LOS ANGELES >> Six members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were convicted Tuesday of obstructing a federal probe into violence against inmates in county jails.

After a week of deliberations, a federal court jury in downtown Los Angeles convicted Lts. Stephen Leavins, 52, and Gregory Thompson, 54; Sgts. Scott Craig, 50, and Maricela Long, 46; and Deputies Gerard Smith, 42, and Mickey Manzo, 34, of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Those charges together carry a potential maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Craig and Long were also convicted of a count of making false statements for telling an FBI agent involved in the jails probe that she was under investigation and could face arrest. That charge carries a possible prison sentence of up to five years.

Sentencing is set for Sept. 8.

The attorneys and defendants had no immediate comment after the verdicts were read. But U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said later the defendants “participated in a scheme to thwart a federal grand jury investigation into violations of basic constitutional rights guaranteed to both prisoners and visitors to county jails.”

“While an overwhelming majority of law enforcement officials serve with honor and dignity, these defendants tarnished the badge by acting on the false belief that they were above the law,” he said.

Prosecutors said the defendants conspired to transfer and rebook a federal informant in the jail to hide him from his FBI handlers when agents wanted to put him in front of a grand jury to testify about allegations of excessive force against inmates. The informant, Anthony Brown, was repeatedly moved within the jail system and even booked under phony names, prosecutors said.

Defense attorneys countered that the defendants were simply following orders from superiors.

One of the jurors, who gave his name only as Ron from Los Angeles, said the verdict was a difficult one to reach without letting emotions dictate the outcome of the case.

“It was a hard decision,” he said. “You see someone with these great careers, and poof, they’re gone.”

Asked about the contention that the defendants’ actions were merely in response to orders, he said, “It went over the line.”

“I’m not here to knock the sheriff’s department,” he said. “I’ve got great respect for them.”

He added, however, that the defendants’ superiors “could have stopped it.”

The six defendants schemed to “silence the witness,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maggie Carter told the jury during her closing argument. “Even if this was standard operating procedure, this was a federal investigation and they had the intent to commit obstruction of justice.”

Defense attorneys countered that their clients were merely following orders from then-Sheriff Lee Baca when Brown was moved to various cells within the Men’s Central Jail downtown, then to a Temple City sheriff’s station, and finally to a San Dimas substation, where he was kept under 24-hour guard, during August and September 2011.

“There’s no evidence that Lee Baca could not be trusted,” David Stothers, who represents Thompson, said in his closing argument. “Those orders came down the chain, and my client complied with them.”

Carter told the panel that Brown was not transferred back to the Men’s Central Jail until he had told his jailers that he had decided against cooperating with the federal investigation.

“Law enforcement at all levels must work together to arrive at justice and to safeguard the civil rights of all the people we serve,” according to Bill Lewis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.

Brown became an issue for the department when an FBI cell phone was found in his possession on Aug. 8, 2011, and sheriff’s officials realized that the inmate was cooperating in a federal probe they previously knew nothing about.

The phone was smuggled into the jail by a deputy in exchange for cash provided by the FBI. The deputy eventually pleaded guilty to federal charges and is awaiting sentencing.

When Craig and Long determined who at the FBI’s Los Angeles office was in charge of the cell phone operation, they embarked on a plan to frighten the agent and discover the extent of the jails investigation, Carter said.

The sergeants — who worked for Leavins — confronted the agent in front of her home, telling her they were planning to arrest her for her involvement in the smuggled cell phone, according to prosecutors, who played a sheriff’s surveillance videotape of the encounter for the jury.

Trial for a seventh defendant, deputy James Sexton, ended last month in a mistrial with the jury evenly split and hopelessly deadlocked. The allegations in the current case were the same as those in the Sexton proceedings.

The case stems from July 2010, when the FBI began looking into alleged civil rights abuses committed by members of the sheriff’s department within Los Angeles county jails. As part of the investigation, the FBI interviewed prisoners, including Brown, who had been convicted and was awaiting transfer to state prison to serve a life term.

Prisoners had reported significant levels of civil rights abuses, but federal investigators had no way of verifying the reports because they had no access to either deputies or sheriff’s department documents, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lizabeth Rhodes.