Jails Under Scrutiny
A series of Times’ stories has tracked allegations of deputy brutality and other misconduct in the Los Angeles County jail system.
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Three volunteers at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles say in sworn declarations that sheriff’s deputies abused inmates and that supervisors failed to take reports of the beatings seriously.
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Saying he wanted to send the message that “blind obedience to a corrupt culture has serious consequences,” a federal judge Tuesday sentenced six current and former members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to years-long sentences in federal prison.
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Decision comes after criminal charges were filed against 18 current and former deputies. He won office in 1998.
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Interim Los Angeles County Sheriff John L.
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Wrongful incarcerations totaled 1,480 in the last five years, a Times inquiry finds.
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Inmates pay to get narcotics and other contraband through deputies. Baca says guards’ financial hardships are usually involved.
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A sergeant sent a photo of the bloodied face of an L.A. County Jail visitor after receiving a similar image of the face of the man’s brother from an anti-gang deputy.
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Federal agents sneaked a cellphone into Men’s Central Jail as part of their investigation of misconduct, sources say.
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Prosecutors say they found a ‘wide scope of illegal conduct’ by deputies and supervisors that went beyond mistreating inmates.
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Gabriel Carrillo, visiting his brother at Men’s Central Jail, suffered bruises and cuts in an altercation with sheriff’s deputies. Carrillo says he was attacked; deputies say he was resisting.
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Volatile mix at men’s lockup leads to high use-of-force incidents. Full coverage
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When Justin Bravo applied to be a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, background investigators noted the young man had some brushes with the law that raised red flags about his past.
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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to pay out $200,000 to a jail inmate who claimed he was beaten by two sheriff’s deputies even as he lay on the floor motionless.
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Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeants accused of lying to federal investigators about threatening to arrest an FBI agent secretly recorded the confrontation outside the agent’s home, a federal prosecutor said in court Monday.
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The finding means Baca could be required to pay $100,000 out of pocket. Sheriff’s officials call the verdict a ‘huge mistake.’
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The sheriff says a commission would strengthen transparency and accountability. One of his rivals for reelection, Cmdr. Bob Olmsted, also supports the plan.
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An Austrian consulate official was improperly arrested and searched by L.A.
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More than a dozen current and former “sworn officers” from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are expected to be arrested as part of a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of abuse and misconduct inside the county’s jails, according to sources familiar with the arrests.
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Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said the charges against 18 current and former sworn officers on allegations of jail misconduct mark a “sad day” for the department, but he denied suggestions that it represents a larger, institutional problem.
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FBI agents began arresting Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials Monday as part of a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of abuse and misconduct inside the county’s jails, according to sources familiar with the arrests.
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A federal jury has found Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca personally liable in a case involving abuse of an inmate in the Men’s Central Jail, meaning the sheriff could be required to pay $100,000 out of pocket.
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A federal jury made a mistake this week when it found Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca liable in a case involving abuse of an inmate, a department official said.
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Two Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors wants to create an oversight commission to provide more outside scrutiny of the Sheriff’s Department.
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A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s jailer was convicted Friday on charges related to taking a $700 bribe and smuggling cocaine behind bars, prosecutors said.
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Sheriff’s Deputy Gilbert Michel, caught by the FBI smuggling a cellphone, alleged inmate abuse in a county jail. But his stories could not be verified, district attorney records show.
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‘I couldn’t have written them better myself,’ sheriff says of panel’s suggestions to revamp his agency.
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Commission cites a ‘failure of leadership’ by Sheriff Lee Baca, proposes long list of fixes to halt abuse in L.A. County lockups.
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Investigators for a panel looking into L.A. County jail abuse find that watchdogs don’t regularly study data on violent encounters between deputies and inmates and how inmate complaints are handled.
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Pilot program has L.A. County sheriff’s deputies taking photos of arrestees to help prevent cases of mistaken identity -- and the jailings of innocent people -- later.
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The L.A. County sheriff’s leadership is being questioned, and he is under pressure to revamp his senior management team.
