Civilian Misused Courtesy Badge

A Corona car dealer who was given a honorary badge for serving on one of Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle’s citizen support groups was convicted of using the badge to impersonate a law enforcement officer during a dispute with a business associate in 2004, court records show.

Victor Manuel Covarrubias, 59, had been arrested at his Victor GMC/Buick dealership after the confrontation, which occurred at a home in Huntington Beach.

The state attorney general’s office is reviewing the practice by some top Southern California law enforcement officials of issuing honorary badges or identification cards to political supporters and other members of the public.

State law prohibits anyone from issuing badges to the public that could be mistaken for genuine law enforcement badges.

The Times reported earlier this month that members of another group of Riverside County sheriff’s supporters had questionably displayed honorary badges at least twice: once by a man whose Glendale home was being searched by state agents as part of a criminal investigation, and once by a man in a secure area of the Burbank airport. Doyle asked for all badges to be returned last July.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Michael Ramos had similar citizen support groups whose members received honorary badges or identification cards.

On Sept. 9, 2005, Covarrubias pleaded no contest in Orange County Superior Court to misrepresenting himself as a police officer and was sentenced to three years’ probation and 60 days in jail. Covarrubias said he served his sentence under house arrest from October to December.

Covarrubias, during a recent interview, denied flashing a badge or trying to impersonate a law enforcement official.

But on his plea form, he had written, “I willfully and unlawfully misrepresented myself as a police officer by displaying a police badge to another person in order to fraudulently induce a belief that I was a police officer.”

According to court records, two Huntington Beach police officers testified during Covarrubias’ preliminary hearing that the auto dealer showed up at the apartment of Youman Gerges the afternoon of Dec. 10, 2004, with three other men.

Gerges told police that Covarrubias demanded $5,000 he said he was owed, then reached into his chest pocket, pulled out a black wallet and flashed what looked like a badge.

“You don’t know who I am,” Covarrubias told Gerges, according to court testimony by a detective.

“I work for the Sheriff’s Department, and if you don’t give me the money by 5 o’clock, you’re going to be in big trouble.”

Riverside County Undersheriff Neil Lingle said his department learned of Covarrubias’ arrest immediately and that Covarrubias’ badge, identification and membership were revoked immediately.

“Once we were notified, he was done,” Lingle said.

Covarrubias belonged to a group of supporters called the “Executive Council,” which was modeled after another law enforcement public support group, the California Highway Patrol’s 1199 Foundation.

Doyle said the organization raises money from the public to pay for things such as sheriff’s awards dinners, scholarship awards lunches, support for law enforcement widows and a vehicle for a disabled former sheriff’s employee.

Covarrubias said he donated $5,000 to the “Executive Council” in mid-2004 and that Doyle personally presented him with a badge.

“I donated the money because I thought it was a good cause,” Covarrubias said. “I didn’t know I’d get a badge. I didn’t think a badge was going to help me. I didn’t do anything wrong with the badge.”

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Times staff writer Stuart Pfeifer contributed to this report.