O.C. sheriff’s deputy pleads 5th in federal civil trial

SANTA ANA -- An Orange County deputy sheriff invoked his 5th Amendment right against self incrimination Friday in a federal courtroom, refusing even to give an attorney his name after learning he'd be asked about the illegal use of jail informants in criminal cases.

Deputy Ben Garcia was called to testify in a civil rights lawsuit from a man jailed for six years on a civil contempt charge related to missing money. Garcia has been on paid leave since 2015 after a superior court judge determined he was untruthful about jail informants while testifying in the death penalty case of Seal Beach mass murderer Scott Dekraai.

The current lawsuit accuses Garcia of violating Zulmai Nazarzai's civil rights by threatening to move him to an area of the jail typically reserved for sex offenders and gang members if Nazarzai complained about his living conditions. It also accuses the County of Orange of civil rights violations for keeping Nazarzai in jail for six years when state law sets maximum jail time at one year, and it alleges county officials limited his exercise and hindered his ability to practice his religious beliefs as a Muslim. Nazarzai v. County of Orange et al., 17CV-01884 (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 26, 2017).

Part of Garcia's defense involves records about inmate movements that had for years been hidden from defense attorneys in criminal cases, which partly led Judge Thomas M. Goethals' removal of the district attorney's office as prosecutors in the Dekraai case.

U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford is presiding over a bench trial that began Thursday and continues Tuesday in Santa Ana. Retired Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens watched the first day of the trial from the audience but declined to speak to a reporter.

Nazarzai was jailed in 2010 after failing to transfer $360,540 to a court receiver in a lawsuit alleging a telemarketing scheme by his company Statewide Financial Group Inc. Superior Court Judge Andrew P. Banks found him guilty of contempt, and the 4th District Court of Appeal in 2016 ordered an evidentiary hearing that led to his release.

Garcia is represented by Ruth M. Segal of Lynberg & Watkins, APC, and Jan Christie, who represents the deputy sheriffs' union. Christie advised Garcia at the stand on Friday after Guilford declined Segal's request to exclude any questioning about his prior testimony. Nazarzai's lawyer, L. Thomas Murphy Jr.,of the Law Offices Of Murphy & Eftekhari, said he wanted to ask Garcia about the testimony to impeach his credibility.

Garcia has pleaded the 5th before, including during a 2017 evidentiary haring in the Dekraai case.

Dekraai's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Scott L. Sanders, on Friday questioned the propriety of the invocation in Guilford's courtroom, noting U.S. Supreme Court precedent allows for it only under substantial exposure to a criminal investigation and a reasonable belief prosecution could occur. The state attorney general's office confirmed in April its investigation of Garcia and other deputies closed with no charges filed.