VENTURA : Ex-Sheriff’s Dept. Official Convicted

A Superior Court jury Thursday convicted a former Ventura County sheriff’s supervisor of felony grand theft for pawning a department-issue revolver in 1991, when he was acting director of the crime lab.

Norman A. Wade, who was forced to resign from the department following an unrelated 1992 incident, appeared dejected as he and a woman friend left the courtroom.

Wade, 49, has been working as a toxicologist in Phoenix. He has told court officials that a felony conviction could cost him his job. Wade and his lawyer, Robert I. Schwartz, declined comment.

A sheriff’s sergeant had issued Wade the .357-magnum revolver to guard against an armed invasion at the crime lab, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert M. Meyers said.

But in May, 1991, Wade turned the weapon over to Get-Mor Loan & Jewelry in Oxnard for a $125 loan, according to testimony.

Six weeks later, when a sheriff’s lieutenant inquired about the weapon, Wade paid off the loan and returned the gun to the department, Meyers said.

Jurors said they had to vote half a dozen times before reaching a verdict. At one point, seven jurors were willing to acquit Wade, two members of the panel said.

Most of the jury believed that Wade had violated department policy, but they did not believe his conduct amounted to a felony, the two jurors said. They eventually convicted him, however, because prosecutors had sufficient evidence to prove he pawned the weapon, they said.

“A felony is really heavy-duty stuff when he hasn’t stolen anything,” said juror Susan Black, a homemaker.

The other juror, who identified himself only as a special-education teacher, said he believed Wade had abused “his high position.” He said Wade was counted on to be honest because he often was called into court to testify as a toxicologist.

Wade joined the Sheriff’s Department in June, 1990. He was forced to resign two years later, after pleading no contest to charges of stealing a license-plate registration sticker from the property room and falsifying a registration document for his own car.