Convict says police lied to get search warrants

His disembodied voice coming from a speakerphone in Judge Stephen Tiktin's courtroom, Brent Steven Sherman Sr. said he can prove that Deschutes County District Attorney Michael T. Dugan has been in willful contempt of a court order for more than a year.

Sherman is in the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Oregon, after his parole on a California bank robbery conviction was revoked. His parole was revoked because charges of extortion, drug use and theft were filed against Sherman in Deschutes and Clatsop counties.

The charges were filed after search warrants were used to seize personal and business records, and aircraft radios and equipment, from Sherman's office in Sisters in October 28, 1994, and his office and home in Bend on May 15, 1995.

All of the charges were later either dropped or dismissed.

Sherman alleges that Oregon State Police detective George Roshak and Bend Police Department detective James Porter committed perjury and false swearing to obtain the warrants for those seizures.

He further claims the two detectives conspired to violate Sherman's civil rights, and that District Attorney Dugan intentionally participated in the cover-up by not returning documents from the raids that would have demonstrated Sherman's innocence, and the perjury by police.

On August 19, 1996, Judge Tiktin ordered Dugan to return to Sherman copies of records seized in the police raids. Sherman said he received no records until April, 1997, preventing him from conducting his legal business and defending himself in court.

Sherman says he still has not received all his records, including documents that would have provided him with an alibi for thefts he allegedly committed in Clatsop County.

On Friday, September 26, Sherman grilled Oregon State Police detective George Roshak. Sherman appeared to demonstrate in court that information on which Roshak based his request for a search warrant for Sherman's Sisters offices in 1994 was either incomplete, inaccurate, or falsely portrayed.

This included allegations that Sherman had set fire to an aircraft he owned for insurance money.

Sherman asked Roshak whether he knew prior to filing for the search warrant that Sherman did not even own the aircraft in question, and that the insurance payment went to a company, T.D. Fleet of El Cajon, California.

Roshak testified that he did not know this.

In his affidavit for a search warrant, Roshak alleged that Sherman had defrauded the Jet Lease Finance Corporation of several thousand dollars by receiving advance payment for refurbished avionics which were not sent.

Sherman asked Roshak whether he knew that this obligation had been fulfilled by shipment of avionics months prior to the serving of the search warrant.

Roshak said he did not know this.

In filing for the search warrant, Roshak alleged that Sherman had defrauded a Redmond, Oregon businessman out of a Mercedes car. Sherman asked the detective if he didn't know that the sales contract for the car had been settled prior to the filing the affidavit for the search warrant.

Roshak said he did not know this.

Roshak acknowledged during the questioning that he had conferred with District Attorney Dugan about the search warrant prior to its being served, and had been told by Dugan that a number of the allegations had been "civilly compromised" and would not result in criminal indictments.

Sherman then hammered at Roshak's statement that copies of all documents had subsequently been returned.

Sherman questioned Roshak about specific documents seized from the raids. Roshak responded that there was no way he could individually recognize each of more than 14,000 documents.

Sherman then established that the only inventory of the seizures was slightly longer than two pages.

Since Roshak had no specific memory of the documents seized, and since the only inventory was little more than two pages and listed the documents with descriptions such as "taken from top drawer of file cabinet near the window," Sherman asked how Roshak knew that all documents had been returned to Oregon State Policeafter they were lent to the IRS and Oregon Department of Justice for review.

Roshak responded that, to the best of his knowledge, he had never had a problem with documents missing from similar reviews.

Sherman pursued the detective as to why copies of the documents in question weren't returned to Sherman as ordered by the judge.

Roshak told the court that he had attempted to return the documents to Sherman's lawyer. Roshak said that he called the lawyer's office and told them the documents were available at the Oregon State Police office in Bend.

Sherman then asked Roshak if he knew at the time he called that the lawyer in that office, Jonathan Ash, had been severely injured in a ballooning accident two weeks before Roshak said he called.

Roshak said he did know of the accident.

"Would it surprise, you, Detective Roshak, to learn that the phones at this office had been disconnected (before he said he made that call)?" Sherman asked.

"Someone answered and I left a message," Roshak said.

"What number did you call?" Sherman asked

"I called the number I had," Roshak responded. "It might have been his home." But later, Roshak testified that it was the lawyer's office he called.

The detective said he made no further attempts to return the documents.

When the trial began on September 26, Judge Tiktin told the court that he was going to split the case into two parts. First, to determine whether Dugan was in contempt of the order to return copies of the records; and second, if Dugan disobeyed the judge's order, whether Sherman was damaged and if so, the extent of those damages.

When the trial resumes, Sherman says he will show that by not returning copies of his documents, Dugan conspired to protect Roshak and Bend Police Detective Jim Porter from proof that they lied when they requested the search warrants.