Evidence-Planting Case Goes to D.A. : Drugs: Sheriff confirms that officials will investigate deputy accused of framing minorities. He also denies assertions by former officer that department ignored accusations.

Sheriff Sherman Block confirmed Wednesday that the case of a deputy accused of planting drug evidence on minority group members in heavily black and Latino communities has been submitted to the district attorney for possible prosecution.

But the sheriff denied the assertions of another deputy who resigned last Friday, Aurora Alonso Mellado, that she had brought allegations that the deputy had planted the evidence to the attention of superiors first herself.

Block asserted at his monthly news conference that it was a supervisor who overheard a conversation about possible improprieties by Deputy Jeffrey Jones and then asked Mellado, whom Jones had been training, about them.

Block also contested assertions by Mellado and her husband, an eight-year deputy on stress leave, that they had provided documentation to Internal Affairs investigators of death threats they said they had received since the investigation began.

Mellado, a five-year deputy, and her husband, Michael G. Osborne, stood firm on their assertions in interviews Wednesday. They insisted that Mellado had reported alleged unlawful conduct by Jones before any supervisor asked her about it, and that they had documented written threats.

At a news conference Tuesday, Osborne accused sheriff’s deputies of routinely planting evidence on minority group members. Mellado, meanwhile, also announced the filing of a legal damages claim in which she said she was harassed and forced out of the department after she told authorities that Jones had planted narcotics on suspects.

Such claims, if rejected by the county, are usually followed by lawsuits.

Mellado has been granted criminal immunity for her testimony against Jones, but the district attorney’s office has not yet decided whether to prosecute him.

Answering a barrage of questions on the matter, Block said he was aware that discriminatory treatment of minorities exists in his ranks, but added: “I believe there are very few people in this department at any level who will knowingly tolerate that kind of activity.

“When you say minorities are targeted in an area, the area [Firestone, Lynwood, Compton and Willowbrook] is about 100% minority, so it’s hardly a targeting issue,” Block said.

“If you’re asking me if deputy sheriffs ever engage in inappropriate conduct,” the sheriff continued, “I’d be a fool to say it never occurs.

“But I’m also secure in saying that when it is determined that such behavior does occur that we move very aggressively in dealing with it.”

Mellado and Osborne had suggested during their news conference that a “code of silence” exists in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department that not only keeps deputies from reporting wrongdoing by other deputies but also leads to threats against those who do.

In their case, they said, it resulted in threats against them and their children after the allegations against Jones surfaced.

They said the department had done little to inquire into or stem the threats.

Block responded Wednesday: “I don’t think there is such a thing as a ‘code of silence,’ but I would be less than truthful if I didn’t believe that there were people that on occasion saw things that they knew were improper and rather than reporting it as they should decided for reasons best known to them that they would not.”

When this happens, Block went on, the reputation of the department is “tarnished” and “everybody’s badge is just a little duller because of that kind of activity.”

Block said the couple had been given equipment to record threats phoned into their home. However, no evidence of such threats has been returned to investigators, the sheriff added.

Mellado later countered that she submitted copies of certain written threats to a departmental investigator as early as late August.

As for Block’s assertions that the department had questioned her about Jones’ conduct before she made allegations of wrongdoing, Mellado said she had made the allegations to a former supervisor and to a sergeant who was her supervisor at the time. Her husband also said he told another supervisor--all before she was first questioned Aug. 18.

Block, who said at his news conference that Mellado had filed false reports on Jones’ drug arrests and therefore also was implicated in wrongdoing, responded late in the day:

“To date, and until the investigation reveals otherwise, it appears that Ms. Mellado did not initiate a report to her supervisors or anyone else in her chain of command.”