, who has already pleaded guilty to the money-skimming charge.
In their closing statements Wednesday, other defense attorneys also attacked Sobel’s credibility, noting that he has admitted beating suspects, stealing money and committing perjury while he was a narcotics sergeant.
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