Suspect Freed in Error Had Been Target of Sting

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives went to a lot of trouble to arrest Abel Lopez Ramirez.

More than a dozen deputies from three sheriff’s stations spent hours staking out an alley behind a Mexican bakery in Pacoima, where Ramirez, 26, was nabbed, along with two other suspects, on charges of delivering a kilo of cocaine to an informant.

A sheriff’s helicopter and a narcotics dog were brought in to participate in the Aug. 5 sting, which took several months to arrange.

But despite the department’s carefully choreographed arrest, Ramirez--who could have received five years in state prison--was set free from Los Angeles County Jail in less than two days.

He was let loose by mistake after a clerk at the Inmate Reception Center failed to notice that some of the papers attached to his booking slip belonged to another inmate.

The unemployed Ramirez, who had arrived in Los Angeles from Mexico only a few months earlier, is one of 35 County Jail inmates, ranging from homicide convicts to alleged thieves, whom the Sheriff’s Department says it has mistakenly released since January 1995.

Although there is no official accounting of how much money was spent in the bungled attempt to prosecute Ramirez, the case has cost taxpayers at least several thousand dollars. And counting.

“Here the Sheriff’s Department, on one end, was putting all this effort into stopping a fairly substantial drug operation,” said Mike Goodman, an alternate public defender assigned to represent Ramirez. “But on the other end at the jail, they made a ridiculous mistake that led to the release of someone who they considered to be a key player in a drug ring.”

Goodman said he spent two hours at the Van Nuys Courthouse on Aug. 7 waiting for Ramirez to be brought in for an initial hearing.

Ramirez’s arrest took place less than a month after a homicide convict, Juan Espino, was mistakenly freed from County Jail because of miscommunication between law enforcement officials. Goodman said he wondered, as he was waiting in court, if the same sort of mistake had happened with Ramirez as with Espino, whose release received much publicity.

After several frantic calls, the bailiff confirmed Goodman’s suspicion: Ramirez was gone.

“At first we were laughing about it,” Goodman said. “People in my office would say, ‘Do you think we could get the same deal for my client?’ ”

Despite the jokes, Goodman regarded the incident as absurd, especially in light of how much work went into arresting Ramirez. “It was a lot more effort than you typically see,” he said.

The investigation resulting in Ramirez’s arrest started in June after an informant tipped sheriff’s detectives to a large drug operation in the San Fernando Valley, in which dealers were selling cocaine for $16,000 a kilogram.

The detectives set up periodic surveillance on a North Hollywood home. Then, on Aug. 5, the informant called the Sheriff’s Department to say that he had arranged to make a buy.

With the help of deputies from the Santa Clarita and Lost Hills stations, sheriff’s detectives staked out the alley behind the bakery on Van Nuys Boulevard, waiting for the drugs to be delivered.

According to a police report, Ramirez drove up in a Buick with a kilo of cocaine tucked in an El Pollo Loco bag.

He was arrested without incident, as was Hector Guellas, a passenger in the car. Also arrested was Gabriel Barragan Gonzales, who is accused of arranging the drug deal with the informant.

The men were each charged with one count of possession for sale of a controlled substance and transportation of a controlled substance.

Merrick J. Bobb, the special counsel studying problems in the Sheriff’s Department, said the mistaken release illustrates his theory: A lot of money is spent to beef up the department’s street operations, while such things as jails are neglected. “It was like [Ramirez] had been taken from RoboCop in the 21st century into a 19th century hoosegow,” Bobb said.

The cost of salaries for deputies deployed on the five-hour sting operation alone was about $2,000. It cost another $785 to send in the helicopter.

Narcotics detectives declined to comment. Sheriff’s officials are expected to appear before the County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to outline their plans for upgrading the antiquated inmate tracking system at the jail.

Ramirez, who attorneys believe may have been in the country illegally, is thought to be back in Mexico or in hiding. The trial of the two men arrested with Ramirez is expected to start next week.

“It would have been easier to have him here,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Size. “We could have tried all three of them at once. Now we’ll have to do a second trial, if we ever get him back.”