Beyond Deputy Gangs

Deputy gang members aren’t the only ones who are responsible for violence and corruption. Actions of LA County Sheriff’s Department personnel have led to unlawful arrests, devastating injuries, and even deaths.

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. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning. This podcast contains explicit language and details acts of violence.
Listener discretion is advised. Over the past few months, we've
learned about the origins of deputy gangs, how they operate,
why they target people they are sworn to protect, and
how they are protected from consequences. But deputy gangs are

(00:21):
just a piece of the problem. The psychological abuse, physical assaults,
and killings of l A County residents are not limited
to deputy gang members. The department and the criminal justice
system are set up in a way that facilitates this
behavior and allows it to go unpunished. This is a

(00:44):
tradition of violence. A history of deputy gangs inside of
the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. In Los Angeles County,
thousands of people make their way through the county jail
system each year. Like other jurisdictions, most of the people
in custody have not been convicted of a crime. They

(01:07):
are there because they cannot afford to bail out. The
l A County jails are staffed by Sheriff's deputies, many
of whom are fresh from the academy. Typically, the jails
are their first assignment after they graduate. For years the
jails have had reputations of being hotbeds of abuse that
persists today. But I think there's this general since in

(01:30):
the larger community that jails make us safe, and that
if somebody cannot post bail, then we need to make
sure they're kept in jail until they're convicted. And there
are no studies that bear that out. In fact, is
you can imagine it's largely the opposite. When somebody's put
in jail, it's an incredible disruption. Even if you're able

(01:55):
to post bail, say a couple of weeks later, you've
missed work for two weeks, so who knows if you
have a job, You've been away from your family for
two weeks, who knows what's happened to them in that time,
And you've been exposed to COVID in the setting for
two weeks and you're bringing it back to the community.

(02:18):
I'm sure the l A County's COVID rate is in
part due to the fact that we've been turning people
in and out of the jails constantly. So this idea
that incarcerating people pre trial keeps us safe just really
doesn't hold water. It damages our communities to rip people

(02:39):
out of their lives for even misdemeanors, and before they've
been proven guilty, and there's just no reason that there
needs to be I think today over people in jail,
upwards of six of whom have not been convicted of
a crime. Is Melissa Camacho, a senior staff attorney at

(03:03):
the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. A large
part of her job is keeping an eye on the
l A County jail system as part of the organization's
forty year old monitoring settlement with the county. People generally
know they can get away with whatever they want to

(03:23):
do in the jails and they're not going to receive
any repercussions. The jails are a black hole. The public
just does not have adequate access to what happens there.
The Sheriff's department blocks media access, blocks media requests. There's
very little public information available about jail conditions period, and

(03:45):
much more so if you want to hide a problematic
deputy sergeant. I can imagine the jails being a very
good place to do that. Most of Melissa's time has
spent responding to complaints from incarcerated people. We get consistent
complaints of broken toilets, and people in crises leaving feces

(04:06):
on walls or on the floor. We've received complaints regarding
conditions and not getting showers and not getting access to
law library as forms of harassment from nearly every section
of m c J in the year that I've been there.

(04:27):
The investigations into those grievances are slow and generally conclude
that they can't be founded. It's really a the word
of the person who's incarcerated against the entire custody department,
and the Sheriff's Department well generally back its own. One

(04:52):
incident Melissa reviewed that occurred in September was particularly disturbing.
There was a lockdown within Men's Central Jail. The reason
for the lockdown, given by the Sheriff's Department was that
there was fear that there was a gun in the jail,
and at least two tiers were then subject to a

(05:13):
strip and visual body cavity search and walked down flights
of stairs completely naked. The reports were also that people
were walked in front of male and female officers, and
people subject to this incident told the jail monitors that
they were mocked and that other humiliating comments were made

(05:37):
as they were walking down in this naked parade down
the flights of stairs, and we're kept for hours in
a yard still again with boxers and no shoes. And
this is so we're also talking COVID people taken en
mass with no COVID precautions, no masks, no way of

(05:59):
protecting themselves, and as far as the OSS monitors know
and as far as the public knows, there's been no accountability.
Besides all of this, Melissa says that she and others
at the A c l U are concerned that deputy
gangs inside of the jail maybe making a comeback, specifically
in Men's Central Jail, home of the three thousand Boys.

(06:22):
Are concern is that deputy gangs within the jails are
alive and well. We receive a lot of reports of
violence from the jails um, but even more so from
Men's Central Jail. So since November we've received six twenty

(06:46):
four reported incidents of violence in Men's Central Jail, and
that's more than we've received from all of the other
l A County jails combined. What is there to do
when the powers that be are not acting as they
should and providing an accountability process. One thing to do
is to vote for people in the county Board of

(07:07):
Supervisors who are committed to closing men Central Jail and
to pressure those who are currently on it to set
a timeline for that closure. I believe that the movement
has a great ally and Supervisor Holly Mitchell Um She
pushed powerfully for more money and resources for the Office

(07:28):
of Diversion and Reentry and was shot down by the
rest of the supervisors. They are also some legislative efforts
to shine more light into jail systems. One law that's
being proposed and will hopefully pass, will require sheriff's departments

(07:52):
to report on in custody deaths. So right now the
sheriff's departments do have to report the state of California
when somebody dies in custody and provide basic information, but
that information lags in l A County. That is such
a huge issue because there are a record number of

(08:16):
people dying in l A County. People are dying in
the jails at the rate of about one person per week.
It's a higher number than has ever been recorded by
the county or the state. Dignity and Power now a
nonprofit organization dedicated to abolition and restorative justice has studied

(08:37):
in custody deaths with the help of the University of
California Los Angeles's Carcero Ecologies Lab. Dr Terence Keel reviewed
their findings at a press conference outside of l a
s D headquarters this past summer. We over the last
two years have been working to study and analyze optopsies
some individuals who lost their lives on law fully inside

(09:01):
of Los Angeles County jail. And what we know is
that our community partners in two thousand and nineteen requested
from the county corner the depths of every individual who
died inside of jail from two thousand and nine and
two thousand and nineteen, and what they received were fifty
nine autopsies. But in truth, there were two people who

(09:21):
died during that period of time. There were two hundred
and thirty three autopsies that our community partners did not
get access to when they requested them. Now why is
that Well, part of the reason is that in Los
Angeles County, the Sheriff's Department is able to use what's
called a security hold. This is the ability of the
county sheriff to put any optopsy toxicology report about the

(09:44):
death in jail or about a death on the county,
making it inaccessible to anyone in the public. Optopsy records
are protected under the California State Law of Open Records.
Any individual in the state of California has the right
in the ability to get the topsy of the loss
of a loved one or a community member, and security
holds undermined that vital democratic practice of transparency of accountability.

