Couple Accuses Sheriff’s Department of Planting Evidence : Law enforcement: Ex-deputy files claim, saying she was harassed into resigning because of her protests. Her deputy husband contends minorities were targeted.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, beset in recent years by charges of racial discrimination and harassment, was accused Tuesday of falsely arresting and routinely planting evidence on minority group members in heavily black and Latino communities.

“It’s happening every day,” eight-year deputy Michael G. Osborne asserted at a news conference to announce a legal claim against the department. Osborne, who is on paid leave for stress disability, said he has seen it happen in the Firestone, Lynwood, Compton and Willowbrook communities, all patrolled by deputies.

Osborne’s wife, Aurora Alonso Mellado, a five-year deputy who resigned last Friday, filed the damage claim against the county and the Sheriff’s Department, charging that she was harassed and forced out after she alleged that her training officer, Deputy Jeffrey Jones, had planted narcotics on suspects. At the news conference, she said that the incident involved two black suspects and that she was asked to write false reports against them.

In her claim, Mellado says that in seven weeks of being trained by Jones as a patrol deputy last summer, she found that he was “engaging in illegal activities, including planting evidence, using throwaway guns, transferring drugs, assaulting and battery of civilians, and violating of suspects’ civil rights.” Such claims, if rejected by the county, are usually followed by lawsuits.

Since she first made the allegations to department officials, Mellado and Osborne said at the news conference, both have repeatedly received death and other threats directed at them and their two small children from people they believe to be department employees who have access to their unlisted home telephone number and address.

The race-related allegations are reminiscent of testimony by a lead prosecution witness in a string of federal cases in recent years involving drug money skimming. Robert R. Sobel testified that as a former sheriff’s sergeant in Lynwood and nearby communities, he frequently arrested African Americans who were simply walking the streets and had committed no crime. Sobel later acknowledged in court lying more than 100 times in his testimony in such cases.

The Sheriff’s Department, which videotaped Tuesday’s news conference, made only a brief statement about the allegations.

Capt. Jeff Springs, Sheriff Sherman Block’s chief spokesman, said: “When the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department became aware of the allegations, an internal investigation was initiated. Because that investigation is still active and our department has not formally received the complainant’s claim, it would be inappropriate at this time to discuss the specifics of the case.”

Jones is on leave and efforts to reach him Tuesday through the department for comment were unsuccessful.

Mellado, Osborne and their attorney, James H. Davis of Los Angeles, said they have been informed that on Nov. 14, Sheriff’s Department investigators asked the district attorney to file three criminal charges against Jones in connection with Mellado’s complaints against him. They said the district attorney has made no decision on whether to act.

A spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said the office could neither confirm nor deny whether charges were pending against Jones. She added, however, that it was not uncommon for weeks to pass before a decision is made on whether to file charges. “Sometimes, further investigation is required, so it can take a long time,” she said.

Mellado and Osborne said it has been made clear to them by investigators that if charges are filed against Jones, she will be a principal witness against the deputy.

What has angered them, they said, is that when the death threats began, including threats to her well-being at the sheriff’s pistol range where she was temporarily assigned, they could not persuade sheriff’s investigators to take action to protect them.

Osborne said both now believe that as perceived “snitches” they have no future in the department.

“If we require deputies to report misconduct of other deputies, then we must protect those who make the complaints,” said their attorney, Davis.

Osborne said that in his three years at the Century Station, fake drug arrests were very common, most always against minorities, and that one reason is that deputies get overtime pay when they are required to testify in such cases.