November 2, 2022 • 55 mins
Currently, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is headed by Alex Villanueva. He’s billed himself as a progressive democrat, but his administration has denied the existence of deputy gangs existence, defied subpoenas and met with right wing extremists.
A Tradition of Violence is hosted and executive produced by Cerise Castle. She's an award winning journalist who wrote the first ever history of deputy gangs for Knock LA, available at lasdgangs.com
Music by Yelohill and Steelz.
For breaking news and updates on deputy gangs, follow @lasdgangs on social media.
To support Cerise’s reporting, and for exclusive bonus content, subscribe to the patreon.com/lasdgangs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morning. This podcast can sains explicit language in details acts
of violence. Listener discretion is advised. The Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department is currently run by a guy named Alex Viennueva.
The overwhelming majority of deputing involved shootings office involved shootings
nationwide are justified. Remember the El Metro Board and the
(00:24):
board of Supervising City Council are one and the same.
This sentence is just really summarized the entire problem with
his woke political establishment. Who happens to have the reigns
of county and city government right now? You know, I'm
I'm a lifelong Democrat, But what I'm looking at now
is the shambles of a party that's a party of
excuses of nepotism, crony ism, if I guess we should
(00:49):
call it a white privilege, but it's not a party
that represents the interests of the Latino community. Sir, why
don't you arrest the cloud newsom? Well, no, we don't
arrest anybody is not committed a crime. Now, voters going
to hold people accountable if they don't do their job.
That's very different. Viennueva is known for voicing support for
(01:09):
violence threatening journalists like me and degrading the victims and
families of police violence. He's been accused of being racist
and met with white supremacists. He's brought back deputies fired
from his conduct and promoted deputy gang members to senior leadership.
He's used his office to carry out his own political
(01:30):
agenda and use the criminal justice system to go after
his enemies while defying subpoenas. He's up for re election
next week, and somehow, despite all of this, finished first
in the primary. This is a tradition of violence, a
(01:50):
history of deputy gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
To understand what's at stake in this upcoming election, it's
important to look into Alex viennuevas story. Viennueva isn't from
(02:15):
Los Angeles. He was born in Chicago and grew up
in upstate New York. His mother, Mary Anne, was the
daughter of Polish immigrants, and his father, Victor, was born
and raised in Puerto Rico. The Viennuevas and their six
children moved to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, when Alex was still
a kid. He graduated from high school there, then joined
(02:38):
the Air Force. He ended up in southern California in
ninety three, when he was assigned to the Norton Air
Force Base in San Bernardino, which is now closed. He
left in nineteen six and joined the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department. After finishing in the academy, Viennueva was assigned
(02:58):
to the Inmate Reception Side or i r C, at
the Pitches Detention Center. Everyone coming into the jail goes
through i r C to be processed. While Villennueva was
working there, he filed a lawsuit that made a huge
impact on how the county jails were run. Randall Higgins,
a retired deputy and met with a few weeks ago,
(03:21):
was working at the same jail facility when Villenueva filed
his lawsuit. The air conditioning system at Max was broken,
so when I was working at dorm I'd go up
and set at the desk and you'd be looking through
the bars into a dormitory hundred thirty bunks in there,
and everybody would light up a cigarette, so the smoke
(03:43):
you could see it build up, and it would start
at the top and working way down fill up the room.
Randall realized this combination of the broken a C and
cigarette smoke created an unsafe working condition, so he decided
to speak up. He filled in an anonymous union survey
a few days past before a sergeant approached him about it.
(04:04):
A sergeant came to me and said, hey, so do
you really care about smoking in the dorm? And I'm like,
why would you ask? And he said, well, we got
your survey here and I said, well, I didn't put
my name on it. I'm curious how you associated that
with me. Remember the survey was anonymous. And he said, well,
there's only like two guys that turned these in, and
(04:26):
we recognize your handwriting from the anonymous survey. And I'm like, okay, whatever,
I mean. I didn't care. I was happy to talk
about it, but it was just a weird experience. He said, well,
we're not going to do anything about this. But even
though the department was going to ignore Randall's complaint about
the smoking hazard, they would be listening to someone else.
(04:48):
So then he said, well, you know Vienneueva And I
said no, and he says, he works over the South.
He filed a lawsuit and we're going to settle that
lawsuit and banned smoking in jails, and I said, oh, well,
I'm all for that. Let's do it. A couple of
weeks later, Randall was talking to someone else when Viennueva's
(05:11):
name came up again. He said, yeah, I heard you
talking about Vienna the other day. I said, yeah, because
he's got a lawsuit going and the guy said, yeah,
I know him. We went to the academy together. He's
got like a mentor who recommended to him that he
filed a lawsuit about something. And I said, well, smoking,
(05:34):
is that a big deal? And he said it didn't matter.
It was just file a lawsuit for anything, and smoking
seemed to be something that a lawsuit could be filed over.
And so his mentor told him that if he filed
a lawsuit that he would have leverage for the rest
(05:55):
of his career. He would always be known as the
guy who won a lawsuit because it was almost inevitable
that he would win the lawsuit, and he would have
leverage in every position. Supervisors would steer clear of him
because he was the guy who filed the lawsuit, and
(06:16):
they knew that he could use the system to his advantage.
And it appears that that's exactly what happened. How did
the abandoning of cigarettes impact operations of the jail. Inmates
were piste when that order came through. Inmates were mad,
There was more fights. There was just general chaos for
(06:38):
a while, and it was bad. Vin with A transferred
to the East Los Angeles Station after four years at
I r C. The East Los Angeles Station was the
birthplace of the department's earliest known deputy gang, the Little
Red Devils. In the early nineteen nineties, during the end
Waves time, a new gang was rising in popularity, the
(07:02):
Cavemen in East l A Station Captain Ramond Sanchez told
The Los Angeles Times that the name of the gang
came from a bare bones room in the men's locker
area with a bunk bed in it, called the Cave.
The room was used by male deputies who worked night
(07:22):
shifts to rest before going to testify in court later
in the day. Sanchez described the gang as being made
up of a quote mixture of whites and Hispanics and blacks,
who spent their time together outside of work were engaged
in department sports competitions. Members shared a tattoo of a
neanderthal like character. Some had flies buzzing around their head,
(07:46):
representing each incident of violence against a civilian. It's unclear
if any of the deputies with tattoos were disciplined. The
gang appeared to be celebrated within the station. According to
a report from the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy,
the station had a large mural of a caveman in
one of the conference rooms. It's not surprising under Shriff
(08:10):
Timothy Murakami, number two for the entire department, has denied
affiliation with the Caveman, but he is known to have
a tattoo. Sheriff Vianueva made a bizarre statement about working
at East l A during a March twelfth, two thousand
and nineteen Board of Supervisor's meeting. In the generation were
called the Caveman. During his time at the East l
(08:32):
A station, Viennueva worked as a patrol deputy, field training officer,
and was part of the first community policing team assigned
to the Mata Villa housing development, but he always aspired
to have more power. In nineteen ninety two, at age
twenty nine, he ran for city council in San Dimas
and lost by forty four votes. Two years later, he
(08:55):
ran for sheriff for the first time on a platform
of quote improved ving Deputy Morale Viennueva also attended cal
State l A around this time and worked on a
narcotics team during an internship. According to his wife, Vivian,
they met during an undercover surveillance mission when Alex pulled
up in a marked patrol car wearing thick bifocal glasses.
(09:19):
She told the l A time she remembered thinking, quote,
He's going to ruin it for us. Three years later,
the two of them got married. She also told the paper, quote,
I even had people who would not want to be
near me because they thought Alex was a black cloud.
Viennueva did connect with at least one other colleague at
(09:42):
East l A, Danny Battanero, one of the alleged founders
of the Banditto's deputy Gang Batano, who also goes by Batman,
told The LAist that Vienneueva wasn't one of the department's
hard chargers or known for hanging out after work and
going out for drinks. Botzonaro said, Viennueva quote kind of
(10:03):
did his own thing. He left East l A in
and transferred to the Training Bureau as an academy staff instructor.
When Lee Bacca ran for sheriff against incumbent sheriff Block
in the Deputy Union, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy
Sheriff's or a LADS endorsed Block, despite the fact that
(10:26):
three quarters of membership advocated for someone new to be
top cop. L A s D Captain Matt Rodriguez and
his friend Alex Viennueva raised the issue with union leadership
and were eventually suspended. The two of them started their
own guild, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Professional Association, which is
(10:48):
still around today. Years later, Rodriguez was disciplined for allegedly
cheating on a relay race and retired. This year. He
ran for sheriff against Alex Enueva. In two thousand, Viennueva
was promoted to the rank of sergeant, which is right
above entry level of deputy. He worked at the Lenox Station,
(11:10):
overseeing deputies in the field and as a watch commander,
supervising shifts. He also worked at the Carson Station and
the Community College Bureau. While working at the Lenox station,
Alex Vianueva got into trouble for interfering with a field
trip planned by two deputies doing community outreach. CIRA is
(11:30):
Lieutenant Cedra Sharrod Strong. I took a group of kids
to Florida. There was a youth program that we were with.
We get there and I remember Eric having a conversation
with the national director and they were able to tell
us that, hey, you know, a sergeant called and said
you weren't participating. So he actually let us fly all
(11:53):
the way to Florida with children and vindictively called ahead
and canceled the trip. Viennuueva was transferred, but before he left,
Lieutenant shared Strong overheard him making a racist comment. I
could hear him on the telephone. His office was kind
of across the aisle and maybe a door down from
where I was standing at the copier, and he said,
(12:16):
and this is a paraphrase, I don't remember the exact statements,
but it was like, she's black, how could they think
she's smarter than me? And I'm just frozen. Viennueva has
acknowledged that he was suspended for five days while working
at Lenox. It's unclear if the suspension was related to
what Lieutenant Sharrod Strong overheard or another incident he was
(12:39):
suspended again for ten days in the early two thousands
for allegedly waiting to report derogatory statements made by another employee.
By two thousand seven, Viennueva had returned to the Training
Bureau as the team sergeant of the Advanced Officer Training Unit,
which does in house training for department members after the academy.