(10:10):
Even with just fifty nine autopsies in hand, what the
researchers were able to find was shocking. One what we
learned is that black men, the overwhelming majority of them,
are dying in Los Angeles County jail, and those depths
are being classified as natural deaths. These are deaths that
are thought to be caused to illnesses like cardiovascular disease,

(10:33):
pulmonary disease, diabetes, even in falenza. But what's shocking about
this is that when we look at these autopsies more carefully,
what we realize is that the vast majority of these
cases had evidence of violence on their body. We're talking
about bone fractures, bone breaks, lacerations, haematomas, abrasions, things that

(10:53):
were not account for in the depth classification. How is
it that someone died naturally with this amount of violent
on their body. The County Corner needs to answer this
question because for us, as researchers and as communities, we
are confused about how this is just How is this accountability?
Several families who have lost loved ones are working directly

(11:14):
with researchers to figure out what exactly happened to them.
The name is Terry love It. I'm the mother of
JULYI loved It that was killed in the ancestral jail.
I received my sons. I talked three report in January.
Um I received photos from the Corner's office in November,

(11:36):
and the corners photos and the I talked to report
don't match each other. They talk about stuff that they've
been their narrative. From my understanding, their narrative is supposed
to be how they walk into a room, they see
a crime scene. They supposed to write the start what
they see. That's not what they do. This happens on
your watch. It's not acceptable and I won't stop until

(11:59):
I find that who give what they give from out town.
The mysterious deaths aren't limited to Men's Central Jail. Here's
Les say to Hamilton's speaking about the death of her
brother to Miko Tyler at the Pitches Detention Center. My
brother's Miko Tyler was killed in the Pension's detention center
March three, two thousand. The whole process that I've been

(12:22):
dealing with them with from the beginning to the end.
I asked for my artops report. In the beginning, they
said they were processing it for about two years. I
sat and fought with them trying to give my artops
report as I paid for to be expedited. I went
down there a numerous of times throughout my case just
to make sure because I should need to know some
type of verification about my brother. So they bring out

(12:45):
a picture of him and it shows facial beating throughout.
Then then here comes two thousand nineteen, I finally get
the ourtops report. It has bits and pieces, is chopped
up and too, just different time stamps of who signed
off on it, and so it in details. Lacerations. If
originally you guys say he had a seizure, there should
not be any type of marks, lacerations, none of the

(13:09):
above on his body. So today I still stand here
and hold them accountable for China hide would happen if
pitches Attemption Center. Deputy Gang members are assisted by many

(13:34):
arms of Los Angeles County government while carrying out their agendas,
like the l A County District Attorney. When Deputy Gang
members arrest people on bogus charges, it's up to the
d A to decide whether or not to prosecute that case.
So whenever I see a case and the only charge
is a resisting arrest, it always raises a red flag.

(13:55):
This is Jovon Black now. He's a criminal defense and
civil rights attorney. He was retained by the family of
Barry Montgomery. I spoke to him at his office a
few months ago. Barry is a special needs He's a
very small person. He's about five to maybe a hundred
and twenty pounds. Maybe he very rarely speaks at the time.

(14:19):
Barry is probably around thirty years old. On July fourteen,
just before m Barry was walking through Enterprise Park in
the Willow Brick neighborhood near his home. Some officers saw
him in the park. So the officers see Barry, they
approach him. Well, you can have a conversation with Barry,
and Barry might turn and walk away from you during

(14:42):
the conversation. You might talk to him and he won't
look at you, or you talk to him and he
won't respond back, or if he redoved, respond back into
grunting yes and no. You know, and so I believe
the officers took his behavior is like like a challenge
to their authority. So like some insubordination, the officers wind
up tackling Barry to the ground and pretty severely beating

(15:07):
him up to the point I think Barry had eleven
broken bones or fractured bones. Both eye sockets were fractured,
one was sunken in so he has permanent double vision.
He had a fractor to his skull ends up. We
found out later that it ended up in a traumatic
brain injury, and Barry was charged with the crying. As

(15:28):
a result of this beating, he was charged with three
felony counts of resisting arrest by force. They claimed the
Barry Barry was overpowering them. One of the deputies involved
in the beating was an associate of a deputy gang
jo Van did not know that until I showed up
at his office. Did you know that one of the
deputies who participated in this attack is a deputy gang associate.

