November 30, 2022 • 52 mins
Deputies are caught lying in court and fired, but get their jobs back through an appeal. Evidence of misconduct is suppressed with the help of local district attorneys.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morning. This podcast contains explicit language and details acts of violence.
Listener discretion is advised. A skull, a smoking gun, and
red eyes. Those are images people usually associate with something bad,
something evil, But for some inside the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department, that imagery is seen as a sign of
(00:23):
loyalty to a lethal brotherhood, a unifier. In two thousand seven,
Deputy Curtis Sykes joined the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Gang
Enforcement Task Force or GET, at the Palmdale station. The
GET team is part of Operations Safe Streets, the department's
Gang Bureau, which is ironically a place where lots of
(00:44):
deputy gang members end up working. Sykes was recommended to
the unit by Deputy Douglas Parkhurst. Sykes and Parkhurst worked
together before at the North County Correctional Facility. The duo
became partners on Palmdale's GET Team. Court doc huments described
the two as quote like brothers, they quote developed a
(01:04):
strong bond based upon mutual respect and trust that they
still share to this day. In two thousand nine, Sykes
moved to the Compton GET Unit and worked with Deputy
Steve Vargas the two also got close and decided to
get matching tattoos. They worked with a Pico rivera tattoo artist,
(01:24):
and came up with a design. The skull with glowing
red eyes holding a smoking revolver. There's a bandana wrapped
around the top of the skull with the letters O
S S for Operation Safe Streets. Behind the skull are
two playing cards, an ace, and an eight of spades,
(01:45):
also known as a dead man's hand. Each tattoo is
numbered and placed on the lower leg. This was the
birth of the jump Out Boys, and this is a
tradition of violence a history of deputy gangs inside the
(02:06):
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The jump Out Boys were
incredibly organized. They kept records about the gang, how it functioned,
how someone became a member, and how they had a
so called black book listing all the people they've killed.
(02:27):
This has been reported on by the l A Times
and l A Weekly. Here's the meaning behind their tattoo
from their records, which I asked an actor to read.
The jump Out Boys was an idea that was thought
of by the first few members. The name jump Out
Boys was given to us in Compton by various gang
members who we all at contact with on a daily basis.
(02:50):
The red eyes will be on all jump Out Boy tattoos.
If they've got of smoking, that means that the member
has been involved in at least one shooting. The number
you were given means you are part of an organized
brotherhood that follows a structure in order to compile and
review the members who are entered into a booklet. They
even had the blessing of higher ups like Paul Tanaka
(03:12):
to operate outside of the law. To quote work in
the gray Area, Elias D personnel engaged in activity that
was plainly illegal. Here's the gang's mission red verbatim. The
mission and origin of the jump Out Boys is to
recruit real people whose work ethic is above all others anywhere.
Jump Out Boys are alpha dogs who think and act
(03:35):
like the wolf, but never become the wolf. They understand
where the line needs to be crossed and cross back.
They need to work hard, they need to get guns,
they need to take bad people to jail, and sometimes
they need to do the things they don't want to
do in order to get where they want to be.
In conclusion, they need people like us who gets there first.
(03:59):
And leave last. Jump out. Boys are not afraid to
get their hands dirty and without any disgrace, dishonor or hesitation.
We are committed to each other, committed to our job,
and committed to excellence INN The gang began recruiting and
the tattoo gained popularity among deputies. Sykes hit up his
(04:22):
old partner Parkhurst, who was working on Catalina Island. He
asked Parkhurst if he was up for the skull and
revolver tattoo. Parkhurs was quote honored to be asked since
he was no longer a member of GET, and said
yes to getting inked. Deputy Julio Martinez worked GET at
Compton Station between two thousand nine and two thousand ten
(04:44):
with Deputy Ronnie Perez. Around two thousand ten, Martinez transferred
to the unit in East l A. And briefly partnered
with Deputy Anthony Paiez. Martinez noticed Vargas's tattoo while he
was working out at the East Los Angeles A station
jim In. Martinez told his partner Ronnie Perez about the design. Parkhurst, Martinez, Paez,
(05:09):
and Perez were later tattooed together on the same day.
Deputy Jason Lanska saw the design and received the tattoo
About a week later. After getting their tattoos, the jump
Out Boys quickly implemented their mission of quote crossing the line.