(13:02):
Later he became Training Bureaus Operations Sergeant. Villenueva was promoted
again in to the rank of lieutenant. He started working
at the Century Regional Detention Center the Central Women's Jail
in l A County in January of two thousand twelve.
A black custody assistant named Duane Perry was working with
(13:24):
Vienueva at the facility. After Viennueva ran a drill with
Dwyanne's unit, he says he was approached by two other
employees who told him Viennueva called him a quote knuckle dragger,
a racial slur. Duane decided not to report it since
he didn't hear the comment himself, but just a few
days later, on January two thousand twelve, Viennueva called him
(13:49):
by the slur again, this time in front of a
group of people. One deputy was so upset she filed
an internal complaint. Duane says he was never contacted for
the investigation, and one of his attorneys told the Los
Angeles Times that the department found no misconduct had occurred.
(14:09):
Dwayne sued the county and was awarded ten thousand dollars
in a settlement. Vienneueva continued to work at the jail
as a watch commander through when he transferred to the
Pico Rivera sheriff station. In his mid fifties, he retired,
but even though he left the department, Viennueva still had
(14:30):
his eyes on his dream job, sheriff of Los Angeles County.
The Grim Rapers Deputy gang was running rampant through the
(14:51):
streets of the Lenox area in the early nineteen nineties,
and its members made their way into choice positions within
the department in the early two thousand tens, despite records
of policy violations, excessive force, and domestic violence. Data suggests
forty percent of families of police officers are affected by
(15:13):
domestic violence. One alleged deputy gang member managed to cozy
up to Sheriff Alex Vienueva despite documented incidents of domestic violence.
In twenty fourteen, Alex Vienueva was campaigning for a city
council seat in Lahabre Heights and he lost. Around this time,
Deputy Carr and Mendoian, who goes by Karl, was working
(15:37):
at the South Los Angeles station. He was in a
nearly year long relationship with his former trainee from the
City of West Hollywood substation. She remains unidentified for her safety.
The woman alleged that Mendoyan repeatedly attempted to control who
she spoke to throughout their relationship. She says that he
(15:59):
told her want to attend mandatory meetings at work, and
even stole keys from her patrol vehicle and left her
stranded in a parking lot while on duty. He allegedly
followed her home and refused to leave when she attempted
to break up with him. If she didn't answer his
phone calls. Mendoian logged into her home security system to
(16:20):
watch what she was doing and listen to her conversations.
She said she felt trapped because he was a self
admitted grim reaper. Mendoyan called her things like a quote
fucking disrespectful cut and told her, quote you deserve what
you got coming, and this is what happens to fucking
disrespectful bitches. You'll see. Just about one year into dating,
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in September, Mendoyan met the woman and her friend at
a bar in El Segundo, California. She says things got
awkward when he showed up and the three of them
headed back to her house. Once her friend left, she says,
mendoy And ripped her jeans and strangled her, which left
marks around her neck. She was able to get away
(17:05):
and lock herself in the bathroom, but Mendoyan chased her
and allegedly kicked the door so hard he left a
gaping hole. She says when she asked him to leave,
he did, but took her cell phone with him. Despite
the photo and physical evidence, Mandoyan claims nothing physical happened
between him and the woman that night and that a
(17:27):
cat toy caused the damage to the door. The two
of them ended their romantic relationship in December, but remained
in contact. Mendoyan continued to harass her. Things escalated on
December when he attempted to break into her home. Yeah
(17:58):
I'm going to. On the video, Mendoian can be seen
crouching at the foot of the woman's sliding glass door
and using a metal object to manipulate it. She also
reported that Mendoian tried to break into her home just
a few weeks later. During the early morning of January.
(18:21):
She recorded him in her dark bathroom as he opened
a window near her shower. Get the funk out of
my house. Get the funk out, paren Get the funk out,
Get out. She later testified that Mendoian threw twiley tree
(18:47):
items on the window sill at her during this interaction.
She said she didn't end up calling the police because
she didn't want to get them involved or have Mendoian
lose his job. Afterwards, she received threatening, anonymous text messages
she believed were from Mendoian. She says that she met
(19:07):
with him around June twenty first, twenty fifteen, at her
apartment to ask him to stop texting her. Later, one
of her friends told her that Mendoian was following her.
She reported this behavior to her supervisor, who filed a
report with the l a s D. The anonymous texts stopped.
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The department found that Mendoian had potentially committed criminal acts,
and he was relieved of duty on July tenth, two
thousand fifteen. A few days later, the woman took out
a temporary restraining order against Mandoyan and made a report.
A mutual stay airway order was executed. The El Segunda
Police Department presented a case to Los Angeles District Attorney
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Jackie Lacey's office, who declined to file. Mendoian was discharged
from the l a s D September fourteenth, twenty sixteen.
He appealed the decision to the Civil Service Commission about
a week later. The agency has a history of overturning
deputy dismissals, but it held firm on Mandoyan. The hearing
(20:11):
officer wrote a twenty nine page report upholding the decision
in January. Mandoyan remained involved in department activities despite being fired.
He started working on a political campaign for a new
guy running for Sheriff, Alex Bienueva. Vien Aueva ran as
(20:32):
a progressive Democrat, but behind the scenes he was working
with a lot of other alleged grim reapers. Vien Aueva
was embraced immediately by then State Senator Kevin de Leone.
De Leone was recently exposed by my colleague John pelts
at knock l A for making racist, homophobic, and otherwise
(20:53):
bigoted comments in an hour long conversation with two other
sitting members of the Los Angeles City County Soul. With
da Leon's help, Viennueva secured the endorsements of the Los
Angeles County Democratic Party, several local Democratic clubs, and the
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights or cheer LA, whose volunteers
(21:14):
helped out on his campaign. Unlike incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonald
a Republican, Viennueva campaign in Spanish too. He gave interviews
in fluent Spanish with local outlets and picked up the
endorsement of La Opinion and OI. He also snagged the
endorsement the Association of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies, the
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union he'd previously been suspended from. Two years into the
Trump administration, most l A County residents were ready to
ride the blue wave, and Viennueva's campaign was leaning into that.
Javier Gonzalez, a longtime l A political consultant who worked
on both Viennueva's campaigns, told The Los Angeles Times quote,
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we owe a lot of the US to Trump. Where
did it Democrats in LA County have to go to
express their displeasure with Trump. All we had to do
was make McDonald a Republican and alex a Democrat. But
even though Villennueva campaigned as a progressive Democrat, his political
stances were much more authoritarian. Vieneueva made a distinction between
(22:22):
himself and Republican incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonald over recently passed
Senate Bill fifty four, written by Kevin da Leone, which
prohibited policing agencies in California from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
McDonald questioned it, while Viennueva promised he wouldn't let US
(22:42):
immigration and Customs enforcement agents use office space inside of
l A County's jails, but he did tell the Boyle
Heights Beat that quote will transfer them, meaning undocumented people,
to the custody of ice. In an interview with The
l Aist, via Auevas said that one of his first
moves as sheriff would be removing the two constitutional policing
(23:05):
advisors who work with the Department brass on policies like
use of force and discipline from misconduct. He said that
hiring them was a quote dog and pony show, and
that he would use the money to create a quote
truth and Reconciliation panel that would review deputy terminations. Vieneueva
was open about his disdain for oversight. Each police department
(23:29):
is supposed to track officers that have engaged in misconduct
and make that information available to attorneys. That's called a
Brady list, and Vieneueva called it a quote fake list.
He also came out loudly against then Sheriff McDonald's intent
to get rid of deputy gang logos and tattoos. During
(23:49):
his campaign. Vieneuevas said that forcing deputies to get rid
of tattoos undermines their morale, and that he intended to
bring back individual stations logos McDonald had banned. At that point,
he already had three alleged deputy gang members working for
his campaign, Karen man Dooyan, Larry del Mies, and Eli Verra.
(24:11):
On November ten, days after the general election, Alex Ba
Nueva declared victory in the race for Sheriff of Los
Angeles County. I just want to give an update. We
looked at the numbers, we looked at the difference of
the embassade ballots, the provisional ballots, in our performance in
the last batch of votes that were counted in, I'm
(24:35):
going to declare this race is over. There's a lot
of work we need to do to do an effective transfer,
responsible transfer from one sheriff to the next sheriff, and
that can't happen with the cliffhanger going on needlessly when
the numbers are already there. So we won. It was
(25:00):
the first time in over a century an incumbent sheriff
had lost an election. But before he was sworn in,
Alex Vienueva and his campaign staff got to work. Vienneueva
also began a practice of promoting his supporters inside the
department by several ranks, something that is highly unusual and
(25:21):
generally not done. Lieutenant Lawanna Hasselerigg, who worked with Villenueva
in the training academy, jumped four ranks to become one
of four assistant sheriffs. Captain Timothy Murakami was promoted three
ranks to be another assistant sheriff in charge of street
patrols and unincorporated l A County and forty four contracts cities.
(25:43):
Karen Mandoian's domestic violence case was making its way through
the system through and he stayed involved in department happenings
by working on the future Sheriff's campaign. His parents even
donated to Viennueva efforts. Ten days after Villenouiva declared victory,
his incoming chief of staff, Larry Delmes, one of the
(26:04):
alleged founding members of the Grim Reapers, made a call
to the chief of the department's Professional Standards and Training Division,
Alicia All. The call was the subject of a recent
hearing on deputy gangs. Here's Council Bill Foreman questioning Larry Delmes, Well,
put it in your words, what were you asked to
do with respect to Karen Mandoyan. I was asked to
(26:28):
contact Alicia All, the then chief of Professional Standards, and
let her know that I had been given a settlement
agreement and I would be emailing that to her. That
was all at the request of Alex Fienueva. You knew him, correct,
I did? How did you know him? He worked West
(26:50):
Hollywood Station when I was a lieutenant there and he's
a Grim Reaper, right I have read that? Yes? Uh?
Did you telephone or talked to Alicia Alt about his
dismissal in two thousand sixteen. I read a statement by
her that I did, and that may have only been
to fight out the status of his case. I don't
(27:12):
recall making that call. What business was the status of
his case to you? Personal knowledge? Personal knowledge of what
to see if he was going to be terminated or
just get days off. Why did you care? I don't recall.
