Ex-sheriff's deputies guilty on 2 counts in towing bribery, kickback case

Two former Riverside County sheriff’s deputies accused of taking bribes from the owner of a Temecula towing company were found guilty on multiple felony counts Friday, a couple days after the jury began its deliberations.

The trial in Riverside, which began in mid-May, came more than four years after former Lt. Sam Flores and Sgt. Robert Christolon were indicted by a Riverside County grand jury in March 2020.

The two former deputies were found guilty on a pair of felony charges: Taking a bribe as an executive officer and conspiracy to commit a crime. They were acquitted on a third felony charge of unauthorized use of a computer system, according to a spokesperson with the Riverside County District Attorney’s office.

Cody Close, the owner of DJ’s Towing in Temecula who was also a defendant in the case, was found guilty on felony charges for bribing an executive officer and conspiracy to commit a crime, according to the DA’s office.

Sentencing has been tentatively scheduled for mid-October. The Desert Sun was unable to reach attorneys for the defendants Friday afternoon to inquire about the potential for an appeal.

The central allegation was that the deputies used their positions to refer extra business to Close's company in exchange for a variety of bribes. Flores and Christolon also were accused of allowing another deputy to improperly fill out and alter reports on the department's online system.

That deputy, Kevin Carpenter, has already pleaded guilty to three felony counts, after entering a plea deal and agreeing to assist the district attorney’s office in its investigation.

Flores and Christolon worked as ranking officials in the traffic division at the Temecula Police Department, which is staffed by the sheriff's department. Carpenter also worked in the traffic division, full time until 2018 and occasionally after that for overtime duties. Flores and Christolon transferred to the Jurupa Valley station in 2019, and Carpenter became a reserve deputy there the same year, according to court documents.

During closing arguments Tuesday and Wednesday, prosecutors with the Riverside County District Attorney’s office pointed to gifts received by Flores and Christolon, including discounted or free cars, car parts and a discounted stay at an Oceanside vacation home owned by Close’s family, as evidence of the bribery scheme that they say occurred in 2018 and 2019.

The defense attorneys for the three men standing trial, meanwhile, disputed the allegations and questioned the testimony of Carpenter, repeatedly calling him a liar who was “singing for his supper.”

Prosecutors outline ‘a case about buying influence’

Deputy District Attorney Natasha Sorace, who was leading the prosecution team, described the case as a scheme of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.”

“This was a case about petty corruption,” Sorace said, adding that Flores and Christolon “got too cozy with Cody Close and his tow company” and “crossed the line.”

She outlined a lengthy timeline, beginning in 2016 and 2017 when Carpenter — who was known internally as “the tow man” — began to develop a relationship with Close and DJ’s Towing. He was devoting most of his time to impounding parked vehicles, as well as improperly filing the towing reports in the department’s computer system, prosecutors said.

Court papers allege Flores and Close developed a relationship after the lieutenant received a favor by acquiring a 1968 International pickup truck in 2018. Prosecutors also said Carpenter was granted permission to add his name to overtime shifts at the Traffic Bureau whenever he pleased.

Noting that a bribe doesn’t require a specific value or explicit agreement, Sorace pointed to Flores staying at a vacation beach house in Oceanside that was offered by Close. While the stay was worth thousands of dollars, she said, Flores paid roughly $500 for it.

She pointed to other transactions involving free or discounted cars from Close’s shop, including the International, a 1979 Corvette and a 2009 Honda Civic, as well as car parts of a 1990 Corvette. Close is also accused of giving a 2014 Chevy Bolt to Carpenter for free.

In exchange, she said, Close got extra tows from the department and additional cars brought to his shop, with Flores recommending another company run by Close as a Hazmat vendor for Riverside County the same day, according to the indictment.

“This is a case about buying influence,” Sorace said, noting that the bribery charges don’t require an explicit agreement between the parties.

