Deputies in Linkenauger Case Defended : Report: Sheriff’s Department says call was properly handled. Woman was killed 14 months later by her husband.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies properly handled a domestic violence call from a Moorpark woman who was killed 14 months later by her husband, department officials said Tuesday.

The statement ended an internal investigation that began in October, after a Ventura County Probation Department report criticized the manner in which deputies handled a call for help by JoAnn Linkenauger on Nov. 15, 1991.

The woman was fatally beaten and strangled by James M. Linkenauger on Jan. 17, 1993.

“The investigation concluded that the manner in which the call for service was handled was within department policy and in accordance with applicable domestic violence laws,” said Lt. Mark S. Ball of the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

Probation officials could not be reached for comment. Nor could officials from a battered-women’s group, Coalition Against Household Violence, which has accused the Sheriff’s Department of inconsistency in its handling of domestic violence calls.

Even though the call JoAnn Linkenauger made for help occurred 14 months prior to her death, the probation report said it was one of a series of apparent mistakes deputies made in handling her complaints.

The report said deputies failed to arrest James Linkenauger after JoAnn Linkenauger reported on Nov. 15, 1991, that he tried to strangle her and punched her in the face three times. Despite a cut on the woman’s lip, Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Giles decided not to arrest the husband.

Ball said Tuesday, however, that deputies did not arrest the husband because JoAnn Linkenauger’s injuries were not consistent with a beating of the magnitude she described.

“Mrs. Linkenauger described an extremely violent altercation,” Ball said. “She said she had been choked. She had been punched. And she had been dragged around the residence for over an hour, and there was no evidence to suggest that that did happen.”

The probation report faulted deputies for suggesting in their account that JoAnn Linkenauger’s credibility should be questioned if she made further complaints. But Ball said such comments are appropriate.

“We would hope that any deputy would take time to write that type of information,” he said. “That’s one way we solve crimes in this country, by past conduct.”

Ball said there have been rumors that James Linkenauger had friends within the Sheriff’s Department ranks, but that the investigation did not confirm the reports.

“There isn’t any deputy who knew James Linkenauger before this incident occurred,” he said, referring to the homicide.

James Linkenauger was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison. The probation report was compiled before his sentencing.