Were you trying to help out a fellow reaper? No? Not,
(27:35):
did I recall. Alicia Old testified that Delmis called her
about Mandoyan twice in November, with an agreement to reinstate
him as a deputy at Viennuve his request before he
was sworn in a sheriff. When she balked, he threatened her.
In his testimony, del Me says he doesn't remember that conversation.
(27:57):
And how many conversations did you have with Alicia Alt
about the Mandoian issue? Just the one that I recall,
Just one that you recalled. Uh, you know that she
recalls two conversations, right, I don't know. I don't recall,
well you She was deposed. Chief Fault was deposed on
(28:20):
May two thousand nineteen, in connection with a lawsuit about
the reinstatement of Mandoyan, and you attended as the client
representative of the sheriff, so you sat there through her testimony.
You recall sitting there through that, that's correct. She talks
about two conversations with you in the settlement time period,
(28:43):
in the transition time period. Do you recall that money.
I don't recall that. Well, you were sitting there and
you heard this testimony. You recall chief All testifying her
deposition that you telephoned her in her office on November
thousand eighteen, and just about the first thing you said
(29:03):
to her was that you were looking at a picture
of her on the organization chart for the department, and
she asked you if it was a newer photo, meaning
were you planning a new position for her? And you
didn't answer. Do you recall her testimony on that, hercall
the testimony on that. I don't recall the conversation. And
I didn't have a org chart with pictures on it,
(29:25):
so I was a little confused by all. That. Is
it your best recollection? You had an word chart during
the transition period, It is my best recollection. I did
have one, and I did not have pictures. So do
you deny that you began your conversation with Chief Fault
by saying that you're looking at the sheriff's ORG chart.
I don't recall that at all. Well, let's look at
(29:48):
exhibit one, which you would have seen before because it
was an exhibit at her deposition. She testified these are
her notes that she made on November eighteen when you
called her in her office. And she's written your name
at the top. Do you see that, Delmies? And the
(30:08):
first thing she's written there is looking at photo of
me on ORG chart newer photo photo? Do you see
that that? And she testified that's she wrote down what
you said to her. She testifies she wrote it down
that day. Do you have reason to think she's lying
about that? I don't recall that. Do you have reason
(30:29):
to think she's lying about that. I can't make that decision.
I don't recall it. Well, do you think that Chief
alt fabricated these notes? I don't know. Jesus, Assuming that
Chief Alts contemporary, these notes are accurate, you understand how
(30:50):
that statement could be perceived as intimidating, as high ranking
officials are being demoted on the ORG chart that you're
looking at the org chart. I could see that, but
she forgot to mention in her testimony as she followed
up with a question, is this quid pro quo? And
(31:11):
I told her absolutely gone. She testified that you did
that it had to be done immediately. Was she telling
the truth when she said that? I don't know if
she was telling the truth or not. I don't recall it.
She testified they wanted it done while McDonald was in office.
They did not wanted to be done on Monday, when
it would have been easier as I suggested, And I
(31:32):
was told emphatically by Delmis it has to be done
by Friday. Do you deny saying that to her? I
don't recall say that to her. Well, it was in
fact written in the settlement agreement that you sent to her,
wasn't I don't know. Alicia All ended up resigning over
the request to rehire Mandoyan. Ten days after Viennueva was
(31:53):
sworn in. A memo to establish a so called truth
and Reconciliation panel was sent out to Department Grass and
on December twenty one, the panel met to review the
Mandoian case. The case was reviewed by then assistant and
tattooed caveman under Sheriff Timothy Murakami, Chief Eli Vera, an
(32:14):
alleged grim reaper who worked with Vienneueva Atletox, and Chief
Stephen Gross. The report found that Mendoian received excessive discipline,
and a week later Mendoyan was a deputy sheriff again.
He was also awarded back pay accrued since his discharge.
The reinstatement was later ruled unlawful by l A County
(32:35):
Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff, and Mendoyan was removed again.
Viennuevas swearing in was held at East Los Angeles College
on December three. It recently came up at a special
hearing on deputy gangs held by the department's Civilian Oversight Commission.
This is Lead counsel Bert Deisler questioning retired Division Chief
(32:59):
Matthew Bursa about the event. Did you become aware of
that alexe Via Nueva regarded East l A As his
home station? It's very obvious. Yes. Do you remember when
Alex Vie Auaver got sworn in as the sheriff uh
December and what he was sworn in as the sheriff?
Did you observe whether he had singled out any group
(33:20):
for special attention. Yes, and would you share with the
Commission what you observed on December of the third when
Sheriff in Auava was sworn in. Yes, a number of
us UM executives Captain and above attended the inauguration of
Mr been Aueva being sworn at East l A College,
(33:42):
and we noticed that there was a section towards the
front that was roped off, a large section. And prior
to the inauguration UH commencing UM, we noticed East l
A Station deputies marching in and sitting in those specific seats.
(34:03):
Some of those deputies were alleged to be part of
a new deputy gang. Alex being a way of a
(34:23):
campaigned as a progressive Bernie Sanders supporting Democrat, but as
his term has gone on, he's more openly embraced right
wing extremists and white supremacists. Sean Beckner car Mitchell is
a freelance reporter who covers the connection between white supremacist
organizations and policing agencies. He told me that being a
(34:45):
way of his media appearances illustrate his shift in political allegiance.
There's this through line of a lot of eve for
sort of far right luminaries really latching onto him, and
it doesn't seem like he minds, and in fact, fentimes
there's a welcoming embrace. He's appeared several times on Tucker Carlson.
What is he talking about? Oftentimes he's talking about things
(35:08):
like the Gascon campaign. He's talking about, you know, sort
of the and again I'm using air quotes, the violence
in the streets. He's talking about BLM protesters being this
you know, swath of insurrectionist horror or you know, you know,
kicking down old ladies in the streets, which I covered
protests statistically just wasn't really a thing that was happening.
(35:32):
Dennis Praeger runs what can best be described as a
fake YouTube university called Praeger You. It is a sort
of very highly produced series of videos. Most of them
are between five and twelve minutes, and they range from
explaining pretty basic conservative ideas to justifying manifest destiny. Sheriff
(35:56):
in Aueva has attended at least one of Dennis Praeger's
events in person. He's also you know, talking with Sebastian Gorka,
which is even more concerning you know, this is a
guy who has ties with Hungarian nationalist movements. When you
were talking about Hungarian nationalism specifically, we're talking about and
(36:16):
overtly anti Jewish, and overtly anti minority, and overtly anti
immigrant philosophy. We're talking about a group that has no
problem utilizing Nazi symbols. I've come face to face with
some of these people, most recently at a sheriff's candidate
forum I moderated. Sean was there. I think about the
(36:37):
time you moderated a sheriff's forum in Palmdale and we
saw a Proud Way associate along with several others who
had pretty concerning shirts and hats putting up Via Nueva
literature outside the forum despite him refusing to go to
(36:59):
the forum. Shawn also reported on Viennueva attending a meeting
of the Council for National Policy, a shadowy right wing
ideology funding organization. They have a lot to do with
whatever when this comes out, whatever right wing talking point
is really really big. Uh, There's a very good chance
(37:20):
that it was discussed in the Council for National Policy
meeting a few months ago. They're very good at getting
the word out and they also have some pretty concerning
ties with uh anti trans groups, um, with anti abortion groups,
with whatever right wing thought you can think of. About
a year ago, they had a meeting that Sheriff alex
(37:44):
Vianueva was at. What was happening at that meeting, Well,
there was a person who is still anonymous and I
would like to keep it that way, who provided some
audio from the meeting. There may have been some sort
of off the record chats afterwards, but we heard quite
(38:07):
a bit of efforts to get trans children out of schools.
You know, a lot of what I would define his
hate speech towards transgender youth. We heard quite a bit
of movement towards again this lawn order idea. There was
a sort of meet your candidates forum at one point.
(38:29):
Is that legal to do campaign events in uniform? You know,
it's funny you mentioned that. I I always say in
uniform because uh no, no, it's not legal to do
anything political while in uniform. I don't think anyone would know.
Sheriffy in Aueva showed up at the Council for National Policy,
had Shawn Foight not specifically broken their rules and taken
(38:50):
a selfie with sheriffy in Auava sort of glowing endorsement.
Both are big smiles. It's concerning he is and an
avowed Christian nationalist. Another word for that is Nazi. Vieneueva
asked Elsa Aldager, a far right agitator who is not
a resident of South l A, to speak at a
(39:12):
press conference about deputy shooting and killing the gen Kizie,
a black cyclist in August of Viennueva has also been
linked to Sarah Stevens, who's tied to hate groups like
legs It and The Proud Boys. Stevens has been seen
in photos with Viennueva at campaign events and even boasts
that her food giveaway events are quote endorsed by him.
(39:36):
Stevens was the getaway driver for a man who hit
a filmmaker and a journalist in the head with a
baseball bat at a protest in plain sight of police
who did nothing. Viennueva has been involved in several other
scandals since taking office. Nine months into Viennueva's term, the
Sheriff's Department opened an investigation into Inspector General Max Huntsman
(40:00):
for improper access to files, even though it's Huntsman's job
to monitor the department. The investigation was opened one month
after the Inspector General published a detailed analysis of the
Mandoian case. In January of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and
several family friends were killed in a helicopter crash in
(40:22):
the hills of Calabasas, California. Eight deputies who responded took
pictures of the accident site and shared the photos. When
Viennueva heard about it, he ordered deputies to delete the photos,
potentially destroying evidence for any future investigations into the conduct.
That's also potentially a crime. Here's what Viennueva told NBC's
(40:46):
Eric Leonard about the incident. That was my number one
priorities to make sure those photos no longer exist. The
Bryant family eventually won a lawsuit against l A County
for the sharing of the photos. Kobe's wife, Vanessa, was
awarded sixteen million dollars, and co complaint in Chris Chester,
whose wife and daughter were killed, was also awarded fifteen million.
(41:09):
When the COVID nineteen pandemic through most of the world
into quarantine, Vienneueva went after l A County CEO Sachi Hamai.
