2 Musick Jail Officers Transferred Amid Allegations of Misconduct : Investigation: Letter citing sexual liaisons between employees and inmates now appears to be a forgery, official says, calling moves a precaution.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has transferred two senior officers at the James A. Musick Branch Jail in Irvine amid an investigation into allegations of sexual liaisons between deputies and inmates, employee bribes and other abuses at the jail, officials said Friday.

The allegations were contained in a letter sent two weeks ago to sheriff’s officials, but Assistant Sheriff Dennis LaDucer said two investigators have found no evidence to substantiate the claims. “We have nothing to substantiate it, but if these things are true, we want to put a stop to it,” LaDucer said in an interview.

Among the allegations were that Musick deputies used an “outbuilding” for trysts with female inmates, promising early release for those who engaged in sexual acts. The letter also alleged that jail employees took home firewood cut by inmates and that they bribed inmates with cigarettes and other items in exchange for unspecified “personal gain.”

But LaDucer said investigators have been hampered because they now believe that the letter was forged.

The single-page letter, addressed to the top officer at the Musick facility, was written on what appears to be Orange County Register stationery and purportedly signed by staff writer Jean O. Pasco. It indicates that the newspaper was aware of the allegations and was seeking additional information from the Sheriff’s Department. One of the sources of the information, the letter said, was the son of a “high-ranking county official” recently incarcerated.

Register Editor Tonnie Katz and Pasco said, however, that the letter did not come from their newspaper and that the reporter’s signature was a forgery. “I don’t know why anyone would put my name on it. I’ve never covered the Sheriff’s Department,” Pasco said.

LaDucer said that investigators ran fingerprint and paper-stock tests that also indicate the letter is a fake. But its real source has not been determined.

“It’s a mess,” LaDucer said. “We’re really conducting an investigation with our hands tied behind our backs because we don’t know where this letter came from.”

Even with the authenticity of the letter in dispute, officials took the allegations seriously enough that they transferred the two lieutenants named in the letter. No specific allegation were made against either man, but LaDucer said officials decided to move them out of their assignments anyway as a precaution.

Each man is well-respected within the department, he said. “They’ve both been here over 20 years, and they’re noted as people who are going to make their deputies toe the mark,” he said.

In transferring the two men even before the department investigation began, LaDucer said, “We didn’t want to get in a situation where, if there was sexual harassment, and there were liaisons, we didn’t want to get caught in a spot where (people might say) ‘Hey, you left these guys in there, and they intimidated people into not talking.’

“Even though we trust ‘em, we love ‘em, we just thought for the good of the organization it was the best way to do it.”

He said that the two officers were among five lieutenants responsible for the general operation of the Musick jail, and each has now been assigned to similar duties at the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange, a higher-security facility. Both will presumably be transferred back to their prior duties in Irvine if the allegations remain unsubstantiated, he said.

Both lieutenants appeared somewhat resentful about their transfers, but neither has pursued a formal protest or appeal, LaDucer said. They could not be reached for comment.

LaDucer said investigators have interviewed nearly 30 jail employees and have contacted nine recently released inmates--three of whom agreed to talk with them.

The former inmates were asked if they had seen anything unusual at the jail or experienced any mistreatment at the hands of deputies, “but we didn’t receive any (information) of that nature,” LaDucer said. Investigators are nearly done with their inquiry but plan to talk to more former inmates, he said.

During the last two weeks, one civilian employee at the jail was found to have been selling cigarettes to inmates at the no-smoking facility, LaDucer said. “We caught him and he resigned,” he said. He refused to identify the employee.

Although the cigarette issue is among the allegations included in the letter, LaDucer said the incident is unrelated to that case. The tip-off about the resigned employee came from another source and was investigated by a different team, he said.