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Two Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies returned to court Wednesday after pleading guilty to filing false reports and committing perjury relating to traffic stops made in 2016.
Michael Berk, 58, was charged with four counts each of filing a false report and perjury. Justin Fisk, 30, was charged with two counts each of filing a false report and perjury, according to Greg Risling, assistant chief of the media relations division for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
“Michael Berk pleaded guilty today to four felony counts of filing a false report, while Justin Fisk pleaded guilty to two counts of filing a false report,” Risling wrote.
Deputy District Attorney Kelly Howick of the Justice System Integrity Division is prosecuting the case.
Between September and November 2016, Berk and Fisk, who worked at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, stopped motorists for speeding violations. The drivers happened to be other law enforcement officers.
See Related: Two Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Deputies Charged With Perjury, Filing False Reports
Instead of issuing speeding tickets to the drivers, both defendants allegedly issued citations for not having proof of insurance, even though the drivers had valid insurance at the time, according to prosecutors.
The alleged misconduct came to light 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 defendant. If convicted as charged, Berk faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in state prison, while Fisk faces up to three years and eight months in prison.
The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau.
“As conditions of their pleas, Berk must complete 20 days of community service and Fisk must complete 10 days,” Risling added. “If both finish their service and do not get arrested, they can have their felony counts reduced to misdemeanors when they are scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 24, 2023.”
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There should be a web page somewhere that shows how all these deputy involved criminal cases were adjudicated and what sort of final status were they closed under.
That is the least the LASD can do to promote (and prove its genuine intent on) transparency of its actions against corruption and criminal behavior within its ranks. The public deserves to know!
So basically these deputies are placed on probabtion, ordered to perform community service and stay out of trouble, until February 24 2023 where they were going to get their guilty plea to felonies reduced to misdemeanors.
This also means that the informarion included in the article about “Berk faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in state prison, while Fisk faces up to three years and eight months in prison” should have also included an “if convicted” condition! In thus case, Deputy Berk’s 5 years in state prison was replaced by 18 month probation and 20 hours of community service ,whereas Deputy Fisk’s 3 years 8 months in state prison was replaced by 18 month probation & 10 hours of community service.
What a deal… Even then, there isn’t any word anywhere on whether that happened or not!!!