Suspended L.A. Deputy to Be Tried for Robbery

LAGUNA NIGUEL — A suspended Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and aspiring professional bodybuilder has been bound over for trial on charges that he robbed a Lake Forest jewelry store in January.

Timothy Sladeck, 28, remains in Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail following Friday’s hearing, said Michael Fell of the Orange County district attorney’s office. Sladeck is to be arraigned May 12 on robbery, illegal steroid possession and weapons charges.

A second defendant, Gabriel Tull, 27, pleaded guilty to aiding in a robbery and illegal possession of steroids, and was sentenced to three years’ probation, Fell said.

Sladeck was arrested after Orange County sheriff’s deputies traced a new black cowboy hat left behind by a gun-wielding robber who escaped with about $117,000 worth of diamonds and diamond jewelry from the Jewel Garden shop on El Toro Road.

The hat had been bought by Tull, Sladeck’s roommate and a fellow bodybuilder, according to Orange County court records.

Investigators later searched the home the two men shared in Foothill Ranch and discovered illegal steroids and hypodermic syringes, according to the records.

After the arrest, Sladeck was suspended from his job as a bailiff at the Metropolitan branch courthouse in Los Angeles.

Sladeck’s brother, James Sladeck, has said that the alleged robbery occurred as his brother suffered serious financial troubles--including filing for personal bankruptcy--that evolved from his obsession with becoming a professional bodybuilder.