D.A., Sheriff Seek Ruling on Release of File on Fatal Shooting by Deputy

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and Sheriff Larry Carpenter have requested a court order that would allow the sheriff to give Bradbury a file on an internal investigation in connection with the fatal shooting of an Oxnard man by an off-duty deputy.

The petition for the court order, filed May 13, is part of the ongoing investigation into what occurred the night Senior Deputy Steven Lengyel, an eight-year veteran of the department, shot and killed Jeff Sexton.

According to police accounts, Sexton appeared Jan. 27 in the backyard of 81-year-old Lillian Folk’s Port Hueneme home, banged on a window and yelled at her. Folk ran across the street to Lengyel’s house and asked for help.

Lengyel, who was off duty, went to Folk’s house, where he shot Sexton once in the back. The details on how and why the shooting occurred remain unclear.

In February, Sexton’s family hired two former sheriff’s deputies to investigate the shooting. The Sheriff’s Department launched its own probe, which included an internal departmental investigation.

During such an investigation, employees can be ordered to give a statement or face disciplinary action. They are also advised that their statements cannot be used against them in court, according to the district attorney’s office.

California law views internal investigations by the Sheriff’s Department as confidential personnel records, and thus safe from disclosure. But the state’s penal code states confidentiality does not apply to an investigation by a district attorney’s office of an officer’s conduct.

Despite the legal loophole that permits the sheriff to release a personnel report to the district attorney, Carpenter took a lawyer’s advice to ask a judge to require him to release the information in the Sexton case.

Bradbury and Carpenter refused comment on their action.