Judge Orders Deputy's Report Be Sent to D.A.

By MACK REED

July 1, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Ruling that an officer’s constitutional rights cannot outweigh a murder investigation, a judge ordered the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department on Monday to surrender a senior deputy’s account of the night he fatally shot a drunken intruder.

Sheriff’s Department attorneys had insisted that Senior Deputy Steven Lengyel’s statements to internal investigators about killing Jack Dale Sexton were protected by his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.

But an attorney for Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, whose office is looking into the shooting, argued that the district attorney should have access to Lengyel’s statements because the law allows it.

“We don’t want to have to file a lawsuit every time we want to view what we believe is our right,” argued Glen M. Reiser, a civil attorney representing Bradbury.

Municipal Judge David R. Long agreed.

Long called Lengyel’s argument something that “I don’t view as a minor claim to privacy.” But he added, “That is counterbalanced by a public need” to learn what happened the night of Jan. 26 at the home of Lengyel’s neighbor in Port Hueneme.

Penal Code Section 832.7 requires peace officers to “surrender certain rights,” Long said.

The law requires peace officers to answer questions from investigators or risk losing their jobs. But it also requires all such coerced statements to be kept under seal, to protect the officers’ rights against self-incrimination.

Long issued a tentative ruling ordering Sheriff Larry Carpenter to turn over Lengyel’s statements to Bradbury’s staff. The ruling also requires prosecutors to keep a complete log of people handling the statements, to ensure they are not leaked to the public.

Sexton’s family was grateful for the ruling, which unlocks for investigators the sole eyewitness account of the shooting.

“Now they can find out the sheriff’s statements, his version of what happened in that home,” said Joey Sexton, the victim’s mother. “Too many things went wrong that night. . . . It went from bad to worse to worst.”

Jack Sexton, a 26-year-old Oxnard man, had been drinking heavily on Jan. 26.

He got into a fight at a Super Bowl party, accidentally backed his car into a ditch, and then apparently began walking through the surrounding neighborhood, police have said.

Family members said they believe Sexton, who was unarmed, was going door-to-door looking for help.

But police said that Sexton tried to kick in the door of a library, then banged on the door of 81-year-old Lillian Folk and yelled at her.

Frightened, Folk ran across the street to fetch Lengyel--then off-duty--who ventured into her house minutes later with another neighbor, Chris Van Tilburg.

Sexton--who had knocked on someone else’s door in the meantime--wandered into Folk’s house and confronted the two men in the kitchen.

There, he hit Van Tilburg without provocation, police said.

Moments later, as Van Tilburg was looking away, Lengyel shot Sexton once in the back, police said. Sexton fled and died in a nearby driveway.

As required by law, Lengyel discussed the shooting with sheriff’s internal investigators and the interview transcripts were sealed.

But Bradbury’s office--which investigates all officer-involved shootings--sought to read them to learn from Lengyel what happened.

When Carpenter’s staff balked--at the request of the Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn.--Bradbury’s staff petitioned the court for a ruling.

“There’s nothing in 832.7 that says police officers lose their rights to 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination as a matter of course,” Sheriff’s Department attorney Jeff Held argued during Monday’s hearing. “If [Bradbury’s] position is accepted, we might as well just CC the district attorney’s office any time a coerced statement is made by an officer.”

But the Sexton homicide is a special case, Reiser retorted.

“In most cases, it’s not necessary to obtain a coerced statement from the officer, because in most cases there’s enough information from other sources to corroborate,” he said. Lengyel’s case is different because he was apparently the only eyewitness to Sexton’s death, Reiser said.

Besides, Reiser argued, the law sealing Lengyel’s statements does not apply to the district attorney, and there should be nothing to fear because prosecutors are not authorized to release the statements.

Held and co-counsel Alan Wisotsky said they have not decided whether to appeal Long’s ruling, but if they do, they will not release Lengyel’s statement to Bradbury.

That decision disappointed Sexton’s family:

“It’s hard to be patient month after month after month,” said Renay Casey, Sexton’s sister. “But it’s a paper game, a court game, and we just have to be patient.”

Her mother added, “We want to know what happened in there. Protecting [Lengyel’s] privacy is important, but it won’t change what happened to Jackie.”