Ex-Deputy Pleads Guilty to Stealing

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has pleaded guilty to two counts of stealing money seized in narcotics arrests when he belonged to an elite unit that was disbanded in 1989, federal authorities said Wednesday.

Oliver Horeczky, 47, of Agoura Hills entered a guilty plea Monday before U. S. District Court Judge Harry L. Hupp, said Assistant U. S. Atty. Stefan Stein. He is the 22nd former deputy convicted under an investigation by the multi-agency Big Spender Task Force, Stein said.

Horeczky also pleaded guilty to one count of failing to declare the income on his 1989 tax return, Stein said.

All of the former deputies were attached to one of four Major Violator Crews, top-flight narcotics teams assembled during the 1980s, Stein said. Stein declined to say specifically how much money Horeczky took, but said that the former deputy’s units stole tens of thousands of dollars in seized drug funds.

Horeczky faces a maximum prison sentence of 23 years and a fine of $750,000, Stein said. He will be sentenced in mid-June.

Last week, former sheriff’s deputies Robert Karl Clark, 45, of Glendora and Paul Rapisarda, 50, of La Palma pleaded guilty in cases stemming from the same investigation, Stein said.

Clark faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine, and Rapisarda faces 23 years and a $750,000 fine, Stein said. Those deputies will be sentenced in late September and early October.