(15:52):
I don't think we knew at the time. No, I
don't think we knew at the time. Armando Diaz. Do
you remember he's allegedly associated with the three thousand Boys.
Are you familiar with that? The three thousand Boys is
a deputy gang based on the three thousand four of
Men's Central Jail and their notorious for beating inmates, sometimes

(16:14):
to death. In April of two thousand eight, Diaz was
part of a group of officers that beat a man
named Velton Boone. Now, I got to go back and
look at it. There's no coincidence that das will be
in these environments and continue to be in these situations

(16:34):
where people are significantly hurt, their whites are significantly violated,
and he's still on the floors and still collecting his
paychecks and still having all the all the authority that
he always had. That information is supposed to be handed
over to criminal defense and civil attorneys, but the District

(16:55):
Attorney's office does not always follow the rules. The court
was also skeptical that Barry was neurodivergent. Jovan had to
prove that Barry could not comprehend what was going on.
After he did, the case was eventually dismissed. A civil
case was filed, which l A County eventually settled for
over two million dollars, paid for by taxpayers. Jovan says

(17:19):
the verdict is still not enough to cover Berry's ongoing
physical and mental health issues stemming from the attack. Unfortunately,
deputies brutalizing people in the midst of mental health crises
is a frequent occurrence. Marco Vasquez Jr. And his wife,
Christina knew to be wary of deputies. They grew up

(17:41):
in East l A County and had seen deputy abuse firsthand.
Christina had worked in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility across
the street from Men's Central Jail. She had seen suspicious
deaths herself. They needed to and put stuff on a spreadsheet.
But I'm reading too, because now, like, what the heck?
How are you claiming this inmate died of a diabetic

(18:03):
coma when what they have reported that's not even close
to how they found the inmate. And I'm thinking, if
I'm questioning it, how are the higher ups not questioning it.
I would go home and be like, oh my God,
you know, talking to Marco about it and he would say, yeah,
you can't trust the officers. Marco was the kind of
person who would go to any length to protect his family.

(18:27):
Here is his mom, Leticia. He always wanted to be
the protector and felt that it was his responsibility to
care for mom and dad and his brother. He was
also very mischievous and class clown. What can I say
as a mom, that's my boy. I loved everything about him.
I wouldn't want anyone else other than him. That was

(18:49):
blessed to call my son. Marco met Christina young and
they quickly built a life together. We met when we
were thirteen in junior high and we fell in love
very quickly. By the time we were fourteen, we were
pregnant with our first daughter, and in total we have

(19:09):
five children together. We didn't end up getting married until
fast forward to we got married, so we almost hit
our five year mark. He loved being a father. He
prided himself and not like all my walls went down
with him. He was my person and I feel very

(19:30):
fortunate that I found him as young as I did.
Marco was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and on October six,
he was in the midst of an episode. His family
knew he needed help and requested assistance from one with
getting him to hold Marco even called because he believed

(19:53):
his family was in danger. Deputies and a social worker
came to the house, but told the family they would
not be taking Marco to the hospital as he was
not a threat and left. Marco's episode continued and the
family called for help again. Dispatch told Christina that deputies
would arrive soon to assess the situation. I remember them

(20:16):
getting there because they announced on their speaker, but their
lights were off and they flashed the floodlights at us,
and they say, did you guys call Yes, get out
of the way. So I'm like, okay, well, they're asking
us to get out of the way because they're gonna
put the patrol car right next to the driveway. So
then I shout out, Babe, there here he was standing

(20:37):
on the steps of the house. Okay, good. And then
once we move out of the way, when they start
rolling up, it was like the scene of a movie
because everything was so slow motion. But they are jumping
out of the vehicle and they're already cocking their guns
because you just heard and we go running and were screaming.

(21:01):
Marco's younger brother, who was standing behind him, was also
grazed by a bullet. L A. S D says that
Marco was holding a knife to the throat of a
woman when he was shot. That never happened. Sergeant in
Sinces Medals Patricia Deputy and Deputy Greg Nichols are the shooters.

(21:22):
They didn't give him a chance, they didn't give him
a command. They didn't even wait a second to shoot.
I couldn't move, and I remember screaming, like I almost
fell to the ground, but like where I'm holding my
stomach and I'm screaming because I've told people this, I
physically felt him leave, like I knew he was gone,
like there was no doubt in my mind, like he

(21:43):
they killed him. And I remember seeing my mother in
law jump on top of him, screaming no, and then
an officer dragging her off. And then I saw my
middle daughter, who was with me, run and she threw
herself to the ground and she's holding Marco's head and
she's like, Dad, please, Dad, please wake up, Please wake up.

(22:05):
She had his blood on her hands. And then another
officer dragging her off and we're all going crazy. And
I remember he's screaming at me and he's like, if
you don't shut her the funk up, I'm going to
take her to And I remember screaming at them, like,
at the top of my lungs, what am I supposed
to tell my son's? My baby will never know his father?
What am I supposed to tell my son? When he

(22:27):
asked me where his daddy is? The family was taken
to the station and interrogated for hours. Meanwhile, deputies searched
and trashed their home. A machete Marco had surveyed the
property with earlier in the day was recovered from behind
a couch. It was later used in evidence. The family
has met with l A District Attorney George Gascon and

(22:50):
told me that the office will not charge the deputies
who killed Marco, Christina and the t C. I believe
that's because there was no video of the shooting. The
deputies were not wearing body cameras. One of the first
things they asked, did anybody recorded? One of the first questions.
I was hoping Marcable's story would be different and there'd

(23:10):
be a different outcome. Now it's like, well, I'm going
to do what I have to do to keep my
kids safe because I can't count on law enforcement. I
can't count on gascon, I can't count on city officials
and all these people that promised to make changes for
those that have not gone through this. I pray that

(23:33):
no other family never does. But if you're ever in
this situation, don't talk to the cups. On March four,
deputies killed another man in the midst of a mental
health crisis. David or dads Jr. Is remembered by his
family as a charismatic person who loved to laugh. My
name's Jasmine and David was my partner and the father

(23:55):
of my two children. He just had a really big personality.
David always found fun and everything. My name is hid
and I am the oldest sister of David. David was
also that kind of person that he wanted to get
everybody involved. If he saw someone who was very quiet
in the corner, that's the person that he was going
to go after to try to befriend them, to try

(24:17):
to get them out of their shell. Name's Emily alesso
Us and David last Jr. Was my dad. He was
a very encouraging dad and you know, when he wasn't
struggling with his mental health, he was. He was like
the best dad any daughter class for. David had been
struggling that month. On March, he experienced a mental health

(24:42):
crisis and allegedly threatened to hurt himself, according to calls.
Body camera footage shows deputies showing up and asking him
to drop a knife in his hands while pointing guns
at him. His family pleads with him from behind their
front gate. One deputy says. One deputy fires a less

(25:04):
lethal round than a wave of gunshots ring out fired
by deputies Edwin Navarette Romero, Nathaniel Trujillo, and Ramananda. David
collapses to the floor as his family screams. On November tenth,
District Attorney George Gascon announced that Ramananda would be charged
with assault with a firearm and assault under color of authority.

