A federal judge declined to dismiss charges, but set a trial date for a year from now in the case against a retired homicide detective from Sand Canyon accused of being part of an extortion ring.
Federal prosecutors alleged Steven Arthur Lankford, 68, was part of a crew that tried to bully an Irvine man into signing away his multimillion-dollar interest in a company he shared with a Chinese national, a man accused of financing a sham raid against the victim.
At Lankford’s most recent hearing, Judge Wesley L. Hsu denied a motion to dismiss the charges against Lankford, which included four counts alleging conspiracy to commit extortion, two counts of conspiracy against rights; and two counts of deprivation of rights under the color of law.
The attorneys for Lankford and his codefendants said in court that Lankford had no actual legal authority where the charges occurred, outside of Los Angeles County, which was a necessary element to charge deprivation of rights under color of law, according to Lankford’s attorney, Davina Chen.
“What we know is that he had absolutely no authority to engage in any law enforcement conduct in Orange County,” Chen said, according to the transcript from Lankford’s hearing in November.
Hsu was unconvinced in his response.
“Well, but the question is whether he was acting under color of state law, not whether he was actually acting under state law. Right?” Hsu said.
“That’s correct,” Chen said.
“And so if he represents himself, ‘Hey, I’m a state law enforcement officer and you have to do this because I’m here in my law enforcement uniform driving my law enforcement vehicle that’s clearly denoted as such,’ why isn’t that a classic case of under color of state law?” he replied.
Chen replied that the Supreme Court has been “exceptionally clear” and narrow in defining state action as acting under legal authority, since Lankford’s allegation was a civil rights matter, giving the example of a detective who just showed up in Washington, D.C., and started waving his badge around. He would not be considered acting under state authority, she said.
“I don’t think the supplemental authority changes my view of the motions, which is to deny them. I think that the — I think that the indictment is sufficiently supported by the case law that it should include the under color of official right or under color of state law based on the actions of defendant Lankford, the alleged actions of defendant Lankford. And I am unpersuaded that the allegations of the nonviolent threats are not appropriate for the indictment, particularly as recounted as overt acts,” Hsu said.
The Department of Justice alleged in an August 2024 news release that Lankford and three others “acted as a sham law enforcement team that entered an Irvine man’s home and threatened him and his family with violence and deportation unless he turned over nearly $37 million and signed away his rights in a business.”
Named as Lankford’s accomplices in the federal indictment were: Glen Louis Cozart, 63, of Upland; Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, 39, of Australia, a United Kingdom citizen and former member of the British military who owns an Australia-based private investigation and asset recovery business; and Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, of Australia, an Australian citizen and former member of the Australian military who owns an Australia-based risk management services business
The alleged victim, an Irvine businessman whose identity has not been released, had an ongoing business dispute with an unindicted co-conspirator, a wealthy Chinese national, regarding their respective ownership interests in Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co. Ltd., a China-based rubber chemical manufacturer, according to the federal indictment.
In addition to being a longtime L.A. County Sheriff’s Department homicide detective, Lankford was awarded a Quality of Service Award in a 2018 ceremony inside the office of then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell.
He was acknowledged for his role in solving the 1978 robbery, kidnapping, rape and murder case of victim Leslie Long, a 20-year-old woman who worked at a Palmdale gas station.
