Shootings, Scandals Erode Block’s Image : Law enforcement: But the sheriff was heartened by the reception he got at a Mexican Independence Day parade in East Los Angeles a week ago. ‘I don’t feel under siege,’ he says.

During his decade in office, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block has become a fixture in the annual Mexican Independence Day parade. This year, Block’s family and aides asked the sheriff to stay home, or at least wear a bulletproof vest while riding in the motorcade.

They feared someone might harm Block in retaliation for four recent fatal shootings by deputies. But the sheriff disregarded their entreaties and rode anyway.

“I thought it would be an insult if I dropped out (or) if I sent a message that I don’t feel safe in that community,” Block said. “And . . . I was heartened by the response I got.”

The reception Block received a week ago in East Los Angeles stood in sharp contrast to the pounding he and his department have received lately in public hearings, news conferences and meetings.

“I don’t feel under siege,” Block said in an interview last week. “But . . . I’ve had to deal with more critical issues than at any particular time.”

Fading are memories of Block’s overwhelming election victories. Gone is the image of a grandfatherly sheriff overseeing an untarnished agency. Instead, the nation’s largest Sheriff’s Department and its leader are awash in unwanted headlines, public criticism and legal actions.

The troubles besetting his 8,000-member force have put Block, 66, under strain, his supporters say.

“This has been the worst possible time for him,” said Alma Fitch, a political consultant who has managed Block’s two successful reelection campaigns. “His pride in the department is very deep and very personal.”

The tumult of recent weeks was evident in Block’s remarks Friday to the 107 newest graduates of the Sheriff’s Academy. After praising them, the sheriff warned that “law enforcement is being vilified in the press” and tainted by “opportunistic politicians and certain members of the Bar.”

The crisis was precipitated by a string of fatal shootings by deputies between Aug. 3 and Labor Day. The shootings led to an unprecedented Board of Supervisors hearing into the Sheriff’s Department--and to a county grand jury investigation requested by Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner last week.

Community groups, from East Los Angeles to Artesia, have called for an independent inquiry into alleged brutality and racism in the Sheriff’s Department, similar to the investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department after the beating of Rodney G. King.

The shootings, however, are only the latest problems Block’s administration has encountered.

Last month, three deputies and two ex-narcotics officers were indicted in a money-skimming scandal. In all, seven deputies have been convicted, 18 have been indicted and 30 have been suspended in the past two years.

Last summer, three other deputies were arrested and later charged with stealing credit cards from motorists they had stopped for questioning.

And civil rights groups are seeking a federal court order restricting the activities of deputies at the Lynwood station because of alleged civil rights abuses.

The onslaught of events and criticism has not so much angered department officials as left them seemingly bewildered. “It’s like water torture,” said a top department official. “Drip by drip by drip.”

The shootings began with the Aug. 3 slaying of Arturo Jimenez in the Ramona Gardens housing project in East Los Angeles. In a little over a month, two other people were shot to death by deputies in Willowbrook and Artesia, and a fourth, Keith Hamilton, was killed in Ladera Heights under circumstances disputed by witnesses.

A coroner’s report showed that the 33-year-old Hamilton had been shot eight times in the back and once in the shoulder; several bullets had apparently struck him as he lay face-down. Two deputies involved in the Hamilton shooting were relieved of duty.

Block said his department is receiving so much scrutiny because the shootings occurred in such a short period of time, “which heightened the focus.”

The sheriff said he had no objections to the inquiry, adding, “I’m sure . . . whatever conclusion they draw will be an appropriate one.”

Block has displayed a low-key demeanor during the controversy--which contrasts with the combative style of Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

“Part of the reason that nobody or, at least, we haven’t scrutinized the Sheriff Department is the different styles of the two men,” said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. “Sherman Block is more politically astute. He’s a little wiser one about public relations.”

To other lawyers who have been critical of the department, however, the brutality allegations against sheriff’s deputies reflect a deep-seated problem within the department that has existed for years.

“These are nothing new, only newly discovered by the media,” said attorney Thomas Barham, a former sheriff’s lieutenant who has alleged excessive force in suits against his old department.

While Block denies that his department has a “pattern of misconduct,” he and his critics agree the recent focus on brutality allegations against the department has intensified because of the beating of King by Los Angeles police officers on March 3.

In the ensuing months, Block sought to keep his own department out of the limelight. He refused to be drawn into the Police Department debate. He refrained from criticizing Gates. He also quietly stepped up a review of his own department’s handling of citizen complaints, deputy discipline and other officer-misconduct issues.

That unobtrusive approach was undermined by the recent series of deputy-involved shootings.

When he agreed to the public hearing into his department, Block surprised everyone by releasing his staff’s own study of the Christopher Commission recommendations. He also announced the formation of a 21-member citizens advisory body to help carry out those changes.

It was a shrewd political move, according to both Block’s detractors and supporters. But Block said releasing the report and naming a panel was meant only to defuse a potentially volatile situation.

“When you talk about defusing, that’s exactly right, but defusing not in the context of trying to sweep anything under the rug but to send a message loud and clear that we were aggressively pursuing this and doing something about it,” he told The Times.

Others were not so sure that Block’s department is aggressive enough in pursuing misconduct. And some critics have said that his appointees are not independent enough to evaluate the Sheriff’s Department. Block disagrees.

“They’re not an investigative body,” he said of his appointees. “They’re not going to be answerable to the whole world. They are an advisory group to Sheriff Sherman Block, and how anyone can look at the individuals involved and say these are people who are in the sheriff’s hip pocket . . . (is) an insult to them.”

As an elected official, Block has added stature and he enjoys the political support of the majority of the county supervisors. Only Supervisor Gloria Molina has supported the call for an independent panel to examine the sheriff’s policies.

Even if a board majority demands an independent review, county lawyers say the supervisors have only a limited authority over Block.

“The board doesn’t have the power to supervise him in his law enforcement activities,” said Chief Asst. County Counsel Gerald F. Crump, adding that the California Constitution places the supervision of the Sheriff’s Department under the state attorney general for law enforcement purposes.

The supervisors do determine how much money is allocated to the department. But Crump said the sheriff makes his own decisions about how to spend it.

Another election lies ahead for Block in 1994. Block has promised to fill out his term even though some supporters privately worry that the controversy is draining a man who last January underwent surgery for prostate cancer.

His margin of victory last year was more than 67%. Fitch, his political adviser, said it is too early to gauge whether all the recent troubles have harmed Block’s popularity.

“We’re just at the end of the second act here,” she said.

Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this story.