When the County Board of Supervisors removed Viennueva as the
head of the county's emergency Operations Center. He went after Hamai.
He accused her of committing a felony and falsely accused
(41:29):
her of not paying first responders salaries while they were quarantined,
which led to threats. She chose to retire early with
a one point five million dollar settlement along with full
time security, all paid for by taxpayers. While the world
cried out in protest in response to the murder of
George Floyd, sheriff, Villeneueva went after l A County supervisor
(41:52):
hildas Alise Slise spoke out against police brutality, and Vienneueva
called her a Spanish language to demean a woman as
a sellout. I don't know. Are you trying to earn
the title of la malinch? Is that what it is?
After my fifteen part series on deputy gangs was published
by Knock l A in March of Viennueva started to
(42:14):
harass me. Here's his response to my series, given at
a press conference. Some of the information you published appears
to be defamatory, and we've recommended individuals the impact if
they seek their own legal advice on how to proceed
with that. When it comes to hard facts, I just
don't see if you're trying to sell titles with these
(42:36):
fancy accusatory titles. Are provocative, but you don't have the
facts of support. So if you want to call the
investigative journalism, um, well again you have the right to
call it whatever you want. And during one of his
live streams, somebody says they have a database of alleged members. Well,
if you want to call someone a gang member, um,
(42:57):
if this is a knock l A person, well, I
hope you have an attorney, because there is liable, there
is slander, and so just bear my net pretty own good.
I was briefly detained at a press conference held by
Viennueva a few weeks later. Then the Sheriff's department began
to monitor my social media for quote potential doxing purposes.
(43:21):
Vienneueva also went after my colleagues at knock l A
insinuating we run an illegitimate news site. Excuse me, did
you did you talk to the MARA thought us about
a master attention plan before July fourth, Vett's I'm going
to speak to legitimate news sources excuse me, I'm a legiturce.
That June, the l A County Democratic Party who endorsed
Vieneueva in passed emotion calling on him to resign, with
(43:47):
nine of members voting in favor. Just a few weeks later,
Viennueva threatened the now all women Board of Supervisors during
a live stream. When need encourage the city council of
the board to see supervisor to do their job, but
sometimes they just need to be taken to the ship
and they need to be beat down. So they started
(44:08):
doing their job. Eli Vera, one of the alleged grim
reapers who worked on viennuevas campaign, got to skip a
rank when Vienueva took office, but in April he broke
with the sheriff and announced his own campaign for sheriff.
Vienueva demoted him a few months later. Kate Cagel is
a reporter and anchor for Spectrum News One. She was
(44:30):
one of the local reporters who covered the story along
with me. One of the things we've learned is when
you have an elected sheriff, everything inside the department becomes political.
And this is not unique to Alex Vieneueva. This was
an issue under Sheriff Lee Bacca. There were scandals involving
(44:51):
whether or not people in the department were supporting his
re election campaign or challengers. And that was the same
thing that we saw when Eli Vera decided to run
against Sheriff alex Via Nueva. Vara says he was immediately
demoded and retaliated against Via. Note Webba said, yeah, you're
running against me politically, I'm not going to have you
(45:13):
sitting at the table anymore when I'm making big decisions.
The structure of the Sheriff's department itself, and the fact
that a lot of promotions really rely on your relationship.
The department has also released documents relating to Viennueva's perceived
political enemies. The day after I requested documents on a
(45:35):
candidate challenging Viennueva for sheriff, they were made available online.
The department is notoriously unresponsive to request for public information
and has been sued several times for it, so that
disclosure was unusual. In September, Los Angeles Times reporter Eileen
check Median reported that the sheriff had created a special
(45:57):
team called the Civil Rights and public and Hegridy detail.
The unit is made up of a team of nine
investigators and reports to one of Viennueva's top aids. It's
primary responsibility looking into the sheriff's political enemies, like the
Inspector General, county supervisors, and members of the Civilian Oversight Commission.
(46:18):
That month, the unit opened an investigation into County Supervisor
Sheila Couole and Department Oversight Commissioner Patty Giggins. L A
County District Attorney George Gascon wanted nothing to do with it.
Here's Kate again. In fact, d A George Gascon told
The l A Times he didn't want anything to do
with this unit that he saw very clearly it was
(46:40):
built to focus on investigations that involved vi Nueva's political enemies.
While Vienneueva was directing the department to investigate his political enemies,
his campaign manager threatened to post my address on Twitter.
Earlier this year, Knock l A reported that the l
A County Sheriff's Department was over charged ing contract cities
(47:01):
for policing services, and West Hollywood a single deputy now
costs city taxpayers three hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars
per year of two hundred and forty nine phone thuffs,
which were the majority of crimes reported in the city.
Deputy has only solved two cases. The city of Compton
(47:22):
sued the department over allegations of deputies falsifying patrol logs,
essentially saying they were out in their cars when they
were not. Here's Kate Cagel. This deputy said that they
had seen the deputies were overcharging Compton, that basically they
were billing the city for time that should be on
(47:45):
the county's dime. But what we learned is that contract
cities signed these boiler plate contracts with the Sheriff's Department
that actually give them very little oversight into how the
station is run. Once they got this claim, it was
very difficult to prove or disprove what the deputy was
(48:07):
alleging without the cooperation of the sheriff's department, which the
sheriff's department will always say, oh, we're investigating, we'll let
you know what we find out. A few months later,
Sheriff Viennueva hosted a radio program smearing my reporting. We
have three we call them studies. One is from a
local uh person who definitely uh has an extra grind
(48:31):
against the Sheriff's Department, and that's one series Castle from
Manakelly doesn't speak very highly of her investigative skills. This
show later became the subject of several FCC complaints filed
by candidates for sheriff and hasn't aired since March. Since then,
Vienneueva has said he is investigating Eileen check Median at
(48:51):
the l A Times. A few days after this show,
the Oversight Commission announced the first ever investigation into deputy
gangs and cited my reporting. Viennueva, meanwhile, was allegedly in
the midst of another cover up. Here's Kate Cagel video
leaked of a deputy kneeling on the head of a
(49:12):
handcuffed inmate. The deputy Johnson, who was kneeling in the video,
was also embroiled in the photo sharing scandal the photos
of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash site. I think to
a lot of us who covered the department, it showed
this inability to deal with problematic deputies and how it
(49:36):
led to more scandals instead of actually holding people accountable
the first time that something went wrong. Several department members
have come out saying they told Sheriff Vianeueva about the
incident and he wanted it buried. Whistle blower deputies, high
ranking deputies. I mean, we're talking about Captain's accusing the
sheriff of essentially seen the video, saying that it didn't
(50:01):
look good, and then making an effort to bury the video.
Viennueva's turned it around and actually blames the whistleblowers for
burying the video because it would make them look bad,
which is another difficulty of covering this department, as you
can't actually be in the room when these things are sad.
(50:21):
The cover up related to the video of the kneeling
is continuing to play out in civil court and the
sheriff is fighting court procedure. As of this recording, Sheriff
Villanueva has not complied with six subpoenas issued by the
Civilian Oversight Commission. Sean Kennedy, who was chair of the commission,
says they are continuing to fight to make the sheriff comply,
(50:43):
but it's been difficult. We have been trying to get
Sheriff via Nueva um under oath answering questions about deputy
gangs for a very long time, and he has invented
every excuse a reason in the book for not doing so,
and it has used his county funded lawyers um to
(51:06):
help him, and he's been very successful at it. I
hope that it is not possible and that they are
just playing a delay game and that ultimately the commission
will prevail. I don't know that we will. On September one,
I broke the story of two deputies working in sheriff
being a way of his office, Giselle del Reale and
(51:28):
Carrie Robust Pacentia, being fired for improperly issuing concealed carry
weapons permits. Del Roale and Robust Placentia gave the permits
to donors to the Sheriff's campaign, even to people with
criminal records who are forbidden from carrying guns. Two weeks later,
deputies with the l A County Sheriff's Department rated the
(51:49):
homes and offices of County Supervisor Sheila Cool and Oversight
Commissioner Patty Higgins. Kate Cagel was there at the scene.
We saw dozens of deputy is going into their homes.
Were told that they seized sixty seven devices, including their
cell phones, their computers, their flash drives. When you think
of everything that you have on your phone, I mean,
(52:11):
the most intimate details of your life are on your phone.
So it was an unprecedented situation to see warrants like
that served by the sheriff, because while there have been
other corruption investigations in Los Angeles, they were all led
by the U. S. Department of Justice and the FBI.
(52:33):
This was the first time it was a local agency
that was carrying out these kinds of warrants. And immediately
the backlash began that the sheriff was doing this for
political reasons. And I would point out, regardless of your
opinion of Viennueba, whether you like him or not, I
feel like you have to admit that the political aspect
(52:58):
does undermine the investigation in especially when you see the
morning of the search warrants. Immediately a photo of Sheila
Coole being escorted out of her house by deputies ends
up on the Sheriff's reelection campaign Instagram. So the optics
there add doubt to the investigation, which was always you know,
(53:24):
became my question because if you're serving these sweeping warrants,
you already know you don't have the backing of the
district attorney. What is the point if you don't think
you're actually going to be able to bring a criminal case.
It does leave the question open that the optics were
the point, that the searches were the point to embarrass
(53:45):
Sheila Coule and Patty Giggins. Sure, if Alex Vanoi of
his fate will be decided next week at the polls,
his legacy has already impacted the future l A County
sheriff's that will come after him. Besides voting on whether
or not to elect a new sheriff, people will also
get the chance to decide if La County should modify
(54:05):
its charter to allow the Board of Supervisors to remove
a sheriff by a four fifths vote. Removal can happen
for any violation of law, falsifying statements or documents, flagrant
and neglect of duties, a misappropriation of public funds or property,
or obstructing investigations into the department. But Alex Via Aueva
(54:27):
wasn't the first sheriff to rise to the top of
a corrupt empire with the help of deputy gang members.
That's coming up next week, da how hood now me
fuck the po me some a fucking trophy. You've been
listening to a tradition of violence, The history of deputy
gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department hosted an
(54:49):
executive produced by Service Castle, music by Yellow Hill and Steels.
