3 Sheriff’s Deputies Plead Guilty to Theft Charges : Courts: They face six-year prison terms for stealing credit cards from elderly motorists and buying more than $75,000 worth of merchandise.

Three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pleaded guilty Monday to felony charges of stealing and fraudulently using credit cards taken from elderly motorists they stopped during a five-month period in the San Gabriel Valley.

The thieves used the cards to buy more than $75,000 worth of merchandise, including stereos, skis and a U. S. Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal.

Steven Switzer, 31, of Glendale; Edward Perez, 35, of Rialto, and Brent Mosley, 27, of Rancho Cucamonga, deputies at the Temple City station, pleaded guilty before Los Angeles Municipal Judge David Horowitz to a total of 25 counts. They face maximum sentences of six years in prison.

“I don’t know if it was greed,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jodi Rafkin said of the deputies’ motives. “But what I really don’t understand is how they thought they would get away with it.”

One of the victims, suspicious of being stopped, wrote a letter of complaint to Sheriff Sherman Block after he discovered that $7,851 worth of unauthorized merchandise had been charged to his card. His complaint and that of another motorist prompted a five-month investigation by the Sheriff’s Department.

The deputies and a fourth man--Mario Rendon, 35, of Alhambra, who pleaded guilty earlier--fraudulently made the purchases on credit cards taken from motorists from February to June this year, Rafkin said.

More than 1,600 pages of evidence and eight videotapes were to be presented during a preliminary hearing scheduled for Monday before the guilty verdicts were entered, the prosecutor said.

The evidence included interviews with store clerks, surveillance reports, handwriting analyses, property confiscated at the deputies’ homes, eyewitness reports and videotapes of the deputies’ shopping trips, Rafkin said.

Seventeen victims, half over age 65, were prepared to testify against the deputies, Rafkin said. One was Earl Fraisl, 83, who was stopped by deputies on his way to pick out music for his wife’s funeral, she said.

The deputies told their victims that their cars matched the description of a hit-and-run vehicle, or a car reported weaving through traffic. The officers would ask the men to empty their pockets onto the car seat and sit on the curb. Then the deputies searched the car and stole the credit cards, Rafkin said.

Rafkin said she believes the deputies pleaded guilty rather than face the preliminary hearing and testimony from victims, many of whom, Rafkin said, “looked like your grandparents.”

“They (the victims) were just the sweetest, most considerate people,” Rafkin said. “Juries would have just loved them.”

Lawyers for the defendants could not be reached for comment.

Sentencing in Los Angeles Superior Court is set Jan. 31 for Mosley, Feb. 11 for Perez, March 17 for Switzer and Dec. 27 for Rendon, who pleaded guilty last month.

The deputies have been suspended without pay, the Sheriff’s Department said. They will probably be fired, officials said after the guilty pleas were entered.