7 Ex-Deputies Get Jail Terms of Up to 5 Years : Courts: They took part in ‘unprecedented corruption’ in skimming of drug money, judge says.

Seven former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms ranging from two years to five years for participating in a massive money-skimming scheme that a federal judge portrayed as “unprecedented corruption” in local law enforcement.

In sentencing the former narcotics officers, U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie said that veteran deputies stole $893,000 during narcotics raids and that the repercussions from their crimes brought the anti-drug efforts of the Sheriff’s Department to a virtual standstill for months.

Since the scandal broke more than 1 1/2 years ago, eight other narcotics officers have been indicted, another 20 sheriff’s deputies have been suspended and the department’s major narcotics teams have been dismantled. As a result, 18 narcotics cases have been dismissed or weakened to the point that they cannot be tried at this time.

“The evidence in this case revealed unprecedented corruption, probably never before seen in the history of law enforcement in this city,” Rafeedie told the defendants, the first narcotics officers convicted in the scandal.

Sheriff Sherman Block characterized the sentences as “quite light” but tougher than those that would be applied to non-law enforcement personnel convicted of similar crimes. The “justice system has done its job,” he said.

Last December, six of the defendants were convicted of conspiring to steal cash seized from drug traffickers and money launderers, and a seventh officer was convicted of circumventing bank reporting requirements to conceal large cash deposits that Rafeedie said were stolen drug money. The deputies, who had been suspended in September, 1989, were fired upon conviction.

“While there was no predetermined plan, the defendants clearly had a broad design to (pursue) their illegal conduct,” Rafeedie said.

Some of the former deputies had engaged in “blatant perjury” during the seven-week trial, the judge said. “The stories offered to this court and to the jury were wholly unreliable, untrustworthy and unbelievable,” he said.

Rafeedie said the deputies were as aggressive as drug dealers in their pursuit of personal profit. “These defendants basically engaged in the same level of misconduct,” Rafeedie said.

After the sentencing, the defendants maintained that they were innocent. “I don’t admit to anything in the case,” said one former deputy, Daniel M. Garner. “All I can do is serve the time, but five years from now, when the truth is known, we’ll be vindicated.”

Several defense attorneys said that the sentences appeared fair, given the nature of the convictions and federal sentencing guidelines. But most indicated that they planned to appeal the convictions.

Though they had sought longer sentences, prosecutors said that they were satisfied with Rafeedie’s punishments. “These are substantial and serious sentences,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas A. Hagemann. “In my view the judge’s sentences were completely appropriate.”

While John C. Dickenson, a Medal of Valor winner, received the only two-year sentence, Eufrasio G. Cortez, who also won honors for his police work, got one of the longest sentences.

Cortez, 40, was sentenced to five years after his conviction on six counts including conspiracy, theft, tax evasion and money-laundering. Cortez, a 15-year department veteran, was once named a Narcotics Officer of the Year by the California Narcotics Officers Assn.

Ronald E. Daub, 40, who had served in the department for 17 years, also received a five-year prison sentence for his conviction on similar counts.

In urging lengthier prison sentences for Cortez and Daub, federal prosecutors had accused them of stealing the most money during drug raids in 1988 and 1989 and spending more than $485,000 on vacation property, boats, jewelry and other luxury items.

The judge imposed lighter sentences on the other deputies:

* Dickenson, 32, received a two-year sentence for conspiracy and theft convictions. An 11-year veteran, Dickenson won the Medal of Valor in 1988 for attempting to save his mortally wounded partner during a shoot-out with a drug suspect. Prosecutors said Dickenson, who joined the narcotics team only months before the officers were suspended, was the least culpable of the officers. He was fined $5,000.

* Garner, 45, received 4 1/2 years for conspiracy, theft and tax evasion. Garner, who served two tours with the Sheriff’s Department, was first hired in 1971.

* Terrell H. Amers, 48, was given a four-year sentence for conspiracy, theft and tax evasion. Amers was the most experienced of the former deputies, with 23 years of service.

* Macario M. Duran, 44, was sentenced to four years for a single count of structuring currency transactions to evade bank reporting requirements. Duran, the only defendant currently in custody, faces another trial this fall on various charges, including an allegation that he attempted to set up a cocaine deal while on trial in the money-skimming case.

* James R. Bauder, 32, received four years for conspiracy, theft and tax evasion. A 10-year veteran, Bauder is the son of a retired narcotics bureau lieutenant.

Only Dickenson was fined. The judge said the other defendants were not fined because they were left in poor financial shape after many of their assets were seized.

The former deputies were ordered to begin serving their sentences on April 3. The defendants asked to be freed on bail pending their appeals, but the judge denied the request. After serving their time, they will be placed on three years of supervised probation.

As Rafeedie read each sentence aloud before a standing-room-only crowd in the courtroom, the deputies and their families displayed little emotion. Some defendants glanced at their wives. Others stared straight ahead.

Only Bauder addressed the court before sentencing.

“I’d like to just express to the court that through all this I have had the unwavering support of my family, and I apologize to them for enduring this ordeal,” he said.

But afterward, Bauder and the other deputies made it clear that they were not admitting to any wrongdoing despite their blistering admonishments from Rafeedie.

“I am absolutely not guilty,” Bauder said. “I am not renouncing my testimony at all.”

As he walked out of the courtroom, Amers said he was not swayed by the judge and federal prosecutors who told the deputies they could have made it easier on themselves by admitting guilt early in the investigation.

“If you’re innocent, you’re innocent,” his wife, Jan, said. “That’s all you can say.”

But for federal prosecutors, the protests by deputies and their families rang hollow. Hagemann, who had described the deputies as “not just corrupt cops but corrupt criminals,” said he was pleased with the outcome of the trial, which took seven weeks of testimony and spanned more than five months.

Under the new sentencing guidelines requiring defendants to serve 85% of their sentences, Hagemann said the terms imposed by Rafeedie were the equivalent of 12- to 15-year sentences in the past. Previously, inmates served about one-third of their sentences, he said.

Lawrence Lawler, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said he also hoped that the prison sentences would prompt narcotics officers who are still under investigation to cooperate with federal and local investigators.

“I think it’s a clear message that if you’ve done it, you should step forward and cooperate,” said Lawler.

But others were not convinced that the message was so clear cut.

One officer, who is under investigation and asked not to be identified, said he and other suspended deputies were expecting the judge to give tougher sentences. “We thought some of the guys may get double-digit prison terms, but this doesn’t appear to be as bad as many people thought,” he said.

Sheriff Block said that the sentences were stiffer than those that defendants who are not in law enforcement would receive if convicted of similar crimes, such as embezzlement.

“Law enforcement should be held to a higher standard,” Block said at a news conference. The former deputies, he added, might have “got off easy compared to the potential sentences they faced, maybe. . . . But they and their families have paid a dear price.”

Block said the sentences send a message to the community that “those who violated the oath to serve ethically as law enforcement officers will be aggressively dealt with.” And, he said, the trial also alerts his 8,000 officers that “those who betray our trust will do so at (their) peril.”

In sentencing the defendants, Rafeedie used criteria set down by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Minimum and maximum sentences are set for all crimes, and individual sentences are adjusted, based on a variety of factors such as the severity of the crime, whether a weapon was used and whether the defendant had previous convictions.

In the case of the former deputies, the sentences were enhanced because the defendants had abused a position of trust--and because the judge concluded that some defendants tried to obstruct the investigation.

“In the scheme of things the sentences are in the appropriate range,” said Stanley Greenberg, a veteran criminal lawyer.

Times staff writers Carol McGraw and Henry Weinstein contributed to this story.