On August, Martinez and Paez claimed in their reports that
(05:32):
they witnessed a drug deal in front of a marijuana
dispensary while they were on patrol. Luckily, local media outlet
l A Weekly obtained video surveillance of what actually happened.
In the video, a man later identified as Antonio Rhodes
is seen exiting the Superior Herbal Health dispensary. He's followed
(05:53):
by a security guard, Dante Benton. The two bump fist
Martinez said that the fist bump was actually a drug transaction.
He also wrote that Antonio saw the officers and reached
for a gun. Martinez says he chased Antonio into the dispensary,
but the door locked after Antonio got inside. Martinez says
(06:15):
he demanded the door be opened and saw Antonio stashing
a gun through a window, but the tape shows something else.
Antonio goes back into the dispensaries display room, returns a
bag of marijuana to the cashier, and stands against a wall.
Then Martinez and Paez come into the dispensary and order
(06:36):
everyone to leave. After the store clears out, Paez reaches
into a display room drawer and plants the black handgun
on a chair. Martinez wrote in his report that after
a quote protective sweep that he and Piez uncovered an
unregistered gun along with three others that belonged to security
(06:57):
guards of the dispensary. The deputies arrested Antonio and charged
him with possessing an unregistered weapon. However, the gun placed
into evidence was chrome. Remember the one on the video
was black. Eventually, the charges against Antonio were dropped. Other
(07:17):
people outside of the gang were starting to notice the
jump Out Boys. Robert Rifkin, who was Captain of Operations
Safe Streets Bureau at this point, spotted the tattoo on
Deputy Jason Lanska at a golf tournament in He asked
Lieutenant Henry Sauceto to investigate. Several months later, in February
(07:38):
two thousand twelve, Sauceto and Sergeant Patrick Tapia opened up
the trunk of Curtis Sykes and Stephen Vargas squad car.
Inside they found a fitness magazine with four pages of
an article titled police gang discovered stuffed in it. Tucked
next to that article was the jump Out Boys Manifesto.
(07:58):
Tapia and Sauce took the documents they discovered to their lieutenant,
who instructed Sauceto to inform the get team that this
conduct was unacceptable. That message didn't appear to have any
impact on the jump Out Boys. They kept up what
they were doing, and worse, just a few weeks later,
they killed someone. On March seventh, two thousand, twelve, two
(08:37):
year old Arturo Cabrales was hanging out at his house
with his friend Freddy Solis. As he was standing in
the yard, he saw a group of deputies harassing his uncle.
The deputies who included jump Out Boy Anthony Paez, we're
trying to get into the home without a warrant. Attorney
on Bertuzar represented the Cabrales family. He said, the deputies
(09:01):
swarmed our Touro and his uncle in their yard. Pious
and the other deputies rolled up on him. They went
up a one way street on the opposite direction and
pulled up on them. So we called the jump Off Boys.
It jumped out on them when they were talking Umbertso
says the deputies were watching our Touro. They had evidence
that he had been involved in a lot of drug cells,
(09:23):
like even before the incident happened. And at the time,
this is before marijuana was legal, and this was near
the Watts Towers and near the area where a lot
of drugs are being sold. So I believe that my
client was involved in the marijuana distribution. They were even
out of their territory when they went there, out of
their territory, meaning the deputies were outside of the area
(09:46):
they were supposed to be patrolling. When he wrote up
on him. They wrote up in a way like demanding
him to let him in, and he said, no, you
can't come in unless you have a warrant. Pious are said,
I don't need a fucking warranty like that they tried
to force and he said you can't come in, you
can't come in. And then when you realize you were
going to come in no matter what, he ran and
pies went in and they shot him at the back.
(10:07):
Six time. Our Touro's family filed a lawsuit against l
A County, claiming the deputies didn't get our tour medical
attention after he was shot. They allege the deputies let
him die bleeding out alone on the pavement. As our
Tour was dying, the deputies shut down the area and
did a raid. They found a gun, and they found
(10:29):
a big scale, which just big scales that they used
to measure marijuana, not even a Graham absolutely zero marijuana.
