D.A.’s Sweep of Delinquent Parents Also Nets Criticism

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on Friday announced that more than 400 parents were arrested on suspicion of failing to pay child support in a weeklong roundup by about 150 of the agency’s investigators and sheriff’s deputies.

But the sweep, which cost the county more than $600,000, was described by some investigators as a failed and dangerous publicity stunt that produced only a fraction of the targeted arrests and included plenty of blunders--among them, the wrongful arrest of a Getty Museum official’s spouse.

Hoping to dramatically reduce a backlog of 6,700 arrest warrants, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti’s office on July 30 deployed 100 investigators normally assigned to criminal cases and contracted with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to also pay overtime to 50 deputies in the sweep.

The result, officials said, was that 427 “deadbeat” parents were arrested, 163 more surrendered to authorities and 180 others were issued citations for the misdemeanor charge of being delinquent in payment of child support.

Steven K. Buster, the new head of Garcetti’s child support operation, hailed the roundup as a success and said that, based on the agency’s previous experience with parents who are criminally charged for child support delinquency, about 35% will ultimately pay support. That could translate to $944,000 a year in new child support payments, he said.

While Buster praised what he described as “an extremely well organized effort,” several investigators involved in the sweep told The Times a much different story.

Investigators, interviewed before the sweep officially ended, said the effort was dismissed internally as disappointing. They said few arrests were made compared to the number of outstanding warrants, and that their colleagues’ safety was jeopardized by poor planning.

With investigators sent knocking on doors in some of the county’s toughest neighborhoods, some participants complained that they were not given time to even collect rap sheets on those they were sent to arrest. They said the inadequate planning not only put them at risk but also wasted their time because many of those they were sent to apprehend were already in jail or long dead.

They also noted ruefully that the sweep occurred as lawmakers in Sacramento prepared for final votes on legislation that would strip California’s county district attorneys of their oversight of child support programs.

“I know this is just political,” said one investigator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “Everyone I’ve talked to is very drained and frustrated. . . . We know our lives are just disregarded.”

Another district attorney’s investigator said management had told investigators the sweep had to occur this week even though the investigators had said it would take until September to do the necessary preparation.

“You’re just spinning your wheels out there,” said that investigator, who also insisted on anonymity. “You figure there’s got to be some political reason.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Foltz agreed: “It was an incredible waste of resources.” Foltz, a former district attorney’s investigator, criticized the effort as an “ill-conceived plan just for the purpose of making some kind of a media” event.

Lt. Bill Guidas of the district attorney’s office, who helped coordinate the event, rejected that characterization. “With any police officer serving any warrant, there is a degree of risk,” he said, “but I didn’t hear any of what you are hearing” in complaints. “Actually, I heard just the converse, nothing but glowing comments.”

The investigators interviewed by The Times said the operation was thrown together too quickly. Word of the ambitious effort began to trickle down last month, they said. The investigators said they told management that more planning and research time was needed, but were overruled.

The effort was supposed to culminate with a press conference featuring Garcetti and Sheriff Lee Baca. But after the fourth day--Monday--it was clear that the results would be far less than expected: less than one arrest per officer per day. On Tuesday morning, some investigators had been sent back to their original assignments, several sources said.

“Needless to say,” said one investigator, “there was no press conference on this thing.”

Instead, Garcetti’s office released a press release with a statement and reporters were directed to present their questions to child support chief Buster.

Investigators said that before going out they were warned not to make any arrests until they were certain they had the right person. When investigators looked into their warrant packets they understood why: Some warrants had photographs attached of people with names similar to, but not identical to, those of the suspects. Most warrants, they said, had no other information--not even a rap sheet that could warn them if the suspect was violent.

“They could be a guy with a rap sheet a mile long that we don’t know about, and when you’re knocking at the door you think you’re there for [child support] but they think you’re there for that outstanding [warrant for] assault with a deadly weapon,” said one investigator.

No injuries were reported in the sweep. Authorities did say that one woman made a formal complaint after she was allegedly strip-searched by investigators with the district attorney’s office.

In addition, Buster confirmed that the husband of an unidentified official with the Getty was mistakenly arrested, apparently because the man’s identification had apparently been stolen by someone else.

“We are trying to figure out what happened,” Buster said.

Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.