Prosecutor’s Suit Alleges Demotion, Retaliation

A veteran prosecutor filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday charging top supervisors in the district attorney’s Pomona office with tolerating misconduct by sheriff’s deputies and retaliating against him when he tried to expose it.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Ceballos, a prosecutor for 11 years, said he was demoted and denied a promotion after reporting in March that he suspected three deputies of providing false information in a search warrant affidavit for an auto theft investigation.

After the search, deputies arrested a man on suspicion of illegal gun possession. They also arrested two of his tenants on suspicion of possessing drugs for sale. No one was charged with auto theft.

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti declined to comment. But when Ceballos filed a formal grievance last month, Pomona Head Deputy Frank Sundstedt vigorously denied demoting or retaliating against Ceballos. He also disputed the notion that the deputies provided false information.

Sundstedt said the complaint is timed to damage Garcetti’s bid for reelection, a charge that Ceballos denies.

Garcetti’s office rejected Ceballos grievance last week.

In his suit, Ceballos says he was demoted to the routine job of filing criminal cases from the more prestigious positions of trial deputy and calendar deputy. He also says he was denied a promotion despite having scored high on evaluations.

Sundstedt said the changes in Ceballos’ assignments were part of a routine rotation.

The controversy started in August 1999, when deputies said they found a stolen, stripped pickup parked on 3rd Avenue in Bassett, near La Puente.

In their search warrant affidavit, the deputies said they followed “tire marks” from where the vehicle was parked on 3rd and along the “driveway” to the suspect’s property.

El Monte defense lawyer Richard Escobedo sought to quash the search warrant, alleging that deputies misled a judge who issued it. He said they erroneously described the access to the defendant’s house from 3rd as a driveway when it was actually a 300-foot dirt and gravel roadway two car-widths wide and used by vehicles from nine other houses. That made it impossible to distinguish one set of tire marks from dozens of others on the road, Escobedo said.

Ceballos investigated and said he didn’t believe the deputies’ explanations. He recommended dismissing the charges.

But Sundstedt met with the deputies’ supervisors and rejected Ceballos’ advice. A Superior Court judge upheld the search warrant.