Marin County's sheriff testified Wednesday that he did not try to influence the speed or scope of an investigation into a drug detective who allegedly stole cocaine from evidence for his own use.

Sheriff Robert Doyle, making a rare appearance on the witness stand in a criminal case, said he was not involved in the internal affairs inquiry into former detective Jehan "J.J." Amdjadi.

Defense attorneys subpoenaed Doyle in an effort to determine whether the Amdjadi inquiry was improperly delayed to help secure guilty verdicts in a Novato murder trial. Numerous other law enforcement officials have also been subpoenaed.

"I never took part in the planning and direction of the investigation," Doyle said.

Amdjadi, a former Novato police officer, was a member of the county's multiagency drug task force for three years. The task force is managed by the sheriff's department.

Amdjadi was the target of an internal probe last year on allegations he stole cocaine from task force evidence, used it himself, shared it with his wife and possibly gave it to other friends.

The allegations first surfaced in April, the month before four men were convicted of murdering Novato resident Tong Van Le. Amdjadi, who was the initial lead investigator on the case, testified at the trial.

Prosecutors are required to tell defense attorneys about any "moral turpitude" that could impeach the credibility of their prosecution witnesses. Defense attorneys are seeking a new trial, claiming authorities dragged their feet on the Amdjadi cocaine inquiry so it would not muck up the murder case.


In testimony Wednesday, Doyle said he learned about the drug allegations in early April from District Attorney Ed Berberian, who was personally prosecuting the murder case. Defense attorneys probed Doyle to see if he and Berberian discussed delaying the Amdjadi inquiry until after the murder trial was over.

Doyle said Berberian "mentioned in general terms" that the murder trial was nearing an end, but they did not discuss the timing of Amdjadi's internal affairs investigation. Doyle said he did not recall the timetable being discussed in any meeting he attended.

In any case, the Novato Police Department was responsible for the internal investigation because Amdjadi, 36, was an employee of that agency, not the sheriff's department. Novato hired private investigator Dennis Finnegan, a retired undersheriff, to do the job.

Finnegan has testified that after his preliminary investigation, he recommended that authorities try to do what he, as a private detective, could not — record telephone conversations or set up videotaped stings in an effort to incriminate Amdjadi.

Those recommendations apparently were not followed.

In June, Finnegan arranged to talk directly with Amdjadi. The detective denied using drugs and agreed to be tested.

Ed Berberian
Ed Berberian

The following month, Amdjadi tested positive for cocaine. He left the police department, effectively ending the internal affairs investigation.

The district attorney's office opened a criminal investigation in August or September, and it remains active. Defense attorneys are pressing to find out why prosecutors did not decide to start the criminal inquiry until months after the drug allegations came to their attention.

Authorities have noted that when the drug allegations were first raised, they were merely third- or fourth-hand rumors. The sources, however, were people with close ties to the law enforcement community.

According to statements in court, it was Amdjadi's wife who allegedly told a friend about the cocaine, and that friend told another friend, and word reached the daughter of a district attorney's investigator.

That investigator told his boss, Chief Inspector Robert Guidi, who told Berberian on April 9. In testimony Wednesday, Guidi said Berberian's chief deputy, Barry Borden, walked in while he was briefing Berberian.

Under questioning from defense attorneys, Guidi said the information he conveyed was that Amdjadi was allegedly stealing cocaine and using it with his wife.

Guidi said there was some discussion about whether the allegations should be disclosed to defense attorneys, but that he left the room and did not participate in the decision.

Earlier this week, Borden testified that the allegations involved unspecified drug use, but he did not hear anything about stealing cocaine from evidence or giving it to other people.

Borden said he and Berberian decided that the allegations, at that point, seemed like "third-hand or fourth-hand hearsay" that did not need to be disclosed until more investigation was done.

Instead, the prosecutors decided to wait for Novato police to complete its internal affairs investigation, he said.

It remains unclear whether prosecutors considered delaying the trial while they investigated whether there was any merit to the drug allegations.

Berberian has been subpoenaed to testify, as have Novato police Chief James Berg and former chief Joseph Kreins. Kreins was running the department when the drug allegations arose.

The hearing continues next week before Judge Terrence Boren.

Amdjadi and his wife Shanna took the witness stand under subpoena earlier this week. Both declined to answer questions about the cocaine allegations. He asserted the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination, and she invoked spousal privilege.



The sentencing has been delayed until the judge rules on the defense motions for a new trial.

Although Amdjadi was the lead investigator in the early stages of the murder case, another detective took over a few months after the crime. The prosecution's case relied less on the crime scene investigation than on Sean Washington's testimony and incriminating text messages among the defendants and their associates.

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