Case Against Narcotics Officers on Way to Jury : Courts: Federal prosecutor urges convictions for ‘dirty cops.’ Defense lawyers call their clients heroes.

Closing arguments in the corruption trial of six Los Angeles County narcotics officers ended Tuesday with a federal prosecutor urging the conviction of “dirty cops” who allegedly violated the civil rights of suspects with beatings, thefts and planted drugs.

Defense attorneys, however, said the government’s case is built on the tainted testimony of convicted drug dealers and a former sheriff’s sergeant with an admitted history of misconduct.

After 5 1/2 months of testimony, jurors today are expected to begin deliberating the fate of the five sheriff’s deputies and a Los Angeles police officer who worked together on an anti-drug team in the 1980s.

The defendants--Police Detective Stephen W. Polak, Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert S. Tolmaire and Deputies John L. Edner, Roger R. Garcia, Edward D. Jamison and J. C. Miller--are accused of wrongdoing while conducting drug raids in South-Central Los Angeles.

According to Assistant U. S. Atty. Michael Emmick, the officers victimized drug suspects because they shared an attitude toward suspected traffickers that “‘you ain’t got no rights. We own you. We can do anything we want.”’

In urging a guilty verdict, Emmick told jurors that a successful prosecution would mean that “we do not tolerate dirty cops. We do not tolerate police corruption. We take the Bill of Rights seriously.”

The prosecutor warned jurors that if the officers were acquitted, “we might as well paint targets on the back of suspects in South-Central Los Angeles.”

Defense attorneys, however, described their clients as the unsung heroes in the war against drugs who were often at risk against dangerous criminals and who sometimes resorted to the lawful use of force to subdue suspects.

They blamed any wrongdoing on former Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert R. Sobel, who testified that he and the defendants skimmed hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug cash.

“If there’s any big-time thief in this case, that big-time thief is Robert Sobel,” said attorney David Wiechert, who represents Polak.

Earlier, Jamison’s attorney, Bradley Brunon, also said the government’s case relied heavily on drug dealers who lied about being beaten or victimized by thefts because they hated the officers who pursued them.

“It’s a joke to call these criminals ‘victims,’ ” Brunon said.

Prosecutors accused the defendants of “trying to hide behind their badges” with emotional appeals to the nine men and three women on the jury. Emmick said that in addition to testimony of Sobel and the drug dealers, the prosecution introduced items stolen in drug raids and later found in the homes of several deputies or their relatives--including a jade elephant, crystal figurines and a generator.