For breaking news and updates and deputy gags, follow at
l A s D Gags on social media, the Support
Serices Report, and for exclusive bonus content, subscribe to the
l s G Gang's Patriots. This poor
Morning. This podcast can sains explicit language in details acts
of violence. Listener discretion is advised. The Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department is currently run by a guy named Alex Viennueva.
The overwhelming majority of deputing involved shootings office involved shootings
nationwide are justified. Remember the El Metro Board and the
(00:24):
board of Supervising City Council are one and the same.
This sentence is just really summarized the entire problem with
his woke political establishment. Who happens to have the reigns
of county and city government right now? You know, I'm
I'm a lifelong Democrat, But what I'm looking at now
is the shambles of a party that's a party of
excuses of nepotism, crony ism, if I guess we should
(00:49):
call it a white privilege, but it's not a party
that represents the interests of the Latino community. Sir, why
don't you arrest the cloud newsom? Well, no, we don't
arrest anybody is not committed a crime. Now, voters going
to hold people accountable if they don't do their job.
That's very different. Viennueva is known for voicing support for
(01:09):
violence threatening journalists like me and degrading the victims and
families of police violence. He's been accused of being racist
and met with white supremacists. He's brought back deputies fired
from his conduct and promoted deputy gang members to senior leadership.
He's used his office to carry out his own political
(01:30):
agenda and use the criminal justice system to go after
his enemies while defying subpoenas. He's up for re election
next week, and somehow, despite all of this, finished first
in the primary. This is a tradition of violence, a
(01:50):
history of deputy gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
To understand what's at stake in this upcoming election, it's
important to look into Alex viennuevas story. Viennueva isn't from
(02:15):
Los Angeles. He was born in Chicago and grew up
in upstate New York. His mother, Mary Anne, was the
daughter of Polish immigrants, and his father, Victor, was born
and raised in Puerto Rico. The Viennuevas and their six
children moved to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, when Alex was still
a kid. He graduated from high school there, then joined
(02:38):
the Air Force. He ended up in southern California in
ninety three, when he was assigned to the Norton Air
Force Base in San Bernardino, which is now closed. He
left in nineteen six and joined the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department. After finishing in the academy, Viennueva was assigned
(02:58):
to the Inmate Reception Side or i r C, at
the Pitches Detention Center. Everyone coming into the jail goes
through i r C to be processed. While Villennueva was
working there, he filed a lawsuit that made a huge
impact on how the county jails were run. Randall Higgins,
a retired deputy and met with a few weeks ago,
(03:21):
was working at the same jail facility when Villenueva filed
his lawsuit. The air conditioning system at Max was broken,
so when I was working at dorm I'd go up
and set at the desk and you'd be looking through
the bars into a dormitory hundred thirty bunks in there,
and everybody would light up a cigarette, so the smoke
(03:43):
you could see it build up, and it would start
at the top and working way down fill up the room.
Randall realized this combination of the broken a C and
cigarette smoke created an unsafe working condition, so he decided
to speak up. He filled in an anonymous union survey
a few days past before a sergeant approached him about it.
(04:04):
A sergeant came to me and said, hey, so do
you really care about smoking in the dorm? And I'm like,
why would you ask? And he said, well, we got
your survey here and I said, well, I didn't put
my name on it. I'm curious how you associated that
with me. Remember the survey was anonymous. And he said, well,
there's only like two guys that turned these in, and
(04:26):
we recognize your handwriting from the anonymous survey. And I'm like, okay, whatever,
I mean. I didn't care. I was happy to talk
about it, but it was just a weird experience. He said, well,
we're not going to do anything about this. But even
though the department was going to ignore Randall's complaint about
the smoking hazard, they would be listening to someone else.
(04:48):
So then he said, well, you know Vienneueva And I
said no, and he says, he works over the South.
He filed a lawsuit and we're going to settle that
lawsuit and banned smoking in jails, and I said, oh, well,
I'm all for that. Let's do it. A couple of
weeks later, Randall was talking to someone else when Viennueva's
(05:11):
name came up again. He said, yeah, I heard you
talking about Vienna the other day. I said, yeah, because
he's got a lawsuit going and the guy said, yeah,
I know him. We went to the academy together. He's
got like a mentor who recommended to him that he
filed a lawsuit about something. And I said, well, smoking,
(05:34):
is that a big deal? And he said it didn't matter.
It was just file a lawsuit for anything, and smoking
seemed to be something that a lawsuit could be filed over.
And so his mentor told him that if he filed
a lawsuit that he would have leverage for the rest
(05:55):
of his career. He would always be known as the
guy who won a lawsuit because it was almost inevitable
that he would win the lawsuit, and he would have
leverage in every position. Supervisors would steer clear of him
because he was the guy who filed the lawsuit, and
(06:16):
they knew that he could use the system to his advantage.
And it appears that that's exactly what happened. How did
the abandoning of cigarettes impact operations of the jail. Inmates
were piste when that order came through. Inmates were mad,
There was more fights. There was just general chaos for
(06:38):
a while, and it was bad. Vin with A transferred
to the East Los Angeles Station after four years at
I r C. The East Los Angeles Station was the
birthplace of the department's earliest known deputy gang, the Little
Red Devils. In the early nineteen nineties, during the end
Waves time, a new gang was rising in popularity, the
(07:02):
Cavemen in East l A Station Captain Ramond Sanchez told
The Los Angeles Times that the name of the gang
came from a bare bones room in the men's locker
area with a bunk bed in it, called the Cave.
The room was used by male deputies who worked night
(07:22):
shifts to rest before going to testify in court later
in the day. Sanchez described the gang as being made
up of a quote mixture of whites and Hispanics and blacks,
who spent their time together outside of work were engaged
in department sports competitions. Members shared a tattoo of a
neanderthal like character. Some had flies buzzing around their head,
(07:46):
representing each incident of violence against a civilian. It's unclear
if any of the deputies with tattoos were disciplined. The
gang appeared to be celebrated within the station. According to
a report from the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy,
the station had a large mural of a caveman in
one of the conference rooms. It's not surprising under Shriff
(08:10):
Timothy Murakami, number two for the entire department, has denied
affiliation with the Caveman, but he is known to have
a tattoo. Sheriff Vianueva made a bizarre statement about working
at East l A during a March twelfth, two thousand
and nineteen Board of Supervisor's meeting. In the generation were
called the Caveman. During his time at the East l
(08:32):
A station, Viennueva worked as a patrol deputy, field training officer,
and was part of the first community policing team assigned
to the Mata Villa housing development, but he always aspired
to have more power. In nineteen ninety two, at age
twenty nine, he ran for city council in San Dimas
and lost by forty four votes. Two years later, he
(08:55):
ran for sheriff for the first time on a platform
of quote improved ving Deputy Morale Viennueva also attended cal
State l A around this time and worked on a
narcotics team during an internship. According to his wife, Vivian,
they met during an undercover surveillance mission when Alex pulled
up in a marked patrol car wearing thick bifocal glasses.
(09:19):
She told the l A time she remembered thinking, quote,
He's going to ruin it for us. Three years later,
the two of them got married. She also told the paper, quote,
I even had people who would not want to be
near me because they thought Alex was a black cloud.
Viennueva did connect with at least one other colleague at
(09:42):
East l A, Danny Battanero, one of the alleged founders
of the Banditto's deputy Gang Batano, who also goes by Batman,
told The LAist that Vienneueva wasn't one of the department's
hard chargers or known for hanging out after work and
going out for drinks. Botzonaro said, Viennueva quote kind of
(10:03):
did his own thing. He left East l A in
and transferred to the Training Bureau as an academy staff instructor.
When Lee Bacca ran for sheriff against incumbent sheriff Block
in the Deputy Union, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy
Sheriff's or a LADS endorsed Block, despite the fact that
(10:26):
three quarters of membership advocated for someone new to be
top cop. L A s D Captain Matt Rodriguez and
his friend Alex Viennueva raised the issue with union leadership
and were eventually suspended. The two of them started their
own guild, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Professional Association, which is
(10:48):
still around today. Years later, Rodriguez was disciplined for allegedly
cheating on a relay race and retired. This year. He
ran for sheriff against Alex Enueva. In two thousand, Viennueva
was promoted to the rank of sergeant, which is right
above entry level of deputy. He worked at the Lenox Station,
(11:10):
overseeing deputies in the field and as a watch commander,
supervising shifts. He also worked at the Carson Station and
the Community College Bureau. While working at the Lenox station,
Alex Vianueva got into trouble for interfering with a field
trip planned by two deputies doing community outreach. CIRA is
(11:30):
Lieutenant Cedra Sharrod Strong. I took a group of kids
to Florida. There was a youth program that we were with.
We get there and I remember Eric having a conversation
with the national director and they were able to tell
us that, hey, you know, a sergeant called and said
you weren't participating. So he actually let us fly all
(11:53):
the way to Florida with children and vindictively called ahead
and canceled the trip. Viennuueva was transferred, but before he left,
Lieutenant shared Strong overheard him making a racist comment. I
could hear him on the telephone. His office was kind
of across the aisle and maybe a door down from
where I was standing at the copier, and he said,
(12:16):
and this is a paraphrase, I don't remember the exact statements,
but it was like, she's black, how could they think
she's smarter than me? And I'm just frozen. Viennueva has
acknowledged that he was suspended for five days while working
at Lenox. It's unclear if the suspension was related to
what Lieutenant Sharrod Strong overheard or another incident he was
(12:39):
suspended again for ten days in the early two thousands
for allegedly waiting to report derogatory statements made by another employee.
By two thousand seven, Viennueva had returned to the Training
Bureau as the team sergeant of the Advanced Officer Training Unit,
which does in house training for department members after the academy.
(13:02):
Later he became Training Bureaus Operations Sergeant. Villenueva was promoted
again in to the rank of lieutenant. He started working
at the Century Regional Detention Center the Central Women's Jail
in l A County in January of two thousand twelve.