(25:27):
To be clear, Canada is not being charged for David's killing.
He's being charged with continuing to fire once he was
already on the ground. I feel like, as a whole,
every single deputy that was there was responsible. I'm not happy.
I feel like we still need to fight for some
sort of charges against the other deputies. I would expect

(25:50):
that if you can admit that one of the officers
was at fault for my dad's killing, then what stops
you from admitting fault for the other three. They all
played a part in it. I think when people heard
about it, they were happy because they thought that he
was going to be accused for David's murder. But he's not.

(26:10):
He's not being accused for his murder. He's only being
accused for that less shot. That's not just this, but
the system is not made to work for us. Just
a few weeks later, Isaias Sarvantes, a young neuro divergent man,
had a violent encounter with deputies while inside his kind
of heat home. He was a twenty five year old

(26:30):
time who was diagnosed with autism. He was deaf from birth,
o c D, obsessive compulsive disorder and frankly and through
through the diagnosis of medical doctors, had the intellectual capacity
for six year old. You know, he lives with his
mom and by the way, he has a twin brother.
He sucks Atlantes, who suffers from sturgebil palsy and is

(26:54):
confined to a wheelchair. Attorney Christian contrarists who represents several
families who have loved ones to the actions of deputy
gang members, represents Issaias and his family. So he said, yes,
you know, I was having a mental health episode that day,
like many people do, you know, and especially people with

(27:14):
his type of conditions. So the family called the police,
and there's tapes out there and one one tapes of
course from the sister Yadda who called nine one one,
and she says several things. One of them is, of course,
that he is intellectually disabled. He suffers from several conditions.
But one of the main points that she approached was

(27:36):
that can you take him to the hospital. The deputies
began the interaction by speaking to the Servantes family, similarly
to how they had spoken to the family of Marco
Vasquez Jr. When deputies arrived, they spoke with the family,
and to their credit, they didn't go under their guns
blazing at first. They did speak to the family, which
is puzzling because when they spoke to the family, they

(27:58):
confirmed that yes, he several conditions and that yes, you know,
he's having a mental health episode. But if you watch
the video, which is public, there's a point in time
where the mom says he's scared of you guys. Than

(28:20):
that is the triggering point where the deputies go into
the home and then have guns blazing. I mean, they
don't have their guns out, but they go in there aggressively.
They get to the front of the sidewalk, to the
front of the door of the home and they tell
he sa yes, he sa, yes, you're not under arrest,
but we're gonna put handcuffs on you. Imagine how that
sounds to a person in his shoes. As they approach him,

(28:43):
he said yes. While he's calmly sitting on the couch,
the deputies asked him to stand up, and as soon
as they touch him, he kind of squirms. He has
O c D, so someone with O c D doesn't
like being touched. And as soon as he said yes,
does that, Deputy Amontes grab them, put him in a
chokehold and throws him down and he said yes, his

(29:06):
face down in his living room. You have Metamontes, who
was approximately two pounds in comparison to one thirty pound
five nine said yes, choking him with his full body weight,
full pressure and a rare naked chokehold, which is a
very serious situation. At the same time, you have David Vega,

(29:27):
Deputy Vega, who is much heavier than Amontes maybe, who
has his knee on the back of s s Is
back pinning him down. So you have s s who
is pinned from the back, pinned from the front, one
through a chokehold, another through a knee to the back.
Sias was completely immobile. The deputies claimed their body worn

(29:49):
cameras were knocked off as they wrestled the Sias to
the floor. And then you have the cover up. This
is the point in the situation where there's an allegation
that he say s Is going for a gun. So
you tell me how someone who was face down, laying
down on the floor, facedown, who is being choked and

(30:10):
is being pinned with the knee on his back by
two full grown men over two undred pounds, how it's
even physically able or capable or possible for him to
reach back and even get that gun. Physically impossible because
when you're laying down the floor, you can't extend your
arms all the way to be able to really do anything.

(30:30):
You can just move it and that's about it. But
that's allegation that came from Deputy mine. He said, he's
going from my gun. He's going from my gun, and
David vega that the deputy with the knee on the
back responds and gets his firearm out and points it
point black in the back of East I e S

(30:52):
And shoots him, and the bullet enters the back of
East I e US and the shrapnel everywhere, and there's
blood everywhere, and s I. S Is taken to hospital
where he undergo surgery and he survives, fortunately, but they

(31:12):
shatter his vertebrae and he is now permanently paralyzed from
the chest down, so he's confined to a whelchare now.
At least after being shot in the back. Isaias was
criminally charged. Subsequently, they charged sis with three finalies. I
believe it was two PC sixty nine resisting arrest with force. Yes,

(31:34):
when you're pinned down to the floor, resisting arrest with force,
and I think I sat with the deadly weapon. I
don't even know how they could charge that one. He
never had the weapon. We knew it was ridiculous from
the outset. With the help of several advocacy groups, Christian
was able to get the criminal case dropped. We're talking
about a c L You were talking about all the

(31:55):
major disability organizations and civil rights organization, and they sent
the letter to Gascon and the case ended up being dropped.
Is there a deputy gang element in this case? Potentially?
Of course I would want to explore deputy gang aspect,
But right now, I think what's most imperative is to
get this family justice, some sort of compensation, because you know,

(32:16):
he needs round the clock care. This has really affected
him psychologically, truly, truly, truly, truly. L A County Shaff's
deputies stopped black people twice as often as they do