He had a four year old son that was raised
without a father. No, because they shot him and killed
him and executed him, you know, for sawing marijuana, for
(10:50):
not doing anything wrong other than running away. He didn't
want to get arrested. That's why I threw the gun.
Didn't want to get caught with a gun, and he
stead he ends up getting shot in the back multiple
times and actually murdered. Jump Out boys Curtis Sykes and
Stephen Vargas responded to the scene. Martinez showed up too,
and allegedly recovered a gun on the other side of
(11:10):
the homes fence. L A s D homicide detectives concluded
in their reports that Our tourro turned and pointed a
gun at Paez, who then shot him in self defense,
but the medical examiner said that was impossible. Witness accounts
also indicate that our Touro was unarmed when he was shot.
(11:31):
There was a witness that we had to set they
heard a gun, They heard the noise of a gun
fall from over a fence and ended up on the
floor in their yard, and when they shot him, that
was after that had happened. So clearly was unarmed when
he was shot, and I was able to establish he
had thrown the gun over a fence before he got shot,
so he knew he didn't have a gun in his hand,
(11:52):
and they just still shot him in the backage he
was running. The case was eventually settled. The family received
one point five million dollars, with taxpayers on the hook
for the award, along with attorney costs. In April two
thousand twelve, the jump Out Boys became quote concerned about
(12:15):
changes within l A. S D. According to court documents,
Martinez tried to rally some deputies to sit out the
department's annual Baker to Vegas charity run, but they changed
their minds and participated during the run. The l A.
Times published a story about the gang and their tattoos.
(12:35):
The article also claimed the group was the subject of
a probe internal affairs. Interviewed twenty one GET deputies about
the gang. Five deputies said they were asked to get
the tattoo. Deputy Chad Sessman said he was quote honored
to be asked because he quote considered the deputies as
(12:55):
hard working deputies who go out and take bad guys
to jail. The probe uncovered several instances of the gang
and its existence. Parkhurst sent an email to Mike Zalo,
a former GET member, asking Zalo to get the jump
Out Boys tattoo. Perez sent a photo to his girlfriend
(13:15):
displaying his tattoo on his lower leg. Deputy Martinez sent
a photo to a group text with several deputies of
multiple l a s d. Brass including then under Sheriff Tanaka,
flashing what looks like gang signs and showing off tattoos.
The Times reported that Captain Bob Rifkin gathered the jump
(13:36):
Out Boys and told them that the creed being exposed
brought shame on the department, but no one would be
fired for it. But according to internal documents, witnesses said
Rifkin encouraged them to quote peak over or quote bend
the line to get results, echoing Tanaka's work in the
(13:57):
Gray Area. Speech Rifkin asked Martinez, a shop caller, and
the jump Out Boys to look into the gang. Rifkin
met with Vargas, who identified Deputies Lanska, Paiez, Parkhurst, Perez, Sykes,
and himself as members. In May two thousand twelve, they
were all relieved of duty and put on administrative leave.
(14:19):
The following year, they were discharged from the department. The
seven deputies all filed appeals to get their jobs back. Meanwhile,
Internal Affairs was taking a second look at the dispensary
raid Martinez and Paez carried out in twenty eleven. They
found that Martinez lied in his report. In Martinez and
(14:41):
Paiez were criminally charged for their actions in the dispensary raid.
They were both hit with felony counts of obstructing justice, perjury,
and filing a false police report. The next year, the
Civil Service Commission, who decides whether county employees were justly
fired or not, voted to overturn the discharges against Lansca, Perez,
(15:04):
and Parkhurst. They had their discharges reduced to thirty days suspensions.
That's not unusual. The commission usually sides with Deputies Sykes
and Vargas, filed their own cases to reclaim their jobs.
Chief James Lopez, who discharged the group, testified that allowing
the jump Out Boys to keep their jobs would be
(15:25):
quote devastating to the public trust. But Lansca, Perez, and
park Hurst won their cases in seventeen rounded to the
nearest thousand, they were awarded payments of one hundred and
three thousand dollars, one hundred and sixty three thousand dollars,
and one hundred and nine seven thousand dollars, all funded
(15:46):
by taxpayers. In the Civil Service Commission recommended that Anthony Paez,
who killed our to Ro cabrals and lied about planting
guns at the dispensary, be rehired. In Martinez pled guilty
to falsifying police reports, which by then had been reduced
to a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to three hundred hours
(16:08):
of community service. Because of his plea, the charges against
Piez were dropped. Once that was done, the deputies filed
civil suits to have their suspensions from the Sheriff's department removed.