A black custody assistant named Duane Perry was working with
(13:24):
Vienueva at the facility. After Viennueva ran a drill with
Dwyanne's unit, he says he was approached by two other
employees who told him Viennueva called him a quote knuckle dragger,
a racial slur. Duane decided not to report it since
he didn't hear the comment himself, but just a few
days later, on January two thousand twelve, Viennueva called him
(13:49):
by the slur again, this time in front of a
group of people. One deputy was so upset she filed
an internal complaint. Duane says he was never contacted for
the investigation, and one of his attorneys told the Los
Angeles Times that the department found no misconduct had occurred.
(14:09):
Dwayne sued the county and was awarded ten thousand dollars
in a settlement. Vienneueva continued to work at the jail
as a watch commander through when he transferred to the
Pico Rivera sheriff station. In his mid fifties, he retired,
but even though he left the department, Viennueva still had
(14:30):
his eyes on his dream job, sheriff of Los Angeles County.
The Grim Rapers Deputy gang was running rampant through the
(14:51):
streets of the Lenox area in the early nineteen nineties,
and its members made their way into choice positions within
the department in the early two thousand tens, despite records
of policy violations, excessive force, and domestic violence. Data suggests
forty percent of families of police officers are affected by
(15:13):
domestic violence. One alleged deputy gang member managed to cozy
up to Sheriff Alex Vienueva despite documented incidents of domestic violence.
In twenty fourteen, Alex Vienueva was campaigning for a city
council seat in Lahabre Heights and he lost. Around this time,
Deputy Carr and Mendoian, who goes by Karl, was working
(15:37):
at the South Los Angeles station. He was in a
nearly year long relationship with his former trainee from the
City of West Hollywood substation. She remains unidentified for her safety.
The woman alleged that Mendoyan repeatedly attempted to control who
she spoke to throughout their relationship. She says that he
(15:59):
told her want to attend mandatory meetings at work, and
even stole keys from her patrol vehicle and left her
stranded in a parking lot while on duty. He allegedly
followed her home and refused to leave when she attempted
to break up with him. If she didn't answer his
phone calls. Mendoian logged into her home security system to
(16:20):
watch what she was doing and listen to her conversations.
She said she felt trapped because he was a self
admitted grim reaper. Mendoyan called her things like a quote
fucking disrespectful cut and told her, quote you deserve what
you got coming, and this is what happens to fucking
disrespectful bitches. You'll see. Just about one year into dating,
(16:44):
in September, Mendoyan met the woman and her friend at
a bar in El Segundo, California. She says things got
awkward when he showed up and the three of them
headed back to her house. Once her friend left, she says,
mendoy And ripped her jeans and strangled her, which left
marks around her neck. She was able to get away
(17:05):
and lock herself in the bathroom, but Mendoyan chased her
and allegedly kicked the door so hard he left a
gaping hole. She says when she asked him to leave,
he did, but took her cell phone with him. Despite
the photo and physical evidence, Mandoyan claims nothing physical happened
between him and the woman that night and that a
(17:27):
cat toy caused the damage to the door. The two
of them ended their romantic relationship in December, but remained
in contact. Mendoyan continued to harass her. Things escalated on
December when he attempted to break into her home. Yeah
(17:58):
I'm going to. On the video, Mendoian can be seen
crouching at the foot of the woman's sliding glass door
and using a metal object to manipulate it. She also
reported that Mendoian tried to break into her home just
a few weeks later. During the early morning of January.
(18:21):
She recorded him in her dark bathroom as he opened
a window near her shower. Get the funk out of
my house. Get the funk out, paren Get the funk out,
Get out. She later testified that Mendoian threw twiley tree
(18:47):
items on the window sill at her during this interaction.
She said she didn't end up calling the police because
she didn't want to get them involved or have Mendoian
lose his job. Afterwards, she received threatening, anonymous text messages
she believed were from Mendoian. She says that she met
(19:07):
with him around June twenty first, twenty fifteen, at her
apartment to ask him to stop texting her. Later, one
of her friends told her that Mendoian was following her.
She reported this behavior to her supervisor, who filed a
report with the l a s D. The anonymous texts stopped.
(19:27):
The department found that Mendoian had potentially committed criminal acts,
and he was relieved of duty on July tenth, two
thousand fifteen. A few days later, the woman took out
a temporary restraining order against Mandoyan and made a report.
A mutual stay airway order was executed. The El Segunda
Police Department presented a case to Los Angeles District Attorney
(19:50):
Jackie Lacey's office, who declined to file. Mendoian was discharged
from the l a s D September fourteenth, twenty sixteen.
He appealed the decision to the Civil Service Commission about
a week later. The agency has a history of overturning
deputy dismissals, but it held firm on Mandoyan. The hearing
(20:11):
officer wrote a twenty nine page report upholding the decision
in January. Mandoyan remained involved in department activities despite being fired.
He started working on a political campaign for a new
guy running for Sheriff, Alex Bienueva. Vien Aueva ran as
(20:32):
a progressive Democrat, but behind the scenes he was working
with a lot of other alleged grim reapers. Vien Aueva
was embraced immediately by then State Senator Kevin de Leone.
De Leone was recently exposed by my colleague John pelts
at knock l A for making racist, homophobic, and otherwise
(20:53):
bigoted comments in an hour long conversation with two other
sitting members of the Los Angeles City County Soul. With
da Leon's help, Viennueva secured the endorsements of the Los
Angeles County Democratic Party, several local Democratic clubs, and the
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights or cheer LA, whose volunteers
(21:14):
helped out on his campaign. Unlike incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonald
a Republican, Viennueva campaign in Spanish too. He gave interviews
in fluent Spanish with local outlets and picked up the
endorsement of La Opinion and OI. He also snagged the
endorsement the Association of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies, the
(21:37):
union he'd previously been suspended from. Two years into the
Trump administration, most l A County residents were ready to
ride the blue wave, and Viennueva's campaign was leaning into that.
Javier Gonzalez, a longtime l A political consultant who worked
on both Viennueva's campaigns, told The Los Angeles Times quote,
(21:59):
we owe a lot of the US to Trump. Where
did it Democrats in LA County have to go to
express their displeasure with Trump. All we had to do
was make McDonald a Republican and alex a Democrat. But
even though Villennueva campaigned as a progressive Democrat, his political
stances were much more authoritarian. Vieneueva made a distinction between
(22:22):
himself and Republican incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonald over recently passed
Senate Bill fifty four, written by Kevin da Leone, which
prohibited policing agencies in California from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
McDonald questioned it, while Viennueva promised he wouldn't let US
(22:42):
immigration and Customs enforcement agents use office space inside of
l A County's jails, but he did tell the Boyle
Heights Beat that quote will transfer them, meaning undocumented people,
to the custody of ice. In an interview with The
l Aist, via Auevas said that one of his first
moves as sheriff would be removing the two constitutional policing
(23:05):
advisors who work with the Department brass on policies like
use of force and discipline from misconduct. He said that
hiring them was a quote dog and pony show, and
that he would use the money to create a quote
truth and Reconciliation panel that would review deputy terminations. Vieneueva
was open about his disdain for oversight. Each police department
(23:29):
is supposed to track officers that have engaged in misconduct
and make that information available to attorneys. That's called a
Brady list, and Vieneueva called it a quote fake list.
He also came out loudly against then Sheriff McDonald's intent
to get rid of deputy gang logos and tattoos. During
(23:49):
his campaign. Vieneuevas said that forcing deputies to get rid
of tattoos undermines their morale, and that he intended to
bring back individual stations logos McDonald had banned. At that point,
he already had three alleged deputy gang members working for
his campaign, Karen man Dooyan, Larry del Mies, and Eli Verra.
(24:11):
On November ten, days after the general election, Alex Ba
Nueva declared victory in the race for Sheriff of Los
Angeles County. I just want to give an update. We
looked at the numbers, we looked at the difference of
the embassade ballots, the provisional ballots, in our performance in
the last batch of votes that were counted in, I'm
(24:35):
going to declare this race is over. There's a lot
of work we need to do to do an effective transfer,
responsible transfer from one sheriff to the next sheriff, and
that can't happen with the cliffhanger going on needlessly when
the numbers are already there. So we won. It was
(25:00):
the first time in over a century an incumbent sheriff
had lost an election. But before he was sworn in,
Alex Vienueva and his campaign staff got to work. Vienneueva
also began a practice of promoting his supporters inside the
department by several ranks, something that is highly unusual and
(25:21):
generally not done. Lieutenant Lawanna Hasselerigg, who worked with Villenueva
in the training academy, jumped four ranks to become one
of four assistant sheriffs. Captain Timothy Murakami was promoted three
ranks to be another assistant sheriff in charge of street
patrols and unincorporated l A County and forty four contracts cities.
(25:43):
Karen Mandoian's domestic violence case was making its way through
the system through and he stayed involved in department happenings
by working on the future Sheriff's campaign. His parents even
donated to Viennueva efforts. Ten days after Villenouiva declared victory,
his incoming chief of staff, Larry Delmes, one of the
(26:04):
alleged founding members of the Grim Reapers, made a call
to the chief of the department's Professional Standards and Training Division,
Alicia All. The call was the subject of a recent
hearing on deputy gangs. Here's Council Bill Foreman questioning Larry Delmes, Well,
put it in your words, what were you asked to
do with respect to Karen Mandoyan. I was asked to
(26:28):
contact Alicia All, the then chief of Professional Standards, and
let her know that I had been given a settlement
agreement and I would be emailing that to her. That
was all at the request of Alex Fienueva. You knew him, correct,
I did? How did you know him? He worked West
(26:50):
Hollywood Station when I was a lieutenant there and he's
a Grim Reaper, right I have read that? Yes? Uh?
Did you telephone or talked to Alicia Alt about his
dismissal in two thousand sixteen. I read a statement by
her that I did, and that may have only been
to fight out the status of his case. I don't
(27:12):
recall making that call. What business was the status of
his case to you? Personal knowledge? Personal knowledge of what
to see if he was going to be terminated or
just get days off. Why did you care? I don't recall.
Were you trying to help out a fellow reaper? No? Not,
(27:35):
did I recall. Alicia Old testified that Delmis called her
about Mandoyan twice in November, with an agreement to reinstate
him as a deputy at Viennuve his request before he
was sworn in a sheriff. When she balked, he threatened her.
