2 Deputies Charged With Bribery, Theft

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were charged by the district attorney’s office Thursday with conspiracy to commit bribery, stealing cocaine and other felonies stemming from two on-duty incidents in which they stopped motorists and discovered cocaine in their possession.

Scott Graham and Wayne Desire, both 27-year-old San Fernando Valley residents, were arrested at the West Hollywood sheriff’s station in mid-January. They are scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 7 in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Authorities said the pair, patrolling in a marked sheriff’s car last October, used their emergency lights to stop a Westside resident’s vehicle and found 5.5 ounces of cocaine inside.

They arrested the driver and confiscated the drugs, but they turned in only about one ounce to the sheriff station’s evidence locker, the district attorney’s office charged. The remainder was allegedly divided between the two officers, who have been suspended without pay since their arrests.

In the second incident, the two defendants found a vial containing a substance resembling cocaine in a driver’s possession, authorities said.

Graham allegedly asked the Westside resident, “What would it be worth to you not to be taken in?” and explained that a cocaine arrest could result in the need to hire a lawyer, $2,500 in fines and the possibility that the driver could lose his job.

The officers then followed the man to his home, leaving with $800 and a gold money clip, according to authorities.

Both officers have been charged with conspiracy, grand theft, asking for and receiving a $500 bribe and compounding a felony by taking money for failing to make a drug arrest.

Desire was also charged with possession of cocaine and of a set of metal knuckles.