YORBA LINDA, Calif. — A California sheriff’s deputy has been arrested and placed on administrative leave after he was seen on security footage – including while in uniform – burglarizing the home of an elderly man whose death he had attended to days earlier.
Deputy Steve Hortz, a 12-year veteran of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, was booked Thursday on suspicion of burglary, authorities said. Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said that along with the arrest and administrative leave, Hortz’s prior calls for service are also being investigated.
“The suspected criminal actions of this deputy are a violation of public trust, are inexcusable and intolerable,” Barnes said in a statement. "This deputy will be held accountable through a swift and thorough process including a full criminal and internal administrative investigation.
“These actions undermine the good work done every day by the men and women of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.”
Hortz was one of more than a half-dozen deputies criminally charged or placed on leave for misconduct last week, including several who are accused of submitting false military orders claiming they were being called to serve.
“These fraudulent orders, once submitted to the department, allowed these employees paid time off from their work assignment with the belief that they were serving their country as military reservists,” Barnes said.
A natural death
Barnes said in a news release that Hortz was called July 20 to a Yorba Linda home, where the homeowner, who was in his 70s, had died of natural causes.
The attorney for the man’s estate called the Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday to report several items stolen from the home.
“The attorney provided home surveillance video that captured the deputy making unauthorized entrance to the residence on at least three separate occasions and exiting with stolen property,” the news release said.
The video, which was released by authorities, shows a deputy identified as Hortz breaking into the home on July 27. He left a short time later, though it was unclear if anything was stolen in that incident.
A shadowy figure returned to the home in the early morning hours of Aug. 10 and Aug. 16, the video shows. Though the man is in civilian clothes, investigators identified him as Hortz.
Watch the video below, courtesy of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
The man is seen leaving the home with items both mornings. In one portion of the video, the intruder uses a dolly to wheel what appears to be a safe out the back door and across the patio.
The home is believed to have been unoccupied when the burglaries took place.
“I will hold accountable deputies who do not honor the oath they swore to uphold,” Barnes said. “It is imperative that we do everything in our power to ensure that the men and women who have the privilege to wear the badge humbly recognize the responsibility entrusted to them as a member of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.”
A stolen credit card
Hortz was the second Orange County deputy charged with a crime last week. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced Wednesday that Deputy Angelina Cortez was charged with filing a false police report.
“Cortez was assigned to a training officer on Nov. 19, 2018, when she and her training officer responded to a call of a man stealing wine and batteries from a San Clemente 7-Eleven store,” Spitzer said in a statement. “Cortez is accused of taking the theft suspect’s debit card, putting it in her uniform shirt pocket and later giving it to her son, who then used it.”
Cortez never booked the debit card as evidence.
“The public has an absolute expectation that their law enforcement officers will carry out their duties lawfully,” Spitzer said. “When laws are broken by the very people who are sworn to uphold them, the public trust is eroded, and society as a whole suffers.”
Like Hortz, Cortez is on administrative leave from her job.
Six other Sheriff’s Department employees are also on administrative leave after being caught submitting fraudulent military orders, Barnes announced Friday. The deputies' actions came to light after discrepancies with one deputy’s faked military orders were uncovered in January.
“The deputy, who is assigned to custody operations, is also an Army reservist,” Barnes said in a news release.
An internal investigation determined that the orders the deputy submitted were not legitimate. The deputy was placed on leave and Barnes ordered a review of all military orders submitted by employees who are also reservists in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Multiple other fraudulent orders were found.
“Due to the nature of the allegations, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department criminal investigations have been referred to the proper federal authorities for investigation,” Barnes said.
As of Friday, one deputy has been released on probation and six others placed on administrative leave, Barnes said.
The sheriff called the deputies' actions a “dishonor.”
“The actions of these seven individuals do not represent the values of this organization, and absolutely do not reflect upon the contributions and sacrifices of the men and women who have courageously served our country as members of our armed forces,” he said.