Stephen Sorensen, the sheriff's deputy who was shot and killed while answering a trespassing call, was entangled in a feud with the Lake Los Angeles Rural Town Council that was so acrimonious, the lawman feared for his safety, according to a recently filed lawsuit.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Carl H. Deeley said the dispute -- Sorensen alleged council members spread rumors that he belonged to a hate group and that he extorted money from merchants -- was one of the first things detectives investigated after his slaying on Saturday.
Investigators said the hostility between Sorensen and three Town Council members was probably unrelated to the killing of the 46-year-old deputy in a remote area east of Palmdale, Deeley said. The suspect "seems to be one crazed person," he said, referring to fugitive Donald Charles Kueck, 52, who lived on the rundown property where Sorensen was shot.
Among the allegations in Sorensen's lawsuit is that a town councilwoman openly bragged of intimidating an annoying neighbor by having another sheriff's deputy threaten to kill the man and bury his dismembered body "all over the desert."
The suit says the lawman lived in fear of stepping on the wrong toes and believed some council members were intent on running him out of town.
"Steve was really afraid for his life," said his attorney, Lawrence M. Glasner, who filed Sorensen's defamation lawsuit against four of the five Town Council members in February. Days after the suit was filed, Councilman Robert Keyes and Councilwoman Shirley Harriman resigned from the panel, which is an advisory body to Los Angeles County supervisors.
"It's just a coincidence that there happened to be a lawsuit pending that corresponded with an unfortunate [homicide] investigation," said Mitch Fenton, who is defending Harriman in the civil action. "I'm sure she didn't have any involvement in this."
Sorensen said in a sworn declaration that he came to fear Harriman after he was appointed resident deputy in the unincorporated community three years ago.
She told Sorensen and his wife, Christine, that she had been having problems with a neighbor who was a "wannabe bodybuilder and dope dealer," according to the suit. To solve the problem, Harriman said she went to a longtime friend and deputy who rented a room in her home, according to Sorensen's written statement.
Harriman allegedly told the Sorensens that she had the deputy threaten to kill the neighbor and "bury his body parts in the desert."
