Victims of Deputy’s Robbery Sue Sheriff’s Dept. : Courts: They say their rights were violated when Officer Michael Stanewich returned to their home to rob it. Stanewich was slain by a colleague during the crime.

An Olivenhain man and his elderly grandmother filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, claiming their civil rights were violated last year in a bizarre incident involving an off-duty deputy who botched a robbery at their house.

Donald Van Ort, 33, a travel agent, and his grandmother, Helen Van Ort, 83, said their rights were violated last July 3 when off-duty Deputy Michael Stanewich, a 10-year veteran, pistol-whipped them and demanded they open a bedroom safe.

Responding to the robbery at the home, another sheriff’s deputy confronted Stanewich in the kitchen, then shot and killed him.

The incident sparked a federal civil rights probe, and, though FBI agents acknowledged two months ago that their “preliminary” investigation was complete, no criminal charges have been filed. FBI spokesman Ron Orrantia could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

The civil suit filed Tuesday by Van Ort and his grandmother seeks unspecified damages, though it includes a bid for punitive damages against the Sheriff’s Department, saying the agency failed to supervise Stanewich properly.

Dan Greenblat, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said the suit was unwarranted. “We save Van Ort and we save his grandmother and in gratitude he files suit,” Greenblat said, adding, “We’re confident the allegations will be vigorously rejected by the court.”

Dwight Ritter, the attorney who filed the suit in San Diego’s U.S. District Court, disagreed.

“Any time a government agency commits the kind of acts that infringe upon the personal safety and security of individuals in their homes, it becomes a constitutional violation,” Ritter said. “That leads us to these types of actions.”

Records show that Van Ort had pleaded guilty in 1990 to assaulting an ex-girlfriend in a domestic-violence charge involving drugs and alcohol. That triggered a follow-up search of Van Ort’s home May 30, 1991, about a month before the holdup.

Stanewich, 36, was the lead detective in the routine, on-duty search, during which detectives spotted cash--somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000--kept by Helen Van Ort in a bedroom safe.

On July 3, Stanewich returned, armed and masked, with what the Van Orts say was an accomplice who fled as Van Ort yelled out, “It’s a robbery, Grandma!”

Homicide investigators have told Sheriff Jim Roache that Stanewich had money troubles but have not described how much Stanewich owed or for what.

Named as defendants in the suit are the Sheriff’s Department, the county of San Diego and Stanewich’s estate.

The accomplice has never been identified. The family contends the would-be second robber was probably a fellow deputy of Stanewich’s, but the Sheriff’s Department has all but ruled out that possibility.