The prosecutor also said Flores recommended Carpenter to return to the department's Southwest Station in late 2018, adding that DJ’s Towing was given preferential treatment in the department’s rotation over other towing companies that partnered with the department.

Sorace also showed pages of text messages between Flores and Close discussing the Oceanside beach house, as well as the possibility of Close becoming a Hazmat vendor for Riverside County.

The case “is about the fact Kevin Carpenter was towing to DJ’s ... at the same time his supervisors were getting stuff from the same tow company,” Sorace said.

Defense: Key witness ‘a pathological liar’

A defense attorney for Flores, Michael Reed, pushed back on Sorace’s description of the events and described Carpenter as “a pathological liar” who “fooled” the prosecutors.

Reed noted that Flores reprimanded Carpenter a couple times for his aggressive towing practices, which prosecutors said involved finding parked cars with expired registrations and towing them, as many as eight per shift.

Flores also helped start an investigation into Carpenter when they worked together earlier on, but the deputy tasked with the investigation did not complete it within the statute of limitations, Reed said.

Reed also discussed some joking texts between Flores and Close as evidence of their budding friendship rather than any conspiracy, telling the jury: “Don’t let friendship cloud your judgement.” Sorace disagreed, describing the interactions as transactional between two people “who barely know each other.”

While the case’s timeline largely focused on events in 2018 and 2019, the defense attorneys said Carpenter’s towing patterns had lasted seven years.

“This train left the station before any of these three good people knew what was happening,” Vikas Bajaj, an attorney representing Close, said in the closing argument.

Bajaj added that Carpenter “is singing for his supper,” calling him the prosecution’s “star witness” — a characterization that Sorace disputed. Bajaj showed Carpenter’s felony plea form signed in 2023, under which his sentence would be reduced from four years in prison to two years of formal probation, with the possibility of expungement if he agreed to cooperate.

Regarding the alleged preference that Close's company got in the call rotations, Bajaj also pointed to department policy that states an “alternative rotation may be called” after a half-hour of unsuccessful calls using the standard rotation.

The defense attorneys also took issue with the investigation conducted as part of the case. They noted the investigator, Deputy Nicholas Jones, didn’t interview a captain who led a street racing task force in 2019 that included the three defendants. Bajaj said some reports weren’t taken because they “didn’t fit the plot.”

He also indicated that “jealousy" and "envy” were factors in the case, saying one of the officers interviewed by the criminal grand jury ahead of the indictment, Lt. Michael Hatfield, was jealous that Flores gained a promotion that he wanted.

The defense teams involved in the case have previously raised concerns about a second report conducted by an outside investigator that was allegedly altered to change its findings, according to reporting last year from the Coachella Valley Independent.

That outside report, completed by a retired district attorney's investigator that the sheriff's department hired, found that Flores was involved in conflicts of interest with Close, but that his poor judgment did not justify criminal bribery and conspiracy charges, per the CV Independent.

During the closing arguments this week, Reed also noted that the Oceanside beach house used by Flores was owned by Close’s mother and hadn’t been rented for several months. Flores also paid a $500 cleaning fee and cleaned up the place himself after staying there with his family, according to Reed.

Reed also discussed the condition of the cars that Close gave to Flores. Regarding the 1968 International, he said the car was “abandoned” and classified as “junk” on Department of Motor Vehicles paperwork, while the parts from the 1990 Corvette were severely damaged. He also said there was “no evidence” that Flores got the 1979 Corvette, which went from DJ’s Towing to San Diego.

The attorney representing Christolon, Michael Williamson, also discussed the Honda Civic that Christolon got for $200, calling it a “red herring” to look at the car’s market value during a lien sale. He also noted that other Riverside County employees purchase lien cars, referring to “misdirection” throughout the case.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Tom Coulter covers mid-valley cities for The Desert Sun. Reach him at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Ex-sheriff's deputies guilty on 2 counts in towing bribery, kickback case