(32:39):
white people, according to a report from the a c
L u so Cal. Far too often those stops have
deadly consequences, and that is an accepted fact for thousands
of people of color living in Los Angeles County. People
change their schedules to avoid any contact with deputies. Jamal
Simpson learned how Dane Juris the police were growing up

(33:01):
in South Los Angeles. One of his close friends shared
with me that the two of them were frequently harassed
by cops starting from when they were kids. I'm going
to keep that friend anonymous for their safety. Jamal's sisters
shared that despite the many challenges he faced, Jamal was
the anchor of their family. Their mother died when Jamal

(33:22):
was a young child, on the day of his graduation
from elementary school. His father says the death deeply affected Jamal.
Jamal loved children and family. He was a dedicated uncle
to his nephews and took it upon himself to check
up on his sisters and father on a daily basis.
In the early morning hours of August one, nineteen, Jamal

(33:44):
was riding with his friend to cash a check in
Inglewood outside of L. A. S D's jurisdiction, but a
deputy maneuvered behind them and began to pursue the car
without its siren lights on. The friends says that Jamal
began to panic. He was out on bail for appending
robbery charge and implied that he had a gun. He

(34:05):
asked his friend to keep driving. One of the deputies
pursuing them had a history. Gregory Vanhausen shot and killed
sixteen year old Anthony A. J. Weber just over a
year earlier. Van Hosen shot the teenager at least thirteen times.
He claimed that A j had a gun, but no

(34:25):
weapon was ever recovered. L a s D insisted on
pushing the unfounded notion that the gun was removed from
a J's body by a bystander while deputies stood by.
A civil case was filed, which cost taxpayers just under
four million dollars. Van Hosen was never criminally charged for

(34:46):
that shooting, and it doesn't appear he was disciplined either. Instead,
he was back out on patrol, chasing Jamal's friend as
he drove down a street outside of l A s
d s jurisdiction. Jamal attempted to ex at the vehicle.
His attorney, Ja person Lynn says that was Jamal's right
as the passenger of the car, but the patrol car

(35:08):
was so close behind them he could not open the door. Eventually,
Jamal's friend was able to maneuver to a roadblock and
let Jamal out. Van Hosen chased Jamal and shot him
multiple times in the back. Jamal was hit eighteen times.
He died at the scene. Jamal's family filed a civil

(35:29):
lawsuit against the county for his death, which is ongoing.
Van Hosen was not charged in this shooting either. Why
he was in Inglewood was never explained. He's still working
for the department and was last seen at Men's Central Jail.
It's unclear if Van Hosen was disciplined for this shooting.

(35:49):
It's unclear if l A s D makes a point
to discipline deputies who violate departmental policy during fatal shootings.
On June and twenty, eight year old Frederick Holder, who
was unarmed, was shot and killed by deputies Christopher Conger,
Javier Fierros, and Jackie Rojas while he stopped at a

(36:10):
red light on a freeway on ramp. Fred was deeply
loved by his family. I spoke to them last summer
during a protest in Fred's memory. They describe him as
an upbeat health food nut. His goal was to pursue singing.
He even auditioned for the voice. Here's his mom, April.
He was good. He's a cares sister and he used

(36:32):
that perfectly. Jammy opened the door for Damn closed the door.
He was just a good kid. And I don't know
if he was a goopy kid. The five person I'm
still like kind a shot, you know. The day of
the shooting, a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter operator requested
an l A s D unit to attempt to stop
a white Ford utility box truck Fred was driving. The

(36:55):
car wasn't wanted for anything. The l A p D
operator set over a radio communication the vehicle was being
pursued because the tailgate was open. Christopher Conger set in
a statement that his partner, Deputy Stephen Doma, radio to
Conger that he was going to initiate a felony traffic stop.
It is against l A s d s policy to

(37:17):
pursue vehicles for reckless driving. According to the department, four
l A s D vehicles surrounded the truck on a
residential street and used a public announcement system to instruct
Fred to get out. Fred drove away slowly onto a
nearby freeway on ramp, with deputies following. They parked behind
Fred and exited carrying firearms. None of them were wearing

(37:41):
body cameras, despite the department requiring the activation of body
warn cameras during vehicle stops and pursuits. Within seconds of approaching,
the deputies opened fire on the truck, which was surrounded
by other people in their cars. Fred was hit eleven
times and died at the seen. His family was not

(38:02):
notified for about a week. Conger, Faros, and Rojas are
still on duty and do not appear to have been
disciplined for violating multiple policies in this shooting. District Attorney
George Gascon recently found that they acted in lawful self
defense and we're not criminally charged. A civil claim Fred's

(38:22):
family filed against the county is ongoing. We've covered multiple
shootings in this podcast, but that's just a fraction of
the lives taken by deputies. Deputies with the Los Angeles
County Sheriff's Department shot nineteen people, fourteen of them died,
and shootings are just one part of the violence that

(38:43):
deputies inflict regularly on residents. It's common for deputies to
violently arrest people and leave them with devastating injuries. On
October six, at am, two deputies pulled up to the
good Batch who galounge in Inglewood, again outside of their jurisdiction.

(39:03):
Blake Anderson, the lounges security guard, was standing outside talking
to a childhood friend. Just a few seconds after pulling
into the lot, the deputies launched out of the car,
pointed at Blake, and slammed him into the lounges glass windows,
shattering them. Immediately, the deputy on his partner began beating
Blake relentlessly and banging his head into the concrete. Blake

(39:27):
lost vision in his eye as a result of the attack.
Blake told me that while he was being beaten, the
deputy said to him, quote, I'm going to blow your
fucking brains out. Video shows the deputy putting his gun
to the back of Blake's head multiple times. Another deputy
pointed his gun at the crowd that formed around them
and yelled get back, or I'm going to shoot all

(39:49):
of you. When I broke this story for knock l a,
then Sheriff Alex b in Nueva said on a Facebook
live that there is quote false information being circulated by
activists masquerading as journalists. Vienneueva is no longer sheriff, but
Blake is still being charged with assault on a police
officer for this incident. Violent arrests haven't gone away under

(40:12):
Sheriff Robert Luna. On December nine, just a few days
after Sheriff Luna was sworn in, a transgender woman was
violently arrested by deputies in West Hollywood. Annie Jump spotted
deputies at her apartment building that evening. Another unit frequently
had domestic violence incidents, which Annie Jump and other neighbors

(40:33):
had begged deputies to investigate. Annie Jump had even spoken
about the issue at a city council meeting. Deputies never
did anything, and that night was no different. But the
following morning, Annie Jump says she saw deputies sitting outside
her home again. I was like, why are you here?
And he said, domestic violence gates. We were going an investigation.