In his testimony, del Me says he doesn't remember that conversation.
(27:57):
And how many conversations did you have with Alicia Alt
about the Mandoian issue? Just the one that I recall,
Just one that you recalled. Uh, you know that she
recalls two conversations, right, I don't know. I don't recall,
well you She was deposed. Chief Fault was deposed on
(28:20):
May two thousand nineteen, in connection with a lawsuit about
the reinstatement of Mandoyan, and you attended as the client
representative of the sheriff, so you sat there through her testimony.
You recall sitting there through that, that's correct. She talks
about two conversations with you in the settlement time period,
(28:43):
in the transition time period. Do you recall that money.
I don't recall that. Well, you were sitting there and
you heard this testimony. You recall chief All testifying her
deposition that you telephoned her in her office on November
thousand eighteen, and just about the first thing you said
(29:03):
to her was that you were looking at a picture
of her on the organization chart for the department, and
she asked you if it was a newer photo, meaning
were you planning a new position for her? And you
didn't answer. Do you recall her testimony on that, hercall
the testimony on that. I don't recall the conversation. And
I didn't have a org chart with pictures on it,
(29:25):
so I was a little confused by all. That. Is
it your best recollection? You had an word chart during
the transition period, It is my best recollection. I did
have one, and I did not have pictures. So do
you deny that you began your conversation with Chief Fault
by saying that you're looking at the sheriff's ORG chart.
I don't recall that at all. Well, let's look at
(29:48):
exhibit one, which you would have seen before because it
was an exhibit at her deposition. She testified these are
her notes that she made on November eighteen when you
called her in her office. And she's written your name
at the top. Do you see that, Delmies? And the
(30:08):
first thing she's written there is looking at photo of
me on ORG chart newer photo photo? Do you see
that that? And she testified that's she wrote down what
you said to her. She testifies she wrote it down
that day. Do you have reason to think she's lying
about that? I don't recall that. Do you have reason
(30:29):
to think she's lying about that. I can't make that decision.
I don't recall it. Well, do you think that Chief
alt fabricated these notes? I don't know. Jesus, Assuming that
Chief Alts contemporary, these notes are accurate, you understand how
(30:50):
that statement could be perceived as intimidating, as high ranking
officials are being demoted on the ORG chart that you're
looking at the org chart. I could see that, but
she forgot to mention in her testimony as she followed
up with a question, is this quid pro quo? And
(31:11):
I told her absolutely gone. She testified that you did
that it had to be done immediately. Was she telling
the truth when she said that? I don't know if
she was telling the truth or not. I don't recall it.
She testified they wanted it done while McDonald was in office.
They did not wanted to be done on Monday, when
it would have been easier as I suggested, And I
(31:32):
was told emphatically by Delmis it has to be done
by Friday. Do you deny saying that to her? I
don't recall say that to her. Well, it was in
fact written in the settlement agreement that you sent to her,
wasn't I don't know. Alicia All ended up resigning over
the request to rehire Mandoyan. Ten days after Viennueva was
(31:53):
sworn in. A memo to establish a so called truth
and Reconciliation panel was sent out to Department Grass and
on December twenty one, the panel met to review the
Mandoian case. The case was reviewed by then assistant and
tattooed caveman under Sheriff Timothy Murakami, Chief Eli Vera, an
(32:14):
alleged grim reaper who worked with Vienneueva Atletox, and Chief
Stephen Gross. The report found that Mendoian received excessive discipline,
and a week later Mendoyan was a deputy sheriff again.
He was also awarded back pay accrued since his discharge.
The reinstatement was later ruled unlawful by l A County
(32:35):
Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff, and Mendoyan was removed again.
Viennuevas swearing in was held at East Los Angeles College
on December three. It recently came up at a special
hearing on deputy gangs held by the department's Civilian Oversight Commission.
This is Lead counsel Bert Deisler questioning retired Division Chief
(32:59):
Matthew Bursa about the event. Did you become aware of
that alexe Via Nueva regarded East l A As his
home station? It's very obvious. Yes. Do you remember when
Alex Vie Auaver got sworn in as the sheriff uh
December and what he was sworn in as the sheriff?
Did you observe whether he had singled out any group
(33:20):
for special attention. Yes, and would you share with the
Commission what you observed on December of the third when
Sheriff in Auava was sworn in. Yes, a number of
us UM executives Captain and above attended the inauguration of
Mr been Aueva being sworn at East l A College,
(33:42):
and we noticed that there was a section towards the
front that was roped off, a large section. And prior
to the inauguration UH commencing UM, we noticed East l
A Station deputies marching in and sitting in those specific seats.
(34:03):
Some of those deputies were alleged to be part of
a new deputy gang. Alex being a way of a
(34:23):
campaigned as a progressive Bernie Sanders supporting Democrat, but as
his term has gone on, he's more openly embraced right
wing extremists and white supremacists. Sean Beckner car Mitchell is
a freelance reporter who covers the connection between white supremacist
organizations and policing agencies. He told me that being a
(34:45):
way of his media appearances illustrate his shift in political allegiance.
There's this through line of a lot of eve for
sort of far right luminaries really latching onto him, and
it doesn't seem like he minds, and in fact, fentimes
there's a welcoming embrace. He's appeared several times on Tucker Carlson.
What is he talking about? Oftentimes he's talking about things
(35:08):
like the Gascon campaign. He's talking about, you know, sort
of the and again I'm using air quotes, the violence
in the streets. He's talking about BLM protesters being this
you know, swath of insurrectionist horror or you know, you know,
kicking down old ladies in the streets, which I covered
protests statistically just wasn't really a thing that was happening.
(35:32):
Dennis Praeger runs what can best be described as a
fake YouTube university called Praeger You. It is a sort
of very highly produced series of videos. Most of them
are between five and twelve minutes, and they range from
explaining pretty basic conservative ideas to justifying manifest destiny. Sheriff
(35:56):
in Aueva has attended at least one of Dennis Praeger's
events in person. He's also you know, talking with Sebastian Gorka,
which is even more concerning you know, this is a
guy who has ties with Hungarian nationalist movements. When you
were talking about Hungarian nationalism specifically, we're talking about and
(36:16):
overtly anti Jewish, and overtly anti minority, and overtly anti
immigrant philosophy. We're talking about a group that has no
problem utilizing Nazi symbols. I've come face to face with
some of these people, most recently at a sheriff's candidate
forum I moderated. Sean was there. I think about the
(36:37):
time you moderated a sheriff's forum in Palmdale and we
saw a Proud Way associate along with several others who
had pretty concerning shirts and hats putting up Via Nueva
literature outside the forum despite him refusing to go to
(36:59):
the forum. Shawn also reported on Viennueva attending a meeting
of the Council for National Policy, a shadowy right wing
ideology funding organization. They have a lot to do with
whatever when this comes out, whatever right wing talking point
is really really big. Uh, There's a very good chance
(37:20):
that it was discussed in the Council for National Policy
meeting a few months ago. They're very good at getting
the word out and they also have some pretty concerning
ties with uh anti trans groups, um, with anti abortion groups,
with whatever right wing thought you can think of. About
a year ago, they had a meeting that Sheriff alex
(37:44):
Vianueva was at. What was happening at that meeting, Well,
there was a person who is still anonymous and I
would like to keep it that way, who provided some
audio from the meeting. There may have been some sort
of off the record chats afterwards, but we heard quite
(38:07):
a bit of efforts to get trans children out of schools.
You know, a lot of what I would define his
hate speech towards transgender youth. We heard quite a bit
of movement towards again this lawn order idea. There was
a sort of meet your candidates forum at one point.
(38:29):
Is that legal to do campaign events in uniform? You know,
it's funny you mentioned that. I I always say in
uniform because uh no, no, it's not legal to do
anything political while in uniform. I don't think anyone would know.
Sheriffy in Aueva showed up at the Council for National Policy,
had Shawn Foight not specifically broken their rules and taken
(38:50):
a selfie with sheriffy in Auava sort of glowing endorsement.
Both are big smiles. It's concerning he is and an
avowed Christian nationalist. Another word for that is Nazi. Vieneueva
asked Elsa Aldager, a far right agitator who is not
a resident of South l A, to speak at a
(39:12):
press conference about deputy shooting and killing the gen Kizie,
a black cyclist in August of Viennueva has also been
linked to Sarah Stevens, who's tied to hate groups like
legs It and The Proud Boys. Stevens has been seen
in photos with Viennueva at campaign events and even boasts
that her food giveaway events are quote endorsed by him.
(39:36):
Stevens was the getaway driver for a man who hit
a filmmaker and a journalist in the head with a
baseball bat at a protest in plain sight of police
who did nothing. Viennueva has been involved in several other
scandals since taking office. Nine months into Viennueva's term, the
Sheriff's Department opened an investigation into Inspector General Max Huntsman
(40:00):
for improper access to files, even though it's Huntsman's job
to monitor the department. The investigation was opened one month
after the Inspector General published a detailed analysis of the
Mandoian case. In January of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and
several family friends were killed in a helicopter crash in
(40:22):
the hills of Calabasas, California. Eight deputies who responded took
pictures of the accident site and shared the photos. When
Viennueva heard about it, he ordered deputies to delete the photos,
potentially destroying evidence for any future investigations into the conduct.
That's also potentially a crime. Here's what Viennueva told NBC's
(40:46):
Eric Leonard about the incident. That was my number one
priorities to make sure those photos no longer exist. The
Bryant family eventually won a lawsuit against l A County
for the sharing of the photos. Kobe's wife, Vanessa, was
awarded sixteen million dollars, and co complaint in Chris Chester,
whose wife and daughter were killed, was also awarded fifteen million.
(41:09):
When the COVID nineteen pandemic through most of the world
into quarantine, Vienneueva went after l A County CEO Sachi Hamai.
When the County Board of Supervisors removed Viennueva as the
head of the county's emergency Operations Center. He went after Hamai.
