LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Rights Counts Added in Drug Case Against Deputy

Federal civil rights accusations were added Wednesday to the charges against a Los Angeles County sheriff’s narcotics officer who was indicted last summer for allegedly stealing more than $1.5 million in cash seized from drug traffickers.

Deputy Stephen Nichols, 40, was charged by a federal grand jury with intentionally falsifying testimony against five Colombians who were suspected of dealing cocaine.

In July, Nichols was accused of skimming the lion’s share of a multimillion-dollar seizure of cash confiscated in a La Habra Heights cocaine bust.

Authorities said that the deputy, who was part of an elite drug enforcement team, then laundered the money by buying cashier’s checks and using the checks to make payments on an expensive motor home and his hillside property near the site of the bust.

The new indictment charges that when the Colombians went to trial, Nichols lied under oath about the way surveillance on the investigation was conducted, and it alleges that he tried to persuade several witnesses to withhold their testimony.

The new accusations bring to 33 the number of counts against Nichols, who faces up to a 334-year prison sentence and $8.5 million in fines if he is convicted.