Deputy Charged in Tax Case

A veteran Ventura County sheriff’s deputy was charged this week with filing false tax returns and threatening to arrest IRS investigators assigned to his case, officials said Friday.

Senior Deputy Patrick J. Dain has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the case, Chief Deputy Sheriff Bruce McDowell said Friday.

The Sheriff’s Department is opening its own investigation into the allegations and will not comment until that is completed, McDowell said.

Dain has been employed by the department for at least 25 years, McDowell said.

Dain was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.

Prosecutors said Dain filed false tax returns from 1994 to 2000.

Dain claimed zero wages for that period, when he actually had been paid between $58,841 and $83,177 in each of those years, prosecutors say.

The deputy also is charged with threatening an IRS auditor who had placed a levy on Dain’s wages.

The indictment alleges that on Sept. 2, 1998, Dain told the auditor to release the levy “because Dain did not want the revenue officer’s family hurt.”

A week later, he told the same auditor that he would “swear out a criminal warrant” against him unless the levy was released, according to charging documents.

The indictment also alleges that in March 2001, Dain threatened to arrest an IRS special agent if the agent went to Dain’s house.

If convicted of all charges, Dain could face a maximum sentence of 24 years in prison.

Dain could not be reached for comment. Sgt. Pat Buckley, head of the Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn., called Dain an “excellent detective.”

“Everybody is capable of good things and bad things,” Buckley said.