(40:57):
And I'm out the front door and I said, see
Sheriff's I can't let you in. I don't see a warrant.
It's not like you did anything the last time you
were here anyway, So I told them, if you want
to get in the building, you can call the landlord.

(41:18):
His numbers right there on the box. I answered the number,
got my feet in the door, turned around, tried to
pull the door shut because they are legally not allowed in,
and the sheriff grabbed the door and pulled it open.
The deputy decides to just grab my arm and throw

(41:38):
it behind my back, attempt to He's not stating anything,
not that in being between not reading memoranda, writes nothing.
And then he calls his buddy over for help. They
said um, she's resisting. So they spent my knees and
threw my head into the wall. After they put the

(42:01):
cops on my hands, they put their knees on my
wrists and I said, please, you're cutting off circulation into
my hand. They for some reason hog tied my legs
and they carried me out parallel to the ground. They
placed me face down on the asphalt, opened the shower store,

(42:25):
fucking pick me up like a piece of furniture, and
slid me in. The charges against any Jump were dropped
by District Attorney George Gascon, but since the incident, on
multiple occasions, any Jump has seen deputies sitting in parked
cars or milling about just below her bedroom window. People

(42:56):
often say that it's just a small number of cops
who are responsible for bad behavior. Many people point to
the proverbial good cops who work hard to keep their
colleagues in check. But from what I've learned in my reporting,
it doesn't happen like that. Good cops are targeted, pushed out,
and punished. Last summer, I met with someone who experienced

(43:18):
this firsthand. My name is Lori Atwater. I'm a former
law enforcement officer. I was sworn law enforcement between nineteen
eighty six and nineteen ninety four. I've been doing income
taxes for primarily law enforcement and firefighters in southern California
for twenty six years. I remember one time you told
me like, oh, it was a good place to party. Oh, totally, Yeah.

(43:41):
Nobody could drink like us. There were no cameras and
video and I was not ever a thug and I
didn't hang out with thugs. They were just fun people
that like to have a good time. So things were
different then. So historically, I've been in and around law
enforcement for decades and have hundreds and hundreds of friends
that are good, honest cops and firefighters and have been

(44:04):
serving with honor for a very long time. So what
happened to me was pretty shocking and hard to process.
Laurie is white, blonde and has lived in rural areas
tending to her farm for years. She is someone who
is passionate about honesty and accountability. She's been around lots
and lots of cops over the years, and as a

(44:25):
c p A knows the intimate details of their lives.
She told me that anyone she even suspected as being
involved in misconduct she cut out of her life. She
assumed that the l A County Sheriff's Department was operating
in the same way. Her reality check came in a
police interaction that is familiar to many people of color,

(44:46):
a questionable traffic stop. February nineteen, a friend of mine
who worked for the film unit for the fire department
had an application for a permanent address that was very
close to my address, and he called me and asked
me to get a phone number for somebody at that
location because he didn't want to have to drive all

(45:06):
the way from lack Cresenta. So at the end of
my work day, I went over to get the phone
number for him, and I went first to where the
address he gave me, which was across the street and
in the open desert area. So I turned around to
come back out, and as I'm coming out, there's a
Sheriff's sergeant and a Class B uniform that was really

(45:28):
frumpy and didn't fit him right. Honest to god, thought
it was a fake cop. I thought it was someone
from the movie shoot that I was there for the
film permit, because it was like, you know, it wasn't
quite right, you know, And he had his hands out
and said turn off your car from like fifteen feet away,
and there was like zero officer safety. Like that was

(45:51):
just all wrong. Every possible way what he was doing
wasn't correct. Lorie is a former cop. Her friends are cops.
She knows how a proper traffic stop is supposed to
go down. If he wanted to talk to me, she
had have waited for me to come out on the
roadway and then got behind me with his lights on
and pulled a traffic stop on the roadway. I later
find out he works Special Victims Unit and he's working

(46:13):
overtime for Parks Bureau, so he has zero reason to
be where he is whatsoever. And I didn't turn off
my car. I said why, And he shows up at
the passenger window and I don't remember exactly what he said,
but I called nine one one and I got the
call out and I said, I'm being detained by what
I believe is a fake cop, and he freaked out,

(46:36):
goes jumps back from the window. He was shocked when
I did that, so I tried to video him at
the window while I was on the phone with and
I succeeded in disconnecting the call and not video, and
he booked back to the road and then he was
on his phone and he's talking to somebody I don't
know who he called it. He's like and she's got video.

