Slain Woman’s Pleas Ignored by Deputies : Murder: Records show that deputies did not believe JoAnn Linkenauger’s reports of domestic violence. She was beaten to death by her husband.

About a year before James Linkenauger murdered his wife, a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy advised a probation officer who was in charge of supervising Linkenauger that the wife’s complaints of domestic violence were not to be believed.

According to a county probation report, the deputy wanted the probation officer “to be aware of (the deputy’s) impression that the victim should not be believed if she were to report any abuse by (James Linkenauger).”

The probation report, which was prepared for the Superior Court judge who last week sentenced Linkenauger to 25 years to life for first-degree murder, does not identify the deputy.

But the deputy in that incident and deputies who answered the other calls for help JoAnn Linkenauger made to the Sheriff’s Department are being investigated to see if they acted improperly in any of the instances, sheriff’s commanders said Friday.

Chief Deputy Richard Rodriguez said his office began the probe Monday after reading newspaper accounts of how court officials criticized the actions of deputies in the case.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell, in sentencing Linkenauger, was among those who criticized the Sheriff’s Department’s handling of complaints by JoAnn Linkenauger. “The criminal justice system as a whole failed to protect this victim,” Campbell said when sentencing Linkenauger.

JoAnn Linkenauger, 40, was beaten and strangled to death Jan. 17. The slaying ended a three-year marriage that was marked by violence almost from the beginning. Her battered and half-naked body was found the next day in a muddy Somis ravine.

Rodriguez said a team of Internal Affairs detectives has been assigned to investigate if deputies failed to properly handle calls of domestic violence from JoAnn Linkenauger and other allegations made against the Sheriff’s Department in the probation report. He did not know how long the probe would take to complete.

The probation report said JoAnn Linkenauger sought help from law enforcement, but James Linkenauger was “successful at convincing others of his innocence over the years.”

“The victim made many attempts to seek and obtain protection and intervention from the system which is in place to deal with instances of domestic violence,” the probation report says. “On some occasions, representatives of the system disbelieved or ignored the victim’s efforts.”

In one instance which took place Oct. 15, 1991, JoAnn Linkenauger called the Sheriff’s Department and reported that her husband tried to strangle her and punched her in the face three times. Deputies ignored her pleas and refused to jail her husband, according the probation report.

JoAnn Linkenauger called the sheriff’s dispatcher about 10:30 that night from a Pruner Health Services location near the couple’s Moorpark home. She told deputies that her husband had gone into a tirade and attacked her after she got home from work.

Despite a cut on her lip, “the deputy did not feel this cut was consistent from a punch on the face,” the probation report said.

The report said she asked Lt. Steve Giles to arrest her husband. But Giles decided to give James Linkenauger a citation rather than take him to jail because the cut on JoAnn Linkenauger’s face was “so small,” the probation report said.

JoAnn Linkenauger told Giles that she had had problems with her husband attacking her before and was promised that if it ever happened again he would be arrested, the report said.

“Lieutenant Giles told the victim that ‘things did not exactly work in that manner’ and that he felt that because ‘this woman did not have a mark on her’ ” that her story was not as credible as James Linkenauger’s, the report said.

Deputies gave James Linkenauger the citation and left.

“It’s a situation that dictated we look into it and investigate how the call was handled,” Chief Deputy Rodriguez said.

Giles could not be reached for comment.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew J. Hardy III, who prosecuted Linkenauger, said the prosecutor’s office is not commenting on the sheriff’s investigation.

Rodriguez said a report of the matter will be completed by the Internal Affairs investigators. Lt. Mark Ball, leader of the Internal Affairs office, will then determine whether violations of department policy have occurred and recommend what, if any, discipline is required.

The chief deputy said one aspect of the investigation will be whether any of the targets of the probe violated the Sheriff’s Department’s standard operating policy for handling domestic violence cases and whether the policy needs revision.

He said discipline for any deputy found guilty of violating policy could range from retraining to termination of their job.

Times correspondent Barbara Murphy contributed to this report.