$35.7 MILLION LOST IN 20 SUITS SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT ACCUSED OF FAILING TO DISCIPLINE DEPUTIES.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Los Angeles County paid $35.7 million in judgments and settlements since 1992 in 20 major lawsuits against the Sheriff's Department, but no deputies were ever disciplined, the Board of Supervisors was told Tuesday.

The supervisors reacted with surprise at the disclosure by Merrick Bobb, the board's special counsel for the Sheriff's Department.

``There is no other organization in America where you can have more than $35 million in judgments and settlements and have no discipline meted out,'' Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. ``Needless to say, in the much more ruthless private sector, somebody who costs the company a couple of million of dollars doesn't have a job the next day.''

Bobb made the disclosure as he briefed the board on lawsuit settlements and judgments of $500,000 or more, as part of his 16th semiannual report on the Sheriff's Department, which was issued last week.

In letters to the editor of various newspapers last week, Sheriff Lee Baca criticized the report, saying there were inconsistencies that could lead to misperceptions.

``I think some of our employees did receive some discipline,'' sheriff's Capt. Ray Leyva said. ``You don't make those kind of payments and not take some remedial action.''

Sheriff's Cmdr. Bill McSweeney said the department was checking to see if deputies involved in those cases had been disciplined.

McSweeney also questioned other statistics in the report, which found that Los Angeles Police Department officer-involved shootings had dropped in recent years while Sheriff's Department shootings had increased recently.

Bobb's report stated that Sheriff's Department shootings dropped from 126 in 1997 to 87 in 2001 and then jumped to 92 in 2002. Meanwhile, the number of LAPD shootings dropped from 122 in 1996 to 77 in 2002.

``By contrast, the New York Police Department shot 37 people in 2002,'' Bobb said, noting that the NYPD serves an area of 8 million people, the LAPD serves about 4 million and the Sheriff's Department serves about 3 million people.

McSweeney said about half of the sheriff's shootings involved animals or accidental discharges, some even in locker rooms.

``I've got to tell you that I'm in wonderment about the numbers he provided on the $36 million story also,'' McSweeney said.

At the hearing, the supervisors voted to ask Baca to appoint a senior executive to meet with Bobb. The two would then come up with a timetable to implement some of the recommendations in the report that would help reduce the amount of money the county pays out on sheriff's lawsuits.

The report found a sheriff's computer database aimed at flagging problem deputies has become unreliable because much of the information entered into the database is incomplete and inaccurate and many department managers don't use the database. The database tracks citizen complaints, use-of-force incidents, lawsuits, discipline and commendations and has been cited by Baca and others as one of the nation's best risk management tools in law enforcement.

The report also found that 22 percent of officer-involved shootings involved shots fired by deputies during foot pursuits and that deputies used flashlights to strike suspects in 63 percent of cases in which deputies hit a suspect with an impact weapon from 1997 to 2002.