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 Four indictments and a criminal complaint unsealed on Monday
include accusations that sheriff's deputies subjected inmates and
visitors at two downtown Los Angeles lockups to unjustified beatings
or detentions and tried to cover up their wrongdoing.
The highest-ranking officials charged in the probe were two
sheriff's lieutenants — one who oversaw the department's Operation
Safe Jails Program and another who was assigned to the internal
criminal investigations bureau, prosecutors said.
The pair were among seven accused in one indictment of conspiring to
obstruct a 2011 federal investigation into allegations of excessive
force and the smuggling of contraband by jail deputies in exchange
for bribes.
The indictment says the two lieutenants and others went so far as to
try to prevent contact between federal investigators and an inmate
informant after his cover was blown, altering records to make it
appear the informant had been released from jail, then re-booking
him under false names.
Two separate indictments charged several sheriff's deputies with
various civil rights violations, accusing some of using unjustified
force against inmates, then trying to cover up the abuse, and others
with the wrongful detention of various jail visitors, including an
Austrian diplomat and her husband.
Additionally, two other cases described by federal prosecutors as
"spinoff" investigations led to mortgage-fraud charges against three
other deputies — all brothers. A fourth deputy was indicted
separately on weapons charges.
U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr told a news conference that 16 of the
defendants were arrested on Monday and two others were expected to
turn themselves in shortly. He said the investigation was
continuing.
"SAD DAY" FOR DEPARTMENT
Sheriff Lee Baca, whose 10,000-member department oversees the county
jail system, said his agency cooperated with the FBI in its probe,
adding that "while the indictments were not unexpected, it is
nonetheless a sad day for this department." "We do not tolerate misconduct by any deputies," Baca said. "This
department is grounded in its core values, namely to perform our
duties with respect for the dignity of all people and the integrity
to do what is right and fight wrongs."
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The arrests come more than a year after a blue-ribbon commission
blamed Baca for failing to halt what the panel called a persistent
pattern of excessive force against inmates by his deputies, dating
back years.
Baca embraced a series of reforms recommended by the panel but
declined to step down from his post, as some critics had urged.
A separate report released by the American Civil Liberties Union in
2011 cited the sheriff's department for a number of abuses,
including a finding that some deputies had formed gangs that
encouraged assaults against inmates.
In a statement announcing the criminal charges, Birotte said his
investigation found that the alleged abuses "did not take place in a
vacuum — in fact they demonstrated behavior that had become
institutionalized."
But Birotte declined to comment when asked whether federal
authorities had any evidence that Baca or others in the upper
echelons of his department were aware of the misconduct charged in
the indictments.
"I'm not here to discuss anything other than the charges here
today," he said.
The Los Angeles County jail system ranks as the largest in the
nation, housing some 18,000 inmates.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; editing by Cynthia Johnston, Diane Craft
and Jackie Frank)
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