Officer, Wife Indicted for Alleged Roles in Theft Ring : Police: Authorities say the couple stole $25,000 from check-cashing stores. Their lawyer says patrolman is being persecuted because he is a critic of the LAPD.

A Los Angeles police officer and his wife have been charged with masterminding an armed robbery scheme against a chain of check-cashing stores and then using bribes and intimidation in an attempt to keep an accomplice from implicating them, according to an indictment unsealed Friday.

Patrol Officer Bobby R. Marshall and his wife, Carolyn, are accused of conspiring with an accomplice to steal more than $25,000 from a check-cashing store and of plotting thefts at three other stores.

Both pleaded not guilty Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court to charges of robbery, burglary, grand theft, kidnaping for robbery and conspiracy. They face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on all eight counts against them.

Their alleged accomplice, Gregory Sims, was convicted in 1990 in connection with the attempted robbery of one of the check-cashing outlets and is serving a 14-year prison term.

The couple’s lawyers denied the charges Friday, saying authorities are retaliating against Marshall because the 11-year police veteran has been an outspoken critic of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Marshall, 34, testified before the Christopher Commission that the department is permeated by racism and brutality. He also has recorded his complaints in a transcript that he hopes to publish as a book under the title, “Inside the Blue Klux Klan.”

“Ever since he testified before the Christopher Commission, the department has made his life miserable,” said Edward A. Esqueda, his lawyer. “And now this is the culmination.”

The former anti-gang officer, assigned to the Southwest Division, has been on stress leave since December. He and Carolyn Payne Marshall, 41, were arrested Friday morning at their Carson home by Los Angeles Police Department officers and investigators from the district attorney’s office.

The couple allegedly conspired to rob outlets of the Any Kind check-cashing chain, where Carolyn Marshall once worked. The crimes began 2 1/2 years ago, but Los Angeles police internal affairs investigators said they were not notified of Marshall’s possible involvement until late 1990.

The indictment, issued Thursday by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury, described this sequence:

Marshall allegedly contacted Sims in September, 1989, and asked him to rob a Lawndale Any Kind outlet, where Carolyn Payne, not yet married to Marshall, worked. In exchange for half the take, the couple gave Sims inside information about the operation of the business and how to evade police, authorities said.

Sims, using a gun purchased with Marshall’s money, allegedly approached the store’s manager and Payne as they left work for the night. He forced the pair into Payne’s car and then ordered her--purportedly against her will--to return to the store and rob it. The next day, Marshall and Sims divided more than $25,000 at Sims’ mother’s house.

Three subsequent attempts did not go as smoothly, authorities said.

The couple allegedly provided Sims with the home addresses and physical descriptions of store managers--information apparently collected from a Los Angeles police computer. Marshall also allegedly told Sims how to use a radio scanner to evade police.

But, for reasons authorities have not explained, attempts to rob West Los Angeles and Hawthorne check-cashing outlets failed.

The conspiracy ended in November, 1989, when Sims was caught by police as he tried to rob an Any Kind outlet in Torrance. An employee was able to notify police as Sims held the manager at gunpoint, and Sims was arrested at the scene.

The kidnaping charge stemmed from the Torrance incident, in which the manager was briefly taken hostage.

At the time, police said they believed that the crime was an isolated incident and that Sims acted alone. But Sims is now listed as a prosecution witness against the Marshalls.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Efrem M. Grail refused to say whether Sims was granted immunity from further prosecution in exchange for his testimony.

According to the indictment, Marshall tried to prevent Sims from turning him and his wife over to authorities:

First, Marshall made a series of four cash payments, of undisclosed amounts, to Sims’ wife. Then, in October, he had Sims wife’s car set afire “as a threat,” the indictment says.

Superior Court Judge Cecil Mills ordered Marshall held on $300,000 bail, saying that if the charges are true, he could be a threat to the public. Carolyn Marshall was in jail on $50,000 bail.