Pubdate: Wed, 29 Jan 2003
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2003 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Errin Haines
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

DEPUTY IS FOUND NOT GUILTY OF FAKING DRUG CASE

The 14-year veteran had been charged with filing a false report, perjury 
and false imprisonment.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was acquitted Tuesday of charges that 
he fabricated a drug case against a Compton man, who was later wrongly 
imprisoned.

Sean Patrick O'Donoghue, 36, was found not guilty of seven charges of 
filing a false police report, perjury and false imprisonment. Both a fellow 
deputy and an informant in the drug case testified against O'Donoghue, who 
did not take the witness stand.

"The facts presented in the case were that there was no evidence to support 
the D.A. at all," O'Donoghue said, surrounded by family and friends after 
the verdict.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Baker declined to comment.

"We're disappointed in the verdict," said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for 
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley. "We felt that we presented the 
best case that we could. We felt the evidence was sufficient. The jury didn't."

The jury deliberated for four days after hearing four days of testimony.

"There was a lot of interesting evidence being introduced, but the district 
attorney didn't prove any of the actual charges against him," said juror 
Erik Fleming.

Vicki Podberesky, O'Donoghue's attorney, described her client as "a real 
hard-working deputy."

"It's been tremendously stressful for him and financially ruinous for his 
family," she said. "He just wants to get back to work."

O'Donoghue, a 14-year veteran with 10 commendations, was suspended without 
pay in April.

He was accused of covering up for a female informant who had tossed a bag 
of drugs onto a rooftop while he and several deputies conducted a drug 
raid. The crimes were punishable by three years and eight months in prison.

Led by O'Donoghue, deputies on June 26, 2001, raided two residences in the 
12800 block of Harris Avenue.

Leticia Villa, an informant for O'Donoghue, testified that she tossed a 
plastic bag containing rock cocaine, heroin and powder cocaine onto the 
roof of one of the homes in a panic.

Villa testified in May before a grand jury that O'Donoghue asked her to 
ensure that drugs would be present during the raid, which was aimed at 
arresting a drug dealer who lived there.

O'Donoghue's police report indicated that Reyes Cardenas, a resident of the 
house, had thrown the bag of drugs. Prosecutors argued that O'Donoghue 
falsified the report and knew that it was Villa, not Cardenas, who 
discarded the drugs.

Podberesky argued that Villa and Cardenas both tossed drugs during the 
raid, but that O'Donoghue did not see Villa and therefore did not arrest 
her or put the incident into his report.

Podberesky said jurors didn't believe that O'Donoghue understood during the 
confusion of that raid what Deputy April Carter testified: that she told 
O'Donoghue she had witnessed Villa's actions.

Cardenas was arrested and pleaded no contest to possession of heroin. He 
was sentenced to four years in prison but was released last May after 
prosecutors dismissed his case following a sheriff's investigation.

The Sheriff's Department began an inquiry after a woman living in one of 
the raided homes asked about $3,000 she said was in a backpack that had 
been confiscated during the raid.
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