(46:59):
I heard him say at And honestly, I feel like
he was looking for some kind of sex. Like it
was just so weird. The whole contact was so weird.
I was afraid to film him because I felt like
he might shoot me and then say the cell phone
look like a gun. I gave him my license through
a crack so nobody would say I wasn't cooperating, and

(47:22):
then he went back to his vehicle and disappeared for
like five or ten minutes with my license, and I
didn't know what he was doing. And I started to
feel really uncomfortable down there in the you know, the
off the road in the bush. So I drove back
up onto the roadway and stopped the car and put
my hands on the steering wheel. But there were people
at the film place across the way, and I wanted

(47:43):
people to see me, you know, I wanted there to
be witnesses. So he moves his car to behind me.
So when the cops do show up from Palm Dale,
it looks like he's pulled me over, but that is
not what happened. At no point was there ever a
traffic stop. He makes up invents a citation for failure

(48:04):
to obey a posted signs so that he could excuse himself.
Laurie fought that citation for months. The Palmdale deputies were
completely freaking out to lunch, never queried him about the
oddness of him being there what he did. I later
had to bring that fireman from the film in it
and the supervisor from Rhodes department to court, and they
both came to court and testified. More resources go into,

(48:27):
you know, not supporting the ticket. County had to pay
a fireman and a road supervisor to come to court.
There was never a possibility that I could be violating anything,
and they dismissed the ticket. She also reported the cop,
whose name is Brian Hudson, to the department. Nothing he
did was proper policy or officer safety. He didn't have

(48:49):
a reason to be there. I accused him of being
a predator. He definitely got protected by somebody in senior leadership.
I don't know who he was talking to, but for
them to sweep that on of the rug without any
freaking anything. It's just too weird and too unacceptable. Internal
affairs was involved. They never gave an explanation for his behavior.

(49:10):
The assigned it to a female lieutenant. I called the number,
left her message. After several messages, she never called me back. Um,
and I got a letter that they were dispoing it
unfounded and if I wanted to object to call within
ten days, which I did and was again ignored. Myerstan
is his personal friends with the Captain at Pundale Station,
Ron Shaffer. I've known him for twenty something years and

(49:32):
there's lots of reasons he wouldn't like me. My second
husband was a traffic deputy that a lot of people
didn't like, and we're still friends. Schaefer hated him, but
he was a deputy at Santa Clarita, where my then
husband was a deputy. Hudson was never disciplined for the stop.
He got away with it, like he never explained what
he was doing there. I'd like to know what other
women in the Anelope Valley have had a strange encounter

(49:52):
with Sergeant Brian Hudson. Several months after her ticket was dismissed,
Laurie had another encounter with Sheriff's deputies at her home
in Palmdale. At that point, she was living on a
fifteen acre ranch complete with the shooting range. My boyfriend
that was a Marine Corps gunnery sergeant, built a gun range.
It had been utilized by law enforcement clients military. However,

(50:14):
there were five ranches in that proximity and none of
us had any issues with the gun range being there.
The deputies would come and check out the range and
would show it to them and they'd say, okay, cool,
no crime happening here and leave. You're allowed to shoot
out in the desert of unincorporated l A County where
the ranches. You're technically not supposed to shoot within a

(50:34):
half mile of homes, but Lori had the okay from
l A. S d. On May one, she planned a
day of shooting at the range with one of her sons.
Rode up to the house and getting ready to go
down to the range with my son, and I saw
coyote down by my emo. I went into I had
my guns out. Was a handgun to twenty two is

(50:56):
a shotgun in an A R fifteen that I bought
legally in sixteen. Grabbed the A r went out to
my shooting spot to shooting in front of itaus. I
don't want to actually hit him. Chased him off the property.
After the coyote was gone, Lori and her son drove
to meet a UPS delivery man to pick up a
part for his rifle, past two deputies driving two radio

(51:16):
cars driving up the street, and they were driving very
aggressively and very fast. This is an area Palm Dale.
It takes you five hours to get the cops to
come to anything, so I really was surprised at how
they were responding. The deputies were over at my other
neighbor's house, this Filipino guide, and they were yelling at

(51:37):
him on the outside p A to come out with
his hands app I could hear it. I called and
I told the nine one one operator that you know,
I said, you're yelling at my neighbor on outside p
A and oh, there's been a shooting over there. Like,
nobody shot anything. I shot at a coyote about forty
five minutes ago, but nobody's in danger, not even the coyote.
I shot the air in front of his nose. Lorie

(51:57):
gave the operator her cell phone number and asked the
responding deputies to call her. Two men were waiting for her,
a training officer and his trainee. As she approached the gate,
the young rookie bent it in order to let himself through,
again a deputy entering someone's home without their permission. The
kid charged me and attacked me. Is how I remember it,

(52:21):
and screamed into my ear you're under arrest for negligent
discharge of a firearm. He handcuffed me savagely, so fucking
tightly that I was later begging him to loosen those handcuffs.
His training officer yells, hurry up and get her in
the car. She's gonna have friendlies coming over that hill
and points up the hill towards where my neighbor lives
with special ed director at the Lancaster School District, Like

(52:43):
you know, her husband's gonna come running down and assault
the police or something. Um. So the kid shoves me
in the car, turns around in the seat. He reads
me my rights off the card and just can't fucking
believe it when I won't wave him, so he puts
the card away, reaches over to the front of the car,
takes the rifle out of the rack, and turns in

(53:06):
the seat and he takes the fucking he racks around
and then he takes the magazine out and he he
fox with it. I don't know, and then he sort
of turns it where it's now facing towards my face
and he says, are you sure you don't want to
wave your rights? And I said absolutely not. He actually
did that twice. And I was looking right down the

(53:26):
barrel of that fucking rifle from the back seat, and
I asked him do you have cameras in this car?
And I was thinking those were my last words? But
I was going to die with a funk you on
my lips. And he says, all smuggly, no, there aren't.
He was smiling, and I said, well there should be.

