Verdicts on Deputies in Drug Scandal Upheld

A federal judge refused Monday to dismiss convictions of five Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies involved in a drug and money-skimming scandal with two other narcotics officers.

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie rejected defense claims that there was insufficient evidence to convict the deputies last month on 11 criminal counts ranging from conspiracy and theft to money laundering and tax evasion.

A federal jury convicted all seven defendants in the case on 25 counts after prosecutors claimed the narcotics officers had stolen more than $1.4 million in drug money during narcotics raids. But defense attorneys sought to overturn the convictions, arguing that prosecutors had failed to provide enough evidence at the seven-week trial to support the jury verdicts.

The officers were members of elite anti-drug teams disbanded in the wake of one of the worst corruption scandals in the department’s history.

Attorneys for deputies Terrell H. Amers, James R. Bauder, Ronald E. Daub, John C. Dickenson and Daniel M. Garner appeared Monday before Judge Rafeedie seeking a “judgment of acquittal.”

In arguing for dismissal of Dickenson’s conspiracy conviction, defense attorney Charles Goldwasser told the judge that prosecutors had failed to prove that his client had willingly joined any conspiracy and that the charge was based solely on the fact that investigators found marked drug money--taken during an FBI sting--at Dickenson’s home.

“Don’t you think that’s enough to convict him of conspiracy?” Rafeedie asked the attorney.

Goldwasser replied, “At the very most, (Dickenson) was in possession of stolen property when his house was searched.”

Dickenson, who had joined the narcotics team only a few months before the scandal broke, had testified during the trial that he found $2,940 in his desk at work and, fearful that it had been planted there, took the money home for safekeeping until he could determine what to do with the cash.

The defendants, who face sentencing on Feb. 25, were present during the hearing, and several said afterward that they were not surprised at the outcome.

One deputy, Eufrasio G. Cortez, was absent after his attorney fell ill and could not appear in court. Rafeedie rescheduled Cortez’s hearing for next week.

Another attorney, representing deputy Macario Duran, did not argue for dismissal of Duran’s conviction on one count of structuring financial transactions to avoid federal reporting requirements.

Duran is awaiting a second trial on charges that he obstructed a federal investigation and lied to a grand jury investigating the money-skimming scandal.