KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Two Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies appeared in court Monday on felony charges that they filed false reports and committed perjury relating to traffic stops made in 2016, officials said.
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.
Both defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges in December 2019, according to Risling.
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.
Berk and Fisk are due back in court on Oct. 15 for a preliminary hearing.
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These kind of people are the kind who make the whole lot of them look bad, and are the type of cops BLM are complaining about! IA needs to be more responsible and vet these guys better, and lay down punishment and/or to FIRE them instead of looking the other way and 5 years later after another serious offense, you hear it’s their 12th time doing something inexcusable and STILL these guys are employed! There’s absolutely no way that should happen!
Really, how about going after the Looters, rioters, and Antifa instead of going after Cops for ticky tak crap!
Really… cops lying I’m shocked, just shocked…NOT. Perjury is a crime, they a sworn to uphold the law not break it. Don’t excuse criminal behavior especially if it wears a badge. They are a disgrace.
OH YEA??? LOOK AT THESE OTHER GUYS I DONT LIKE!!! Don’t you get it? How can you even focus on this wrongdoing? Look at my red herring! LOOK AT IT!!!
These guys are even worse!!!
Wait these cops are supposed to be the ones going after the criminals and if the cops themselves are criminals, it wont matter? LIBERAL SPEAK! CRAWL BACK IN YOUR HOLE!
Why not both?
Also, perjury isn’t ticky tacky. I am sure you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of this.
I agree that arsonists and looters should be prosecuted, but why would we not want to prosecute law enforcement when they commit felonies?
I, for one, am glad that we are showing no-tolerance for these so-called “bad apples”.
The rule of law must be equally applied; I am not sure why anyone would suggest otherwise.
Racist airheads in SCV,,, Surprising no one. The exact type of behavior people would expect out of someone who lives an extremely mediocre and below average life. Career, family, and spiritually wise. LOSER.
Wait! There were no looters or rioters in SCV! That’s not even an argument. And If a cop lies about a ticket, what else would he lie about?
Because if they will lie about something so little then they just might lie about something big and perjury is perjury at the end of the day the law is the law and if they don’t like it they don’t have to be police officers they could work at a warehouse stocking boxes.
I’m glad the LASD is getting body cams- they’ll protect the deputies from stuff like this. Without video evidence how do we know the driver presented a valid insurance card? Merely having insurance is not enough in CA, you have to present valid proof of insurance to LEOs upon demand. Given the last 30 years of history, I would take LASD’s word over LAPD every time.
The cams will also protect US from THEM, which is just important, especially these days!