(53:49):
And I waited to die again. And I was really
proud that those were my last words, because I really
thought he was gonna fucking smoke me. And while he
still the rifle in his hands, his fucking teo sticks
his head in the car and goes, what the funk
are you doing? He puts it in the rack, and
at the same time he goes, she won't waiver rights

(54:10):
any the training officer goes, well, partner, we need a
frank a frank meaning a felony. The training officer was
telling the rookie to say Lori had committed a felony
in order to arrest her. They also searched her house.
The training also looks at the kid and he says,
how about criminal threats and then they invented that to

(54:30):
book me for I never threatened anybody. Because they really
wanted to search my house and they were piste off.
I wouldn't wave my rights, so they got their search warrant.
It was very afraid. When they took me to jail
at Colombdale Station. I spent about probably like five hours
there before some deputies came in that were from the

(54:51):
Cops Bureau. It was the sergeant named Brian Barclay and
his two deputies. They were doing an interdiction detail to
not people being custody that didn't need to be in custody.
So Barklay said to me, I need to get you
out of here. You have a lynch mob after you.
After about an hour, LORI was processed out. When they
were processing me out, there was a lot of like

(55:13):
I could see deputies peaking like there had been an argument,
like whatever had gone down like they wanted to see
what it was about. But I honestly feel like I
was supposed to be an in custody death. I really
really do. When you have another cop telling you you're
in danger and you have a lynch mob after you,
pretty terrifying. She was taken to Henry Mayo New Hall Hospital,
where the deputies told staff that she was not on

(55:36):
a psychiatric hold, but she was kept overnight anyway because
the doctor was unavailable. He eventually showed up on an
iPad screen and decided to keep Lorie for another day
because guns were noted in the deputy's report. Two days
after the incident, she finally went home. On the way
home from the hospital, I called somebody I know that

(55:57):
had just promoted from the academy and as an expert
on teaching constitutional policing and told them what happened. Nobody
wants to eat their career, but definitely not what you're
supposed to be doing. And he gave me a list.
He told me how I needed to make my complaint.
But after she complained, a lieutenant called me and told

(56:19):
me that they were going to get a felony no
knock a restaurant for two counts of the salt rifle
possession and that I should run. The warrant was never served,
but Lori was charged with felony possession of an assault rifle,
even though when she bought the gun it was still
legal to own, exempting her from prosecution. The deputies also

(56:40):
lied and said that her twenty two caliber rifle was
another a R fifteen that detective twice said under, Oh,
she didn't know if I had any guns at all
that were a legal, any sault rifles, because she didn't
really know guns. They didn't even bring the guns to court.
They brought pictures of the guns to court, so at
no point would they ever make it be a missed,
a meaner or acknowledge that I legally purchased that gun.

(57:03):
They prosecuted me as a felony through a whole fourteen months,
so that the last hearing, the head d A there
had agreed to a full dismissal a whole year later
if I would, in the meantime plead guilty to misdemeanor
gun possession and then in a year they would set
it aside like it never happened. After a year, Laurie

(57:24):
filed for the dismissal herself. Her record was cleared in
the summer of Afterwards, she left California for good. I
did get on the record that the cops threatened me
with a firearm and made up a felon search warrants.
Like I'm telling her in court, these cops committed felonies,
and she doesn't care. There's a deputy sitting there, he's

(57:45):
mandated reporter. Nobody cares. They control the judges in the courtrooms.
If you didn't have judges that would play along, you
can't do it. That was one of the reasons why
I left California, because it's right. They're right saying that
they're going to come after you. If are in their
area where they can make up a story and control
the narrative, you're in danger. It is dangerous to run

(58:09):
your mouth about dirty cops in l A. There's a
mechanism in the sheriff stomer to protect that cops without
a doubt and a public trust. Is that an all
time low? I could see why. You know, because you
can't trust that you're going to be safe. Necessarily, everybody
on the job has their eye on that fear. You know,

(58:30):
they hold your pension over your head to keep you
in check. And that's really frustrating because it really shouldn't
be that hard for a cop to report misconduct. So
the code of silence is real. And I've been around
la Enforce in a really long time. There's plenty of

(58:50):
crime out there. If you just figure out is there
a crime, who committed it? Follow that, you'll probably be okay.
But you know you're gonna make up a crime so
that you can say you had to have on something.
They make something up and then accuse you of it.
That's that's not police work. That's the great People on
the inside are starting to speak up. Last week, I
met with three current l A s D employees who

(59:12):
say they've been attempting to speak up about sexual harassment, racism,
and unethical promotions. I'm going to keep them anonymous and
change their voices to prevent retaliation. It was a lot
of racial things. If you were sleeping with the right person,
you got whatever you want it. Or if you're the son, daughter, cousin, niece,

(59:34):
whatever nepotism of of a smart personnel, you were going
to get that position. What I've noticed in the department,
the ones that end up getting the promotions or becoming
higher positions are the ones that could be their puppet
with the department. We have things in place, like grievances
um the union, but when you use these things, the

(01:00:00):
department frowns upon it and you get punished. You're not
supposed to be um retaliating against what they do. These
things are put in place, and when you utilize them,
you are black bald, you are mistreated. My turning point
was the incident that happened recently where he had been

(01:00:21):
promising me this and promising me that, and threatening me
to stay quiet and threatening me not to complain about
certain things, and I sat there quietly allowing him to
bully me. I was just done after that. But then
fighting the department like you being one person fighting the
whole department, and they're all on his side, knowing he's wrong,

(01:00:47):
knowing that he has a history of doing this, knowing
that I'm probably the fifty person who have had similar complaints.
They treat me as if I'm the bad guy. Oh,
you're you're the bad seat here, You're the one causing
all these problems. I should have taken what I dealt

(01:01:08):
with those first ten years and left and gone somewhere else,
but instead I felt for the lies and and just
got caught up in it again, speaking from being an
African American woman, you get upset, you get irritated, and

(01:01:29):
you can't understand why your sister over here is allowing
somebody else to treat them inferior, and you're fighting for them,
and they're afraid to fight or even speak up or
do anything. So now you you're piste off. You don't
want to be there, and it's like you feel like

(01:01:50):
you're hopeless because you don't have any help. Even if
it's gonna be me out there by myself, then it's
gonna be me out there by myself, and I'm gonna
have to do something about it. I'll be there with you.
Even still, the violence inside and outside the department continues,
So what can be done about all this? Doesn't anyone care?

(01:02:13):
That's coming up next week? I used to have all
dita who hood, No fuck the police. I'm 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 executive produced by series Castle. Music by Yellow
Hill and Steels. If you're enjoying a tradition of violence,

(01:02:34):
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