Ex-Sheriff’s Supervisor Changes Plea in Theft Case : Courts: He initially pleaded guilty to a felony involving a gun. But the judge now says he can’t reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor.

A former Sheriff’s Department supervisor who pleaded guilty to stealing a gun from the evidence locker after being promised it would only mean a misdemeanor conviction--and not a felony--learned Friday that the deal was off.

Since taking a guilty plea from Norman A. Wade on Sept. 2, Acting Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark said he discovered that state law does not permit judges to cut such deals in cases involving stolen firearms.

Wade, 49, had pleaded guilty to felony grand theft for stealing a gun from the property room and selling it at an Oxnard pawn shop for $125.

Clark said probation officials recently informed him that the state Legislature stripped judges of the authority to reduce grand theft cases involving firearms from felonies three years ago.

Somewhat apologetically, Clark informed Wade that he had a legal right to withdraw his guilty plea since the court could not keep its word on reducing the conviction.

Wade immediately withdrew his guilty plea because he said a felony conviction could cause him to lose his job as a toxicologist with Arizona’s Maricopa County medical examiner.

Clark set an Oct. 31 jury trial in the case.

Prosecutors, who had objected to the plea agreement, were pleased with the day’s events. Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert D. Meyers said Wade should be convicted of a felony because he had violated a position of trust.

“He had a job that required him to be ethical, honest and truthful,” Meyers argued outside court. “Obviously, stealing county property is not ethical.”

Robert I. Schwartz, Wade’s attorney, left the courtroom without commenting on his client’s case. Schwartz could not be reached later for comment.

Wade joined the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department crime lab in June, 1990. He was forced to resign in June, 1992, after pleading no contest in an unrelated prosecution to charges that he stole a license plate registration sticker from the property room and falsified registration documents for his own car.

He was fined $300 and sentenced to two years’ probation in that case.

A subsequent audit of a gun locker in the property room found a .357 magnum pistol missing. Recalling Wade’s court case, detectives checked pawn slips that shops in Ventura County register with police agencies and traced the gun to Wade.

Wade had sold the gun to Get-More Loan & Jewelry in Oxnard in May, 1991, officials said.

Investigators suspected Wade in the theft of other items from the property room, including jewelry, cash and a camera. But the pawned gun was the only item prosecutors could link to the former Sheriff’s Department supervisor, authorities said.

After Clark promised to reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor, Wade entered his guilty plea to the felony charge.

But when the judge called the case at Friday’s sentencing hearing, he immediately told Wade that a mistake had been made. Clark said a probation report prepared for the case pointed out that, while judges can reduce convictions in grand theft cases, that is not an option if the stolen item is a gun.

Meyers said prosecutors did not believe the plea agreement was appropriate when it was signed. That was confirmed, he said, when probation officials researched the matter.

Wade faces up to three years in prison if convicted on the felony.

The misdemeanor conviction carried a lighter term--no more than a year in jail.

Since Wade’s case, sheriff’s officials say they have improved security of the property room.