Source of Brown Story Unmasks Himself : Politics: He says a ‘moral obligation’ led him to step out from the shadows. Ex-governor denies drugs were found in police sweeps of home.

A former California state policeman--a whistle-blower in another major case--has identified himself as the original anonymous source of allegations that Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. tolerated drug use at his Los Angeles home while he was governor.

James C. Pashley, 45, of Torrance said in a Times interview late Thursday night that he decided to come forward publicly after appearing with a blacked-out face and distorted voice on ABC news last week, because “I felt a moral obligation to back up what I saw.”

Pashley added new details to his allegations, saying that on one occasion while conducting a sweep for explosives in Brown’s Laurel Canyon house before he left the State Police in February, 1976, he found marijuana butts in soft drink cans after Brown and singer Linda Ronstadt departed. He said Brown and Ronstadt had been there alone.

But, he added: “I want to emphasize I never saw him (Brown) personally use any (controlled) substances.”

Brown, a candidate for the Democratic nomination, has denied using any illegal drugs or tolerating their use in his home. Friday, upon being told of Pashley’s new allegations, he issued a new denial.

“I never heard of anyone sweeping my house,” Brown said. “This guy is having some kind of a delusion. It’s absurd . . . . What a phony story! It’s all a lie.”

Specifically, Brown said, he did not start dating Ronstadt until after Pashley says he left the State Police, and that she never visited his home before then.

If Brown sues him, Pashley said, he and other former State Police officers, as well as several civilians, could come forward with further, more explicit information. He declined to elaborate.

In a new element that surfaced Friday night, it was learned that Pashley pleaded guilty last December to a misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance, a painkiller called Vicodin, and was directed to enter a program supervised by the Los Angeles County Probation Department. Pashley claimed Friday he had tried to obtain a prescription as a favor to a friend and that his record would be cleared after six months.

ABC officials confirmed Friday that Pashley was their original source and that he first mentioned drug use at Brown’s house while dining with network correspondent John McWethy and an ABC news crew at L’Opera restaurant in Long Beach on March 27.

“He was a confidential source, but since he has made a decision to come forward, he obviously has released himself from confidentiality,” said Christopher Isham, senior producer in charge of ABC’s news investigating unit.

Pashley is the second former State Police officer to allege publicly that drugs were used at Brown’s Laurel Canyon home. The other is Robert E. Ford, Pashley’s one-time police supervisor, who now works for a Colorado arms manufacturer. Ford, however, put the period of alleged drug violations at 1977-78. Pashley puts it one or two years earlier.

Pashley has been unemployed since last year when he was dismissed by McDonnell Douglas Corp. as an internal investigator. The company says he was released during a staff cutback, but Pashley claims he was fired for contacting federal authorities in a case involving alleged improper construction of the C-17 cargo jet produced in Long Beach.

He has testified to a congressional committee in the matter and claims that McDonnell Douglas employees threatened his life if he went to the authorities about the results of an internal C-17 investigation he had undertaken for the company. McDonnell Douglas has filed a lawsuit against him in the matter, accusing him of illegally removing company documents.

Pashley said that he was a State Police officer from mid-1974 until February, 1976. Brown became governor in January, 1975. Pashley said he mainly performed his duties at the governor’s home.

He said that Brown was present on “perhaps three or four” of 12 occasions in which he, accompanied by at least one other officer, found indications of marijuana use. There were six occasions in which, he said, they found a white powdery substance that was later tested and found to be cocaine.

“We’d sweep the house prior to his entrance and we were given a list of anyone who was expected there,” Pashley said. “There were times he’d let others use the house. We complied with the dictates of upper management, and our policies and training in keeping in the background and not entering the house while people were there.

“At the most, officers would be in a side room. And we’d sweep it after the people had left. Mostly, we’d be outside. We’d check to see that the doors were locked and there were no fire hazards. When we swept the house before or after, there were always two of us, to my recollection, and we had more doing it if there was a large gathering. It was a minimum of two.”

But Brown, backed by several former high officials of the State Police, denied Friday there were any sweeps of Brown’s home--at least no sweeps authorized under State Police policy.

“I never heard of anyone sweeping my house,” Brown said. “I never saw them in the house.” And, he went on, there weren’t guests in the house when he wasn’t there.

Pashley, by contrast, called the house “a crash pad,” with people coming and going, whether Brown was there or not.

William Shelton, director of the protective detail during the period in question, and Robert McHale, Los Angeles zone commander at the time, said Friday that under their procedures, no sweeps were authorized and that officers were not supposed to enter the house.

Both retired officers, however, said it was conceivable that Pashley and other officers might have been exceeding their authority.

Pashley said Friday that the sweeps were “standing operating procedure.” He also said that Ford had brought in cocaine testing kits, not issued by the State Police, to check out the suspected cocaine.

“We could smell the odor of burning marijuana,” Pashley said. “Because of the heavy foliage around the house, the smell would not drift around too much. And we’d confirm it when people left.”

Pashley said he and Ford reported their findings to superiors and were disappointed when they took no action.

Pashley said he was not “offered money or favors” from anyone to come forward with the story and that he is “apolitical.” Although he said he is a Republican, he said that he is “dissatisfied” with President Bush and has nothing against Brown.

He said the matter of alleged drug use at Brown’s home came up after chitchat about war experiences at the March 27 dinner with McWethy. McWethy, ABC producer Don Thrasher and members of the ABC camera crew who had been filming Pashley in connection with the McDonnell Douglas case had invited him and his wife to dinner.

“I opened my mouth,” Pashley said. “I said some things casually.” Then, he said, McWethy argued strongly that there was a public interest in airing the matter, since Brown was a candidate.

“I’d just as soon drop this whole thing,” Pashley said. “I don’t like to be in the public eye. If I were (Brown), I’d just forget the whole thing and press on. It happened 17 years ago. I don’t think he should drop out of the race. Maybe he should make an apology.”

But, said Brown, none of what Pashley said is true. “This man has caught himself in a big lie,” he said.