A Scandal That Wasn’t

When Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca announced “Operation Easy Money” 18 months ago, he described it as a major scandal uncovered by his department and involving nearly a dozen of his employees in an alleged credit card scam. The sheriff displayed their photographs and promised more to come.

Today, however, the investigation has fallen far short of expectations.

Prosecutors declined to file charges against five of the 11 sheriff’s employees who were relieved of duty. Four others were indicted on charges that mostly could be reduced to misdemeanors, and they have been offered deals by prosecutors. The only one convicted of a crime pleaded guilty to misusing a department computer; she received a $100 fine and probation.

One deputy who was publicly accused of trafficking black tar heroin in the Twin Towers Jail has never been charged with a drug crime.

And the alleged ringleader of the credit card scam, Deputy David Osorio, has not been charged with any offense related to that alleged activity. Sheriff’s investigators had said Osorio was operating a separate ring in which they alleged that he had amassed $500,000 to $1 million by using hundreds of stolen credit cards. He was tried on those charges, and the trial ended in a hung jury.

Meanwhile, the county’s tab for the case continues to run. In salaries alone, the county has paid nearly $500,000 to the employees who were suspended with pay in May 2000. The four who were indicted last spring are no longer on the payroll.

Finally, as the case drags on, changing circumstances have roiled it as well. One deputy’s well-respected private lawyer bowed out because his client could no longer afford him. The sheriff’s lead investigator was promoted. And the sheriff’s informant, a woman with a long criminal record who was a jail inmate, married one of the defendants in the case.

After more than a year, prosecutors said the case is “not the crime of the century.”

“Except for the fact that it involves sheriff’s employees, this wouldn’t be on the radar screen of corruption in L.A. County,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman said. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s just not that big.”

Huntsman, along with other prosecutors and sheriff’s officials, said their first goal is to remove any problem employees from the department. Even if some of them were not charged criminally, they said, the internal probe is no small matter. One jail worker, Michael Habib, they said, quit before his internal investigation was completed because he knew the path that probe was taking.

For his part, Baca said the case is no less significant now than it was when he announced it.

“If I find criminal wrongdoing inside the Sheriff’s Department, I’m going to chase it down with all the might and resources possible, and that’s what we did,” Baca said. “My priority was to be open to the public about a problem that we were dealing with, and [that] we would bring it to a proper conclusion without dragging it on. I think we achieved that goal.”

The credit card investigation began after the department’s Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau received a tip from a jail informant, Lizzette Garvin. Investigators said she told them that a credit card fraud ring was operating among Twin Towers staff, led by Deputy Osorio, who worked at a north county jail.

According to the tip, sheriff’s employees and others were using stolen credit cards, provided to them mainly by Osorio, to withdraw cash from bank machines.

Investigators, with the sheriff’s support and $35,000, set up dummy bank accounts and undercover officers--nicknamed Tina the Crackhead and Rick the Crip, according to a grand jury transcript--began distributing credit cards to employees. Meanwhile, investigators said they videotaped some of the employees receiving credit cards and using them to withdraw cash from automated teller machines.

Investigators also taped telephone conversations between Garvin and department employees. Armed with those tapes, the grainy videos and the testimony of undercover officers, sheriff’s officials said they believed they had solid cases against the four deputies and seven jail workers.

“This [case] was more difficult than anyone could imagine,” said Lt. Michael Pippin, who was promoted during the investigation. “There was no rush to judgment; nothing was done halfway. . . . It all boils down to our undercover detectives stating that at certain dates and times they personally handed what was believed to be stolen credit cards to employees.”

Those employees, he added, took the cards believing they were stolen property and did so intending to use them to get cash. The alleged criminal activity occurred while employees were off duty, Pippin said.

Defense lawyers, prosecutors and others are critical of the investigation, saying the Sheriff’s Department rushed to release details of the case against the backdrop of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart scandal.

That scandal, which was at its height when Baca announced the credit card investigation, involved allegations of police planting evidence, covering up unjustified shootings and committing perjury, among other things.

“I truly believe the Sheriff’s Department has been so quick to act without checking things out . . . they’ve ruined so many people’s lives,” said Vicki Podberesky, a Santa Monica attorney who represented Osorio in his trial and Deputy Monica Planty.

“I think the Sheriff’s Department committed themselves to saying these people did wrong, and now they’re going to find whatever they can to prove that.”

Several other department observers and attorneys unconnected to the case agreed. They said the sheriff should have waited for a more complete investigation before revealing employees’ names and displaying their photographs.

Jeffrey Lowe, a lawyer representing former jail worker Meko Goodley, said: “My take on it is that there are probably one or two, [and] maybe three or four on the periphery of this who were dragged into it.”

Lowe was particularly dismissive of the case against his client.

In an undercover video, for instance, Goodley is difficult to identify, and the handoff of an allegedly stolen credit card occurs in a flash, Pippin said.

A tape of the department’s informant calling Goodley at home also is hard to interpret.

“Don’t say anything; just listen to me,” Garvin says on the tape. “Some Sgt. Pippin came to talk to me . . .”

Goodley then says: “How do you know me. . . ? Who is this? I don’t know you.”

