Police Took Special Caution in Case Involving Deputy : Court: Relatives of a murder victim seek $10 million from deputy who was never charged with crime.

Fearing accusations of a cover-up, Los Angeles police detectives were especially careful to investigate Sheriff’s Deputy Robert J. Mallon following the slaying of a Van Nuys woman more than seven years ago, a detective who worked on the case testified in federal court Thursday.

Mallon, 44, is the defendant in a $10-million wrongful death civil suit filed against him by relatives of the victim, Catherine Braley. She was found strangled and beaten on Jan. 15, 1988, hours after leaving a local bar with Mallon and having sex with him inside his unmarked county-owned car.

Patrick Anguiano, who was an LAPD investigator on the case, said in U.S. District Court that police thoroughly reviewed Mallon’s story of what happened the night he and Braley met at The Hunter bar. Investigators wanted to immediately gather enough information to clear Mallon or confirm him as a murder suspect, in part because of his status as a law enforcement officer, Anguiano said.

“We felt Mr. Mallon was the last person to see [Braley] alive,” Anguiano said, adding that authorities were concerned that the media or others would suspect a cover-up if the investigation appeared lax. “It would show cover-up by the Los Angeles Police Department.”

Anguiano testified that he and another detective found Mallon at his vacation home in Parker, Ariz., the day after Braley’s body was found, and that authorities later tested samples of his saliva, hair and blood. Mallon was always cooperative, Anguiano said.

No criminal charges were filed against Mallon in the murder case, which remains under investigation. Officials with the LAPD have said repeatedly that the evidence did not point to Mallon as the murderer.

In earlier testimony as the trial got under way Wednesday, Mallon denied killing Braley, saying that she was alive and well when she left his car after their sexual encounter.

Stephen Yagman, the lawyer representing Braley’s family, said that Mallon killed Braley because he did not want her to leave, and then dumped her body in a nearby parking lot.

Mallon, who was at the bar along with other sheriff’s deputies after a fellow deputy’s funeral, acknowledged that both he and Braley were drunk when they left together. He denied he prevented Braley from leaving his car when she decided it was time to go.

The civil trial against Mallon comes after several years of legal maneuvering and court appearances.

An appeals court in 1992 dismissed claims against two other sheriff’s deputies who were at the bar with Mallon, but reinstated the lawsuit against Mallon.