Police Probe Finds Evidence of Misconduct : Task force: Corruption investigators implicate as many as eight officers in abuses, none apparently serious enough to lead to criminal charges.

A multi-agency task force charged with uncovering possible corruption within the San Diego Police Department has determined that as many as eight officers--through the rank of captain--participated in a variety of abuses ranging from sexual relationships with prostitutes to allowing drug-buying informants to keep a portion of the seized narcotics.

None of the findings uncovered thus far is considered serious enough to lead to criminal charges, although more cases involving police misconduct are being investigated by the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force, Police Chief Bob Burgreen said.

The allegations forwarded to the department so far “would be considered small potatoes in some East Coast towns, but every city has its own standards for acceptable behavior, and the charges are serious for this city,” Burgreen said.

Burgreen has ordered a special team of officers working in the internal affairs division to review the findings. If “sustained,” or found to have merit, the allegations will move up an administrative ladder to Burgreen, who will make a final decision on discipline.

Internal affairs investigators looked at a few of the same officers for some of the same charges in 1985 but could not determine whether the allegations were true, sources told The Times last September.

Assistant Chief Norm Stamper said last week that the task force developed new information over the course of the past 2 1/2 years about the allegations.

When the task force was formed in late 1988, internal affairs investigators passed along all of its information related to the task force probe, he said.

“We essentially suspended some of what we had under way because of our commitment to the task force and the need to preserve its independence,” he said. “Our internal affairs office has given the task force a lot of information.”

It is unclear exactly what internal discipline the Police Department might bring against the officers, but administrative punishment for the offenses involved could lead to termination, department guidelines say.

“If people are wrong and it can be proven, we’ll take appropriate action,” Burgreen said. “My first thought is, we have unpleasant tasks before us, but we are going to get out from under this cloud.”

Attorney Everett Bobbitt, who is representing some of the officers against whom some of the charges have been made on behalf of the Police Officers Assn., said none is guilty of misconduct.

“I haven’t seen proof of any misconduct,” he said. “In general, allegations have been made by people who live on the dark side, have committed perjury and are publicity seekers. Nobody with any credibility has made an allegation so far.”

It may be months, if ever, before allegations are made public and only then if officers appeal their discipline. Officers are afforded a public hearing through the city’s Civil Service process but could choose to accept the findings and discipline to avoid publicity.

The task force is expected to send a report by mid-summer to the county Grand Jury that will effectively conclude the portion of its investigation that deals with police corruption, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation who asked not to be named.

Although the police corruption probe will end this summer, other task force members--police and sheriff’s detectives as well as lawyers from the state attorney general’s and district attorney’s offices--will continue to investigate the killings of 44 prostitutes since 1985.

For the most part, the corruption allegations center on officers who worked on the narcotics street team established in the early 1980s to arrest small-time drug dealers, the source said.

In addition to the allegations about prostitutes, stolen drugs and pilfered drug money, the task force still is investigating whether officers participated in the murders of either Donna Gentile or Cynthia Maine, both prostitutes who worked as police informants.

Gentile’s body was found six years ago on a rural roadside in East County, her mouth stuffed with gravel. At first, investigators believed she was killed by a police officer because she had testified at a Civil Service Commission hearing against two officers, one of whom was fired and another who was demoted but later reinstated.

More recently, detectives have abandoned that theory and now are convinced that an officer was not responsible for her murder because the body was dumped so openly. Had an officer been involved, the body never would have been found, sources told The Times in February.

Maine disappeared shortly after her release from jail in 1986, where she had been serving four months for writing bad checks. Task force detectives believe she is dead. She was the daughter of former Police Officer Kenneth Maine, who died of a heart attack in late 1982 and had served on the force between 1967 and 1973.

It was during the investigation into the disappearance of Maine, who worked as a drug-buying informant for the narcotics street team, that investigators uncovered details about alleged corruption occurring within that unit during the mid-to-late-1980s.

Among the allegations: that police officers had sexual relationships with prostitutes and informants and that, in making drug buys, officers sometimes allowed informants to “pinch off” some of the seizure before passing it along to officers.

Maine’s family said she had an affair during 1984 and 1985 with Officer John Fung, a member of the narcotics street team, and often mentioned meeting with Sgt. Sal Salvatierra, who then worked in the gang unit and was the subject of a 1985 internal affairs investigation into allegations that he and other officers had sex with Maine.

At that time, internal affairs investigators could not determine with certainty whether the allegations were true or false.

Maine also worked closely with Sgt. Dennis Sesma, Fung’s boss at the time, her family said. Sesma resigned from the department in 1989 during an internal affairs probe into missing drug funds.

Former police informants have alleged to task force investigators that Sesma, once the street team’s supervisor, embezzled department money reserved for fake drug buys.

Sesma said last week that he had no comment on the latest allegations and has not retained an attorney. Fung did not return telephone calls from The Times last week. Everett Bobbitt, Salvatierra’s attorney, said his client is cooperating with the investigation.

No criminal charges are being brought against any of the officers so far because much of the information passed along to internal affairs came from informants with criminal records who would make less than credible witnesses during trial, two sources said.

Internal investigations do not require the same burden of proof as criminal trials, Stamper said.

“Evidence introduced at administrative hearings are subject to a more liberal interpretation,” he said. “There are things you can say and use administratively that you cannot criminally.”

One potential casualty of the corruption investigation is longtime task force member Sgt. Harold Goudarzi, who administrators recommended be fired after they concluded he had an affair with a task force informant. Goudarzi’s case is being reviewed by Police Chief Bob Burgreen, who will make a final decision on the case.

Bobbitt, Goudarzi’s attorney, said his client is innocent because the woman was not an informant.