Goodley tells Garvin to call Pippin if she knows something is going on at Twin Towers. He never indicates even knowing who she is.

Deputies failed to uncover any credit cards or receipts when they searched Goodley’s home.

In an interview, Goodley said that he wasn’t working at Twin Towers when the scheme was announced, and that he doesn’t remember Garvin.

Goodley and his attorney said he was offered a “no fine, no time” deal by the district attorney’s office, meaning if he resigned, he would not face criminal charges. He declined.

“I think this is so unfair,” Goodley said. “Why should I resign and walk away? There’s so much shame and embarrassment.”

The four employees who were indicted by the grand jury in March appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court recently along with four others who don’t work for the department but who allegedly were involved.

At that hearing, lawyer Winston McKesson told Judge William Pounders that he could no longer continue with the case because his client, jail worker Christopher Coleman, could no longer pay his fees. A lawyer will be appointed to represent him, Pounders said.

But Coleman’s case is complicated by much more.

Coleman, according to the Sheriff’s Department, married the informant, Garvin, during the investigation. A grand jury transcript shows that prosecutors and the Sheriff’s Department believed Coleman was involved in about 15 transactions involving credit cards and personal identification numbers.

Additionally, they believe Coleman brought in others, including his brother and some associates.

Though their case against Coleman may be more complicated given his recent marital status, prosecutors and investigators said they have video and tape recordings linking him to the crimes.

Garvin has come under scrutiny by some of the defense lawyers because they say her story frequently changes. According to the grand jury transcript, prosecutors knew she had multiple convictions for credit card fraud.

Garvin also was recently imprisoned for a parole violation involving credit cards, sheriff’s officials said.

“Nobody here is saying this informant is Joan of Arc,” Pippin said. “She has a very extensive criminal record that goes back to when she was 16 years of age. But if she provides us information, it’s our obligation to go out . . . and find the truth.”

Baca defends his staff’s handling of the case.

“The investigators were some of our top people, and this was a very difficult investigation because of the extraordinary slipperiness of the suspects,” the sheriff said.

“It took a lot of round-the-clock energy to get to the bottom of it all,” Baca said. “I commend the investigators for their tenacity and their ability to use imaginative investigative techniques.”

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Suspects in the Credit Card Case

The following are the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department employees and others who were initially implicated in the alleged credit card scam. Since Sheriff Lee Baca identified them as suspects, the investigation has made little progress in the courts, where most of the suspects either have been charged with minor offenses or have not been charged at all. Meanwhile, some of the sheriff’s employees remain on the public payroll.

Below are the charges against each of them, along with the salaries they have been paid since May 2000.

SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES

* David Osorio: Trial on grand theft and commercial burglary charges ended in a hung jury Nov. 9. Prosecutors will attempt to retry the case. He is expected back in court Nov. 27. He has been paid $22,943.

* Richard English: Relieved of duty with pay pending an Internal Affairs investigation. Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against him. He has been paid $98,730.

* Jessie Zuniga: Indicted by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on conspiracy to commit grand theft and attempted receiving stolen property charges; accused of trafficking heroin, but not charged with that offense. He is due back in court Jan. 11. He has been paid $51,634.

* Monica Planty: Relieved of duty with pay pending an Internal Affairs investigation. Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges. She has been paid $27,869.

CIVILIAN JAIL WORKERS

* Christopher Coleman: Indicted by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on conspiracy to commit grand theft and 15 counts of grand theft with access cards and attempted receiving stolen property charges; due back in court on Jan. 11. He has been paid $32,959.

* Josephine Phillips: Charge of unauthorized use of government computer reduced to misdemeanor; she pleaded guilty and was given a $100 fine and placed on probation.

* Michael Habib: Resigned from the department Nov. 14 amid an Internal Affairs investigation. Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges. He has been paid $61,817.

* Tirrell Thomas: Indicted by the grand jury on conspiracy to commit grand theft and attempted receiving stolen property charges; due back in court Jan. 11. He has been paid $37,930.

* Meko Goodley: Indicted by the grand jury on conspiracy to commit grand theft and attempted receiving stolen property charges; due back in court Jan. 11. He has been paid $39,000.

* Timothy Miller: Relieved of duty with pay pending an Internal Affairs investigation. Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges. He has been paid $59,624.

* Hilary Ayers: Relieved of duty with pay pending an Internal Affairs investigation. Prosecutors declined to file charges. She has been paid $53,907.

Others allegedly involved in the scam who are not Sheriff’s Department employees:

* Marcus Coleman: Indicted by the county grand jury on conspiracy to commit grand theft and attempted receiving stolen property charges; due back in court Jan. 11.

* Tiffany Williams: Indicted by the grand jury on conspiracy to commit grand theft and attempted receiving stolen property charges; due back in court Jan. 11.

* Kimberly Dobard: Pleaded no contest Nov. 16 to a misdemeanor charge of attempted receiving stolen property, given a $100 fine and placed on probation.

* Andrea Kizzee: Indicted by the grand jury on conspiracy to commit grand theft and attempted receiving stolen property charges; due back in court Jan. 11.

* Antuan Turner: Pleaded guilty to a parole violation.

Sources: Los Angeles County district attorney’s office; Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department; Los Angeles County Department of Auditor-Controller