Piez's termination was reduced to only a fifteen days suspension
in September. In a hearing on July, Piez's petition to
(16:32):
work within the department again was granted. He also won
back pay with interest. Here's attorney on Bertoguizar. There's clear
evidence he planted a gun. There was video evidence showing
that he planted a gun under dispensary. Criticulate arrest the
guy at the marijuana dispensary. It was just and they
broke the cameras surveillance cameras, except they forgot that there
(16:54):
was They didn't know there was one other camera. That
guy that on the dispensary waited till he got out
of jail. He was pulled like ten months in the
Ali County jail. When he got out, he came forward
with that video and that's what the Dean unraveled about
what they did. But they still rehired him. They still
rehired Anthony Pious, which is just unbelievable. The jump Out
Boys are just some of the many deputies known to
(17:18):
be in a deputy gang and allowed to work in
the department. Sheriff Leebaka had resigned after his botched attempt
to block an FBI investigation that landed him with a
federal indictment and later a conviction. He was replaced by
interim sheriff Jim Scott, then Jim McDonald. After an election
(17:41):
a new leader didn't stop the deputy gangs in the department.
They continued to grow, but a new gang had formed
at the Century Station, the Spartans. Brian Pickett's relationship with
cops mirrored the experiences of many people of color getting
pulled over, being questioned on the curb without cause, that
(18:03):
kind of stuff. He still had a successful football career
despite the harassment, and played for the University of Texas
at al Paso. It wasn't just playing football that he loved.
He loved coaching children too, especially his own young sons.
He had plenty of experience mentoring kids, starting with helping
(18:23):
his younger sisters with their homework. Throughout childhood. He was
close with his girlfriend to Mike Gilbert and her young son.
To my says, Brian was very involved with the kids.
He read with the boys and built them a playhouse
in the yard. He had a passion for music too.
He was a skilled rapper, discussing police brutality, his faith,
(18:44):
and the importance of family. On December, Brian's third son
was born. Just nine days later, Brian was killed by deputies.
On January six, deputies Edward martine Us and Ryan roth
Rock responded to a family disturbance call. According to a
(19:05):
district attorney report, Brian had been acting strange that day.
His mom, Tammy, says she talked about it with her
daughter that particular to day it seemed a little different,
and Burnette was like, Mom, I don't know why Brian
is like so hike today like And I was like, Ryan,
are you okay? And he just kept rapid. Every time
(19:25):
you would talk to him. He would rap to us
in a song. Brian was cooking food on the stove
and almost let it burn. His girlfriend scolded him for
not paying attention. It was around nine o'clock at night,
so finally he just went in the bathroom, closed the door,
blast the music of Real, Real Loud, and I was like, no,
(19:46):
I have to go to work in the morning. Just
you know, we're knocking on the door. He's not answering
the door. So finally he came out, and then him
and Brnnett continue to argue with one another, and I
was like, Brian, you're not gonna be able to stay
in his house and do this music. She got to
go to work. I got to go to school and
it just became what we know, he wasn't gonna get
(20:10):
any sleep, and so I asked, and I was like, well,
did you smoke something? Yeah, he smoked some weat but
we don't make you act like that. But he just
was acting different. It was a different how he was moving.
He was in the bathroom the whole time. I asked
him to turn the music down and he turned to
(20:31):
back up. So me and Bernette we sat in the
living room and she was like, Mom, you have to
do something. And I said, well, they told me that
they would come and get him and take him to
a psychological evaluation if I called them. The family had
(20:51):
interactions with the police before concerning Brian. He struggled with
his mental health and Tammy called them in the past
for help. Ryan had been violently committed and tasered by
deputies the year before when he was taken in for
a mental health evaluation. The police had been to my
house several times through Brian's depression and what we understand
(21:14):
his illness now we didn't understand then. He was on
a cycle up and down. Sometimes he's very very happy.
