D.A. Throws Deputy Shooting to Grand Jury : O.C. inquiry: Unusual move distances prosecutors from case that has sparked criticism in minority community.

The Orange County district attorney’s office, under attack by minority groups over its investigation into the Christmas Day shooting death of a sheriff’s deputy, announced Thursday that it is turning the politically charged case over to a grand jury.

The 19-member panel will begin hearing evidence March 2 to decide whether criminal charges should be filed against Deputy Brian J. Scanlan, 32, a training officer who authorities say fatally shot a fellow deputy during a training session behind a Lake Forest theater.

Under a county policy adopted in 1985, the district attorney’s office investigates all shooting incidents involving police officers. But it generally reaches its own conclusions and announces them publicly, instead of referring cases to the county grand jury.

The unusual maneuver, the subject of speculation for weeks in law enforcement circles, allows prosecutors to distance themselves from what could prove a controversial decision in a case that has already prompted a firestorm of criticism in the minority community.

No evidence has emerged publicly to suggest that race played a part in the shooting of Deputy Darryn Leroy Robins, 30, who was black, by Scanlan, who is white. Authorities have investigated the possibility that Robins, playing the part of a suspect in a car stop, was shot in the head when he reached for a gun he had placed behind the visor of his patrol car.

But minority groups in Orange County have questioned the pace and thoroughness of the investigation. They suggest that the dearth of public information on the case has only fueled concerns that Robins’ race may have somehow figured in his death, and that the investigation could be tainted by the need to maintain close relations between the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office.

Local black leaders, adopting a high political profile that has been rare in Orange County’s small black community, have pressed without success for both federal and state civil rights investigations into the case. Minority representatives also met with members of the grand jury several weeks ago, officials said, urging the panel’s involvement.

The grand jury itself has come under some criticism from minority leaders who complain that its membership is overwhelmingly white, and it will be part of an inquiry by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission into claims of institutional racism in Orange County.

But despite such concerns about the grand jury, minority leaders who have been active in the Robins case said Thursday that an independent review can only help their cause.

“I think the district attorney is doing the right thing,” said Pastor Van Roberson, president of the Black Ministers Conference of Orange County.

“They’re making forward progress. They’re letting us know that our prayers were not in vain, and we just pray now for the best to happen--that information will be released to the community to relieve all of our minds.”

Orange County prosecutors refused to discuss their decision, but Assistant Dist. Atty. John Conley said that the office has opted only a handful of times in recent years to send an officer-involved shooting to the grand jury. “It’s not an everyday thing,” he said.

Perhaps the most controversial occasion came in a case that Conley handled in 1983 after a Stanton police officer shot and killed a 5-year-old boy. The officer, 24-year-old Anthony Sperl, was responding to a report at the boy’s apartment when he kicked in a bedroom door and saw a shadowy figure in the darkness, pointing what appeared to be a gun. He fired and shot Patrick Andrew Mason in the neck, discovering later the boy was holding a toy gun.

Prosecutors took the case to the Orange County Grand Jury, but the panel decided not to indict either Sperl for negligence, or the boy’s mother for endangering the child by leaving him at home while she went to work.

Conley said that prosecutors may decide to take a case to the grand jury in “a variety of different scenarios.”

The motives, he said, vary: to gauge how a jury of citizens may view the evidence in the case; to gain testimony under oath from witnesses; to present the grand jury with a tough call and ask “what is it we have here?”; or to speed along a clear-cut case by eliminating the prospect of a preliminary hearing before trial. Defendants indicted by a grand jury, unlike those charged by the district attorney, do not have the right to such a hearing.

Ron Talmo, a professor at Western State University College of Law in Irvine, said that the grand jury process provides a means for prosecutors to insulate themselves from potential volatility in criminal cases. In the Robins case, Talmo suggested, prosecutors may well have already concluded in their own minds whether Scanlan should be charged, but may want the grand jury to make the call.

“To avoid any appearance of bias, favoritism, whatever, it would be nice for the D.A. to have that stamp of approval from the grand jury,” he said. “Obviously, it’s the political overtones of this one that they’d like to distance themselves from.”

Twelve of the grand jury’s 19 members would have to favor an indictment in order for criminal charges to be filed against Scanlan. Conley said he expects several days of secret testimony, with a decision sometime in March. Prosecutors originally predicted they would complete their investigation by the end of January.

Prosecutors declined to say what witnesses they would present to the grand jury, but Conley said that investigators have talked to “dozens” of deputies since the shooting, including many who were not even at the scene of the incident.

Grand jury hearings are closed, and the district attorney’s office said in a terse press release that “the secrecy of grand jury proceedings” would preclude any further statements on the case until it is concluded. Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday.

This will be the first officer-involved shooting heard by the current grand jury, impaneled in July, said foreman Frank Kroeger, 62, a retired engineer for the city of Los Angeles. But he said he did not want to prejudge the case by saying anything else. “I think (the district attorney’s decision) speaks for itself,” he said.

Robert MacLeod, general manager of the Orange County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn., said he was “not really surprised” that prosecutors opted to take the case to the grand jury.

“Given the hue and cry from some groups that the investigation was not satisfactory, I think it’s politically expedient for the D.A. to put this in as fair and impartial a light as possible,” he said. “That’s basically a good deal for everyone.”

Larona Magee, the slain deputy’s sister, said family members don’t really care who investigates the shooting--so long as a decision is reached soon. “We’re dealing with all this as best we can. We just want it to be over with,” she said.