He accused her of committing a felony and falsely accused
(41:29):
her of not paying first responders salaries while they were quarantined,
which led to threats. She chose to retire early with
a one point five million dollar settlement along with full
time security, all paid for by taxpayers. While the world
cried out in protest in response to the murder of
George Floyd, sheriff, Villeneueva went after l A County supervisor
(41:52):
hildas Alise Slise spoke out against police brutality, and Vienneueva
called her a Spanish language to demean a woman as
a sellout. I don't know. Are you trying to earn
the title of la malinch? Is that what it is?
After my fifteen part series on deputy gangs was published
by Knock l A in March of Viennueva started to
(42:14):
harass me. Here's his response to my series, given at
a press conference. Some of the information you published appears
to be defamatory, and we've recommended individuals the impact if
they seek their own legal advice on how to proceed
with that. When it comes to hard facts, I just
don't see if you're trying to sell titles with these
(42:36):
fancy accusatory titles. Are provocative, but you don't have the
facts of support. So if you want to call the
investigative journalism, um, well again you have the right to
call it whatever you want. And during one of his
live streams, somebody says they have a database of alleged members. Well,
if you want to call someone a gang member, um,
(42:57):
if this is a knock l A person, well, I
hope you have an attorney, because there is liable, there
is slander, and so just bear my net pretty own good.
I was briefly detained at a press conference held by
Viennueva a few weeks later. Then the Sheriff's department began
to monitor my social media for quote potential doxing purposes.
(43:21):
Vienneueva also went after my colleagues at knock l A
insinuating we run an illegitimate news site. Excuse me, did
you did you talk to the MARA thought us about
a master attention plan before July fourth, Vett's I'm going
to speak to legitimate news sources excuse me, I'm a legiturce.
That June, the l A County Democratic Party who endorsed
Vieneueva in passed emotion calling on him to resign, with
(43:47):
nine of members voting in favor. Just a few weeks later,
Viennueva threatened the now all women Board of Supervisors during
a live stream. When need encourage the city council of
the board to see supervisor to do their job, but
sometimes they just need to be taken to the ship
and they need to be beat down. So they started
(44:08):
doing their job. Eli Vera, one of the alleged grim
reapers who worked on viennuevas campaign, got to skip a
rank when Vienueva took office, but in April he broke
with the sheriff and announced his own campaign for sheriff.
Vienueva demoted him a few months later. Kate Cagel is
a reporter and anchor for Spectrum News One. She was
(44:30):
one of the local reporters who covered the story along
with me. One of the things we've learned is when
you have an elected sheriff, everything inside the department becomes political.
And this is not unique to Alex Vieneueva. This was
an issue under Sheriff Lee Bacca. There were scandals involving
(44:51):
whether or not people in the department were supporting his
re election campaign or challengers. And that was the same
thing that we saw when Eli Vera decided to run
against Sheriff alex Via Nueva. Vara says he was immediately
demoded and retaliated against Via. Note Webba said, yeah, you're
running against me politically, I'm not going to have you
(45:13):
sitting at the table anymore when I'm making big decisions.
The structure of the Sheriff's department itself, and the fact
that a lot of promotions really rely on your relationship.
The department has also released documents relating to Viennueva's perceived
political enemies. The day after I requested documents on a
(45:35):
candidate challenging Viennueva for sheriff, they were made available online.
The department is notoriously unresponsive to request for public information
and has been sued several times for it, so that
disclosure was unusual. In September, Los Angeles Times reporter Eileen
check Median reported that the sheriff had created a special
(45:57):
team called the Civil Rights and public and Hegridy detail.
The unit is made up of a team of nine
investigators and reports to one of Viennueva's top aids. It's
primary responsibility looking into the sheriff's political enemies, like the
Inspector General, county supervisors, and members of the Civilian Oversight Commission.
(46:18):
That month, the unit opened an investigation into County Supervisor
Sheila Couole and Department Oversight Commissioner Patty Giggins. L A
County District Attorney George Gascon wanted nothing to do with it.
Here's Kate again. In fact, d A George Gascon told
The l A Times he didn't want anything to do
with this unit that he saw very clearly it was
(46:40):
built to focus on investigations that involved vi Nueva's political enemies.
While Vienneueva was directing the department to investigate his political enemies,
his campaign manager threatened to post my address on Twitter.
Earlier this year, Knock l A reported that the l
A County Sheriff's Department was over charged ing contract cities
(47:01):
for policing services, and West Hollywood a single deputy now
costs city taxpayers three hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars
per year of two hundred and forty nine phone thuffs,
which were the majority of crimes reported in the city.
Deputy has only solved two cases. The city of Compton
(47:22):
sued the department over allegations of deputies falsifying patrol logs,
essentially saying they were out in their cars when they
were not. Here's Kate Cagel. This deputy said that they
had seen the deputies were overcharging Compton, that basically they
were billing the city for time that should be on
(47:45):
the county's dime. But what we learned is that contract
cities signed these boiler plate contracts with the Sheriff's Department
that actually give them very little oversight into how the
station is run. Once they got this claim, it was
very difficult to prove or disprove what the deputy was
(48:07):
alleging without the cooperation of the sheriff's department, which the
sheriff's department will always say, oh, we're investigating, we'll let
you know what we find out. A few months later,
Sheriff Viennueva hosted a radio program smearing my reporting. We
have three we call them studies. One is from a
local uh person who definitely uh has an extra grind
(48:31):
against the Sheriff's Department, and that's one series Castle from
Manakelly doesn't speak very highly of her investigative skills. This
show later became the subject of several FCC complaints filed
by candidates for sheriff and hasn't aired since March. Since then,
Vienneueva has said he is investigating Eileen check Median at
(48:51):
the l A Times. A few days after this show,
the Oversight Commission announced the first ever investigation into deputy
gangs and cited my reporting. Viennueva, meanwhile, was allegedly in
the midst of another cover up. Here's Kate Cagel video
leaked of a deputy kneeling on the head of a
(49:12):
handcuffed inmate. The deputy Johnson, who was kneeling in the video,
was also embroiled in the photo sharing scandal the photos
of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash site. I think to
a lot of us who covered the department, it showed
this inability to deal with problematic deputies and how it
(49:36):
led to more scandals instead of actually holding people accountable
the first time that something went wrong. Several department members
have come out saying they told Sheriff Vianeueva about the
incident and he wanted it buried. Whistle blower deputies, high
ranking deputies. I mean, we're talking about Captain's accusing the
sheriff of essentially seen the video, saying that it didn't
(50:01):
look good, and then making an effort to bury the video.
Viennueva's turned it around and actually blames the whistleblowers for
burying the video because it would make them look bad,
which is another difficulty of covering this department, as you
can't actually be in the room when these things are sad.
(50:21):
The cover up related to the video of the kneeling
is continuing to play out in civil court and the
sheriff is fighting court procedure. As of this recording, Sheriff
Villanueva has not complied with six subpoenas issued by the
Civilian Oversight Commission. Sean Kennedy, who was chair of the commission,
says they are continuing to fight to make the sheriff comply,
(50:43):
but it's been difficult. We have been trying to get
Sheriff via Nueva um under oath answering questions about deputy
gangs for a very long time, and he has invented
every excuse a reason in the book for not doing so,
and it has used his county funded lawyers um to
(51:06):
help him, and he's been very successful at it. I
hope that it is not possible and that they are
just playing a delay game and that ultimately the commission
will prevail. I don't know that we will. On September one,
I broke the story of two deputies working in sheriff
being a way of his office, Giselle del Reale and
(51:28):
Carrie Robust Pacentia, being fired for improperly issuing concealed carry
weapons permits. Del Roale and Robust Placentia gave the permits
to donors to the Sheriff's campaign, even to people with
criminal records who are forbidden from carrying guns. Two weeks later,
deputies with the l A County Sheriff's Department rated the
(51:49):
homes and offices of County Supervisor Sheila Cool and Oversight
Commissioner Patty Higgins. Kate Cagel was there at the scene.
We saw dozens of deputy is going into their homes.
Were told that they seized sixty seven devices, including their
cell phones, their computers, their flash drives. When you think
of everything that you have on your phone, I mean,
(52:11):
the most intimate details of your life are on your phone.
So it was an unprecedented situation to see warrants like
that served by the sheriff, because while there have been
other corruption investigations in Los Angeles, they were all led
by the U. S. Department of Justice and the FBI.
(52:33):
This was the first time it was a local agency
that was carrying out these kinds of warrants. And immediately
the backlash began that the sheriff was doing this for
political reasons. And I would point out, regardless of your
opinion of Viennueba, whether you like him or not, I
feel like you have to admit that the political aspect
(52:58):
does undermine the investigation in especially when you see the
morning of the search warrants. Immediately a photo of Sheila
Coole being escorted out of her house by deputies ends
up on the Sheriff's reelection campaign Instagram. So the optics
there add doubt to the investigation, which was always you know,
(53:24):
became my question because if you're serving these sweeping warrants,
you already know you don't have the backing of the
district attorney. What is the point if you don't think
you're actually going to be able to bring a criminal case.
It does leave the question open that the optics were
the point, that the searches were the point to embarrass
(53:45):
Sheila Coule and Patty Giggins. Sure, if Alex Vanoi of
his fate will be decided next week at the polls,
his legacy has already impacted the future l A County
sheriff's that will come after him. Besides voting on whether
or not to elect a new sheriff, people will also
get the chance to decide if La County should modify
(54:05):
its charter to allow the Board of Supervisors to remove
a sheriff by a four fifths vote. Removal can happen
for any violation of law, falsifying statements or documents, flagrant
and neglect of duties, a misappropriation of public funds or property,
or obstructing investigations into the department. But Alex Via Aueva
(54:27):
wasn't the first sheriff to rise to the top of
a corrupt empire with the help of deputy gang members.
That's coming up next week, da how hood now me
fuck the po me some a fucking trophy. You've been
listening to a tradition of violence, The history of deputy
gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department hosted an
(54:49):
executive produced by Service Castle, music by Yellow Hill and Steels.
For breaking news and updates and deputy gags, follow at
l A s D Gags on social media, the Support
Serices Report, and for exclusive bonus content, subscribe to the
l s G Gang's Patriots. This poor
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