Sometimes he's laughing and joking and then sometimes he said,
and he depressed. When the deputies arrived that evening, he
was in the bathroom rapping to himself. A deputy told
Tammy what was going to happen. He was like, Okay,
(21:36):
we're gonna go in there and talk to him. If
he doesn't want to go, we're gonna have to like
handcuff them, and we'll try to make him leave. And
all you can hear is bumbling boots rumbling in the house,
(21:56):
and then all of a sudden, you heard this loud
and then it was just quiet. I mean, Brannette was
sitting there like what's going on? Like why is he
not rapping? Why is he not talking anymore? Deputies Renee
bar Again, Ryan roth Rock, Miguel Ruiz and Edward Martinez
(22:17):
went into the bathroom and knocked Brian to the floor.
Once Brian was down, the deputies tazered him repeatedly. The
deputies hog tied Brian and dragged him into the living room.
Pools of blood gathered around his head. The deputies did
not provide medical attention, according to witness testimony. They came
(22:37):
out and they started drilling me more questions. We need
to know if he was on any drugs. He said,
I did everything, But he's a jokester like that, like
I never know. I tested him before as far as
like to see if he had drugs in his system,
because that's a thing that I would do in my house,
so you can stay at my house. But what I
(22:58):
feel like they were trying to do is to get
my attention off my son. So all I saw it
was them like his hands was handcuffed behind his back,
and they like drug him. They just drug him and
laid him on the living room floor and we're standing
at the door, and I was like, okay, so what's happening,
(23:19):
Like why is he not talking? I was like, Oh,
he's okay, he's okay. And then all I can see
is like this phone and like some blood like coming
out of his mouth, and I was like, he's not okay.
They didn't do CPR, they didn't try to assess his
vital signs or anything. And then within maybe another ten minutes,
(23:41):
the ambulance came and start asking me the same questions
and what kind of drugs he did? What did he do?
And and they asked anybody could do CPR, Nobody did CPR?
Why did anybody try to save my son. Why did
anybody try to help him? Why Why would you just
(24:02):
telling us to go outside, it's gonna be okay. But
we stood right there at the door and he he
was not movie. The family filed a civil lawsuit, which
was settled in March of this year after seven years
of litigation. Because one of Brian's sons was not his
biological child, attorneys for Los Angeles County argued that the
(24:25):
boy was not entitled to any money. The family took
the fight to the Court of Appeals and one setting
a new precedent for parents across California. It's one of
the rare times that a change that can help families
has come out of a police killing. But this doesn't
change that Bryant Pickett was killed by deputies and his
(24:46):
death did nothing to stop violence at the hands of
deputy gangs. Just four months after Brian's death, deputies affiliated
with the Spartans killed another man in South l A.
Deputy J. Brown started out brutalizing people at Men's Central
Jail with the three thousand and two thousand Boys. He
was alleged to be one of their affiliates. In two
(25:09):
thousand ten, he broke twenty two year old Christopher Lee
Wilder's jaw. Brown attacked Christopher, punching him in the face repeatedly.
Christopher was only inside Twin Towers Correctional Facility for a
total of seventeen hours. A jury later awarded him over
eighty thousand dollars funded by taxpayers. Just a few years later,
(25:32):
in fourteen, Brown's violence poured into the streets. He shot
and killed Johnny Martinez. Johnny was having a mental health crisis.
We talked about the incident in an earlier episode. Sometimes
you would think and get paranoid that people were coming
after him. That's Ryan Casey, the Martinez family attorney. He
(25:53):
says that when Deputy Jason Zabela and four other deputies,
including Brown, arrived, they ignored names who tried to explain
what was going on. Johnny had a small steak knife
in his hands and laid it on the ground when asked,
but the deputies still tazard and pepper sprayed him. Brown,
Zabola and two other deputies fired thirties six shots at Johnny,
(26:17):
killing him. Zabola has tattoos linking him to the regulators
and cowboys, deputy gangs. Ryan Casey says that tattoos came
up in the case. We did have a lot of
evidence come up in the case regarding tattoos that are
affiliated with gangs being on or potentially on the deputies
(26:39):
that were involved in the in the shootings, and that
these were linked historically to our should say, potentially to
deputy gangs or clicks that were associated with high levels
of excessive force and violence. In that particular case, It's
hard to say whether or not there was a causal
or related sort of link, but it was very interesting
(27:02):
because they were very very resistance on letting us get
into any of the evidence regarding tattoos regarding gang affiliation.
