Officials Can’t Link 2nd Deputy, Holdup : Robbery: Investigators dismiss theory that slain officer’s accomplice was a lawman after victim identifies a man who has an ironclad alibi.

A San Diego sheriff’s deputy identified as a possible accomplice in a foiled armed robbery in which one deputy fatally shot another has an ironclad alibi and has been ruled out as a suspect, investigators have told the victim and his attorney.

As a result, officials said, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department has all but dismissed the possibility that a second officer was involved in an attempted armed robbery Wednesday in the home of Donald Van Ort. Deputy Michael Stanewich, who was wearing a ski mask and wearing street clothes, was killed by another deputy who had seen him beating Van Ort.

Van Ort, 32, has said Stanewich was accompanied by another man who was among a group of six plainclothes deputies who had unsuccessfully searched his home for narcotics May 30.

On Wednesday, Stanewich entered Van Ort’s home at gunpoint while a second man ran off, the victim said. Stanewich, a 10-year veteran of the department, pulled a stocking over his head and tied up Van Ort and his 82-year-old grandmother. He beat Van Ort and doused him with lighter fluid.

In the midst of the assault, Gary Steadman, a fellow officer from the Encinitas station, arrived and shot Stanewich, only to pull off the mask and find that he had killed a longtime friend.

On Friday night, Van Ort was invited to the Encinitas sheriff’s station in an effort to identify the accomplice, according to August Anderson, Van Ort’s attorney. He scanned a photo lineup consisting of five sets of photographs that each included a picture of one of the participating deputies and pictures of four officers who did not take part in the search.

Van Ort was able to identify each of the five deputies but was asked to choose only the person who looked most like the person he saw with Stanewich that day.

He pointed to one of the photos, but said he was not quite certain it was the right man, Anderson said. Investigators left the room for half an hour, then returned and told Anderson and her client that the deputy Van Ort had chosen had been under investigation for his alleged role in the crime, but that he had provided an alibi and was not a suspect.

Sheriff’s spokesman Dan Greenblat said Saturday that investigators have “eliminated any deputies as suspects,” barring extraordinary new evidence. He confirmed that Van Ort had identified a deputy who had an ironclad excuse, although he would not describe the officer’s alibi.

Anderson, who on Friday had called for an independent federal investigation of the incident, said Saturday that she was surprised and disappointed that the Sheriff’s Department was close to concluding that another deputy was not involved.

“From my standpoint, they are not being thorough enough in this case,” she said. “I can’t say without a doubt that I believe the deputy (Van Ort identified) has an alibi.”