Two Sheriff’s Deputies Are Arrested and Charged With Embezzlement : Stings: One deputy took heroin and the other took cash from decoys posing as arrest suspects, sources say.

Two San Diego County sheriff’s deputies were arrested Thursday on embezzlement charges and briefly held at the County Jail in Vista, where both men once worked.

James Patrick Beaty, 38, who was hired in 1980, and Samuel Priest, 28, a deputy since 1987, were released on $5,000 bail each. Their arraignments are scheduled for Monday.

Sources said the men were set up during unrelated sting operations in which one took heroin and the other took cash from department decoys posing as arrest suspects.

The undercover operations were initiated after officials received tips that the two men sometimes stole drugs and cash from those they arrested during routine patrols, sources said.

An internal investigation into the deputies’ actions was continuing in order to determine whether other confiscated property has been stolen, sources said.

“I will not tolerate illegal or improper acts by members of this department,” Sheriff Jim Roache said in a prepared statement. “I know the professional law enforcement and civilian employees in the Sheriff’s Department share my anger and sadness at times like these.”

Roache said he would seek to fire both men. Because an internal affairs investigation is proceeding, no details about the arrests will be released until it is finished, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said, adding that no more arrests are planned.

Since he took office in January, 1991, Roache has faced a rash of problems involving deputies. In January of this year, the department announced that Sgt. Dennis Hartman, a 23-year deputy, had been relieved of duty pending an investigation into his ties with a La Mesa massage parlor.

Hartman has retired from the department but has denied wrongdoing. A district attorney spokesman said the investigation is continuing and is expected to be resolved later this month.

Last year, a deputy was shot and killed by a colleague while beating and robbing an Encinitas homeowner. The incident prompted a federal civil rights lawsuit filed this month.

Also in the same year, a deputy pleaded guilty to sexual battery while on duty, another threatened to jump off the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge, and a third suffered a mental breakdown while leading deputies on a 25-mile chase.

Roache has said that all the incidents were unrelated and reflect a small percentage of problems in a department with 1,400 sworn officers.

Beaty was honored by the San Diego Elks Lodge as deputy of the year in 1989 for saving the life of an 11-year girl who was struck in the head with a line drive during a softball game Beaty was umpiring at Bobier Elementary School in Vista.

School officials refused Beaty’s request to call paramedics because of the expense. Fearing that the girl had suffered brain damage, he took her into protective custody and forced the school to notify medical officials, who took her by LifeFlight helicopter to Children’s Hospital in San Diego.

The girl spent four days in critical condition with a blood clot on her brain, and doctors said she probably would have died or suffered severe brain damage had she not been rushed to the hospital.

Beaty was injured on the job in 1988 when his car crashed into a telephone pole during a car chase in Vista. He suffered a minor concussion, a broken finger and bruises. Hired in August, 1980, Beaty has been assigned to the Vista station since June, 1990. He also worked in County Jail in Vista, the Vista patrol station and in the traffic division.

Priest was hired in July, 1987, and has worked in the Vista patrol station for two years. He also has worked in the Vista patrol station and in the Vista jail.