Two L.A. County sheriff's deputies accused of perjury and filing false reports
Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies are accused of perjury after stopping drivers for speeding but then citing them for not having proof of insurance, officials said.
Michael Berk, 58, faces four counts each of filing a false report and perjury, and Justin Fisk, 41, faces two counts of each charge, according to the L.A. County district attorney’s office. Both deputies, who were assigned to the Santa Clarita Valley station, pleaded not guilty Thursday.
The Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The traffic stops happened between September and November 2016. The drivers, who happened to be other law enforcement officers, were stopped for speeding. But instead of issuing speeding tickets, the deputies ticketed the drivers for not having proof of insurance, even though they had valid insurance at the time.
The deputies are due back in court in February.
The pair came under investigation in November 2016 after a Los Angeles deputy police chief told a sheriff’s captain that the two defendants possibly had issued falsified traffic tickets, according to the complaint.
Bail was set at $25,000 for each deputy.
If convicted, Berk faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in state prison, while Fisk faces up to three years and eight months in prison.
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