Arrest Called Triumph for New Tactics

The arrest of a paroled robber and drug user as the alleged “syringe bandit” is a feather in the cap of community-based policing, a prime illustration of the benefits of police and civilians working together to solve crime, the program’s advocates said Wednesday.

“This is probably one of the most outstanding examples you’re going to see,” said Los Angeles Police Capt. Vance M. Proctor, commander of the northern San Fernando Valley patrol area where most of the holdups took place.

The district attorney’s office said Wednesday that charges would be filed today against Wesley G. Pledger of Northridge, accusing him of being the bandit who threatened victims in eight holdups last week with a hypodermic he said contained his own AIDS-infected blood. A spokesman said the 10 charges would include robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

No one was injured in the holdups, which occurred in Northridge and Canoga Park, not far from Pledger’s home, and police said they had no immediate plans to test Pledger for the AIDS virus.

“There’s really no reason to,” said Lt. John M. Dunkin, a department spokesman. “He didn’t actually cause any physical injury with the syringe.”

Pledger, who authorities said has a history of robbing small businesses to support a heroin habit, was identified by police as a possible suspect late last week after a former employer recognized a photograph that officers distributed to local businesses as part of the community policing program launched in the Valley last summer.

The photo, obtained from a videotape record of the robbery of a Northridge 7-Eleven, was passed by community-relations Officer Jim Dellinger to a private security company, HMI Associates of Woodland Hills. HMI then handed out the photo to its clients, including a firm where Pledger had recently been fired as a fast-food cook.

Pledger, who police said was identified by at least four witnesses during a lineup Tuesday night, was being held at the Los Angeles County Central Men’s Jail.

He was taken into custody Saturday for parole violation after his parole officer, alerted by police to Pledger’s possible involvement, found a cocaine pipe in his car, police and a spokesman for the state parole office said.

Proctor credited community-based policing, a law enforcement philosophy that promotes problem-solving and crime prevention over responding to radio calls, with giving Dellinger the chance to develop sources and work his network for clues.

“It gave Officer Dellinger the time to go around in his business-watch community, contact key people, give them the photograph of the suspect, provide some information to them,” Proctor said.

Dellinger, a 24-year police veteran, said he was with Proctor at a community meeting Tuesday night when they received word via cellular phone that Pledger had been positively identified at a lineup.

“He and I both looked at each other and cheered and did everything but high-fived ourselves in front of 125 people,” Dellinger said Wednesday.

Pledger, the only child of working-class parents, has a criminal history that fits the standard portrait of a multiple drug user who robs to support his heroin habit, said Jerry DiMaggio, regional administrator for the state Office of Parole.

Pledger, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, told parole officers that he graduated from Chatsworth High School and that he has used heroin, cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines, DiMaggio said. Pledger said he had also served in the Navy and attended community colleges in the Valley and Daytona Beach, Fla.

“There is nothing unusual about this case,” DiMaggio said. “There’s no weird psychological profile. . . . It’s a standard kind of pattern. . . . His problem is drugs.”

Since 1984, Pledger has been convicted twice of being under the influence of heroin, once of burglarizing a discount tire store and once of petty theft from a Sears, Roebuck & Co. store, DiMaggio said.

In 1987, Pledger was convicted of three armed robberies in which he used a knife or pretended to have a gun, DiMaggio said. At the time, Pledger told authorities that he had been using $150 to $200 worth of heroin a day, DiMaggio said.

He was sentenced to seven years in state prison and paroled last June after serving about four years, DiMaggio said.

Since his release from prison, Pledger had been living with his mother and landed the job as a cook. Periodic urine tests have shown him to be free of drugs, although results of a test taken after his arrest Saturday were not available Wednesday, DiMaggio said.

DiMaggio said Pledger’s file showed no indication that Pledger has acquired immune deficiency syndrome or has been tested for the virus, and he noted that prison inmates who display symptoms usually are tested. He added that Pledger was capable of lying about having the disease to frighten robbery victims.

“He’s bright enough to think of a scam like this,” DiMaggio said.