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Anthony Brown, the FBI informant who reported on abuse within L.A. County jails, is serving 423 years to life for armed robbery and has a history of making unfounded allegations about police.
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A deputy may have been told about an informant’s allegations that he was working with skinheads.
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‘We screwed up,’ Baca tells a review panel, but he says he wants to look ahead for answers, not back.
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It is becoming increasingly clear that the Sheriff’s Department is institutionally unable — or worse, unwilling — to track and discipline deputies who engage in misconduct.
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A former lieutenant says Capt. Daniel Cruz, head of the Men’s Central Jail, created an atmosphere of violence that encouraged misconduct and did not tolerate complaints.
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Captain of Avalon sheriff’s station took pro golfer turned thief to course for pointers, a deputy says.
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Records reveal how an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department task force used a lunchtime sting to target smuggling of drugs behind bars.
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Two rookies assigned to the most dangerous floor at Los Angeles County’s Men’s Central Jail racked up some of the highest numbers of use-of-force incidents in the whole facility, documents show.
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They will appoint an outside panel to investigate allegations that inmates are abused and that a code of silence protects deputies.
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The Los Angeles County sheriff said he failed to implement important reforms that could have minimized brutality. He also said his command staff has at times left him in the dark about jail conditions.
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Deputies who report wrongdoing are sometimes subjected to retaliation by colleagues, according to the Office of Independent Review. The findings echo allegations made by civilians.
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Sheriff’s Department seeks to curtail the extent of subpoenas, which seek data on workers since 2009.
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Sheriff’s Department watchdog releases study on inmate abuse. Sheriff Baca plans to install more video cameras in jail to document misconduct.
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It needs a change in culture. Supervisors should establish an independent panel to do just that.
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The department will reopen an examination of a top rookie who was allegedly ordered to beat a mentally ill inmate. The sheriff’s move comes amid an FBI inquiry into abuse and other deputy misconduct.
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Sheriff Lee Baca says in a letter that the information led him to create a task force to examine a growing number of allegations of deputy misconduct in the jails.
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Man died two days after being struck in the head by a deputy, but it’s unclear whether use of force was a factor.
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The L.A. County sheriff strikes a more conciliatory tone as criticism of his jail oversight mounts.
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The rookie, top recruit in his class, resigned after the incident, which he said was covered up. The deputy’s supervisor was allegedly threatened by the young man’s uncle, a sheriff’s detective.
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The session, which was opened up to The Times and a local TV station, offered a candid glimpse into the living conditions of jail inmates. The move also seemed to be an effort to show that the Sheriff’s Department is transparent, can fix its own problems and hears out its inmates.
- 51
Amid allegations of misconduct by his deputies, Sheriff Lee Baca has chosen to blame the messengers.
- 52
Sheriff Baca says agents paid a deputy $1,500 to smuggle a cellphone to a jail inmate.
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The officer allegedly accepted about $1,500 to smuggle a cellphone to an inmate who was an FBI informant, sources say. Sheriff asks whether the FBI is capable of investigating alleged jail abuses.
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Watchdog agency says the financial crimes may be linked to steep cuts in their overtime.
- 55
The FBI is investigating allegations that two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies knocked an inmate unconscious, beat him for two minutes and then tried to cover up their conduct, authorities confirmed Monday.
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In a budget oddity, an L.A. County lockup houses just two inmates.
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But sheriff’s officials have no record of his request to review the inmate’s safety.
- 58
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has begun termination proceedings against six deputies who were part of what officials are describing as an aggressive group that may have used gang-like hand signs to identify themselves before allegedly assaulting two fellow deputies at a Christmas party last year.
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A civilian jail monitor said she witnessed two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies treat an inmate like “a punching bag,” unjustifiably beating him as he lay unconscious for at least two minutes, according to a court declaration filed Monday by the ACLU.
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Sheriff’s Department is investigating a fight that broke out during a Christmas party.
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Internal investigations will no longer wait until D.A.’s office has looked into cases.
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With contraband seizures on the rise, L.A. County targets big smuggling rings.
