Salesman Guilty of Fraud, Perjury : Courts: Police Commission president is surprised at the conviction of his friend and employee at Galpin Ford.

VAN NUYS —  A top salesman at Galpin Ford was convicted of auto insurance fraud and perjury in San Fernando Superior Court on Friday, despite testimony on his behalf from dealership owner and Los Angeles Police Commission President H.F. (Bert) Boeckmann II.

“I have a very difficult time believing it,” Boeckmann said in a telephone interview after the verdicts.

The politically active businessman and philanthropist described his top salesman as a family friend who had done an “outstanding job” in his nine years with Galpin, the No. 1 Ford car dealer in the country.

The felony charges against the salesman, Christopher O’Connell, 36, of Granada Hills, arose after a car turned up at customs in Belize, days before it was allegedly stolen from O’Connell’s home in April, 1994.

Officials in Belize became suspicious because the car, a 1994 white Ford Explorer, is a top choice of car thieves and because the man who drove it there was suspected of trafficking in stolen cars.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Edwin F. Greene said testimony at the three-week trial established that O’Connell arranged to have the car, which he had leased to himself, driven to the Central American country, where he hoped to establish a jet-ski rental business.

“He either sold the car to someone in Belize for cash or sent the car down there so he could have it when he started the business,” Greene said.

But defense attorney Ian Bardin said several witnesses testified to seeing the car in the San Fernando Valley after it was supposedly spirited away to Belize. Bardin also said two prosecution witnesses were shown to be untruthful.

“It’s very surprising the jury believed two witnesses who were outright liars,” Bardin said.

That jury is still deliberating on an insurance fraud charge alleged against O’Connell’s wife, Sandra Dee O’Connell, 31, who reported the Explorer missing.

She sobbed after Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen ordered her husband taken into custody following the guilty verdict.

As he was led from the courtroom she threw her arms around him, crying out, “Oh God. . . . This is a nightmare.”

Later in the afternoon, she sat outside the courtroom awaiting her fate, while bouncing the couple’s baby on her knees. Another young daughter sat nearby.

Until he was taken into custody Wednesday, both O’Connells had been free on bail.

Boeckmann said Christopher O’Connell has been working at Galpin since his 1994 arrest, though not in a sales position, until about a month ago, when the trial began.

If the conviction is upheld, Boeckmann said O’Connell could no longer be a car salesman, but beyond that, no decision has been made about his future employment status.

Greene said the car salesman, who according to court testimony earned about $100,000 a year, could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison as a result of an earlier robbery conviction.

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According to a probation officer’s report, O’Connell said the earlier conviction, in 1982, came about as a result of recreational cocaine use.

Two years after his release from prison, O’Connell went to work for Galpin Ford, where he became the dealer’s top salesman, Boeckmann testified at the trial. For a time, O’Connell and Boeckmann’s son were roommates.

Boeckmann also told the jury he would have loaned O’Connell money had he asked for it, something he had done in the past.

Neither O’Connell testified at the trial, but the probation report quotes Christopher O’Connell as saying the birth of his child had made a “100% difference” in his life.

“My life changed when I had this baby. . . . I think they jumped the gun about this arrest.”