We had to file many motions to compel production of
that information with the court because they were instructing their
clients not to answer. Jay Brown is alleged to be
an affiliate of the Spartans, the younger generation of the regulators.
(27:26):
His violent acts on the streets of South l A
were just getting started. Tashawan Gaither was walking through the
streets of South l A on the night of April tenth,
in the midst of a mental health crisis. He thought
someone was after him. I spoke to his attorney, Eric Vealezuela.
He said that Tashaun tried to hide from the hallucinations
(27:49):
by going inside of a toe yard. As the gate shut,
one of the cars had the keys in the ignition
and he climbed in the lots. Employees saw Tashaun and
you another car to block him in as they called deputies.
The first two that showed up shot pepper balls into
the car Tashaun was in. Then Deputy J. Brown and
(28:10):
two others showed up. They shot pepper balls at the
car again, everyone except for Brown, he used a gun.
All the security footage of the shooting was taken by
the Sheriff's department, who says they were unable to retrieve
anything from the files. Valenzuela says that the officers accounts
of the shooting were contradictory to They settled the case
(28:33):
for seventy two thousand, five hundred taxpair dollars, but that
didn't mean the case was a slam dunk. Tashaun shooting
is a great example of how district attorneys across the
United States used the cops words against yours when they
shoot you. In The U. S. Supreme Court ruled in
Heck v. Humphrey, establishing the Heck doctrine. Because of that case,
(28:58):
you cannot file a civil rights lawsuit for police brutality
if you've entered a plea for any charges resulting from
the incident. So because Tashaun had already entered a guilty
plea of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer,
his claims of excessive force could be jeopardized in the
civil case. Vealenezuela told me that district attorneys are complicit
(29:22):
in police brutality because of action like this. In his experience,
he has seen Day's charge people excessively if they threatened
to sue, but promise to release them from custody if
they plead guilty. The Spartans were groomed and abetted by
Paul Tanaka's preachings to work in the gray area. Tanaka
(29:43):
was gone by, but his policy of not charging deputies
for their crimes continued and people continued to be killed.
Twenty three year old Christian Medina was standing on a
sidewalk in the Florence neighborhood of Los Angeles on the
morning of sixteen. He made a nine one one call
(30:04):
at four am from a pay phone. He told the
operator that someone was getting beat up with a gun.
He said the suspect was wearing a hoodie and shorts,
which is what Christian was also wearing. Deputies Renee bar Again,
one of the deputies who killed Brian Pickett and Jay Brown,
responded to the call. They saw a Christian matching the description.
(30:27):
They show up. He's still standing by the payphone that
he called from, So I mean that should be right.
Like the first thing you noticed. If he was going
calling from and he stand next to the payphone, that's
probably not the person that was holding the gun beating
somebody up. And they started shooting at the first shots
fired from inside inside the police vehicle, and then they
get out of the cars and they continue shooting. He
(30:50):
was shot thirteen times. He passed away at the scene.
A county medical examiner said that several of the gunshot
wounds were consistent with Christian laying on the ground. Christian
struggled with severe depression, mental illness and was suicidal, according
to his sister. The Medina family's lawyer, Jack Bazarkanian, said
(31:12):
that christians mental health issues were well documented something that
l a s D didn't handle well. Our police department
in our Sheriff's department is a poor job of training
people on how to handle themselves when there's somebody with
a mental illness involved. Both deputies claimed that Christian had
a gun and was in a quote shooting stance. Bazar
Kanian doesn't believe this explanation is logical. If I'm standing
(31:36):
somewhere but my back turned and I hear police sirens
right behind me and like lights flashing at me, I mean,
is it unreasonable to figure somebody might turn around and
look at that, or if you're driving up to me
from behind? What your sirens on flashing lights at me?
And I turned around and put my hand up because
the block let's say, the light from my eyes. Am
(31:56):
I putting my hands up to shoot you? I mean,
is that enough for you to start shooting at me
from with from like inside your car? I think that's
that's the saddest part that it was like nobody ever
tried talking to him, like why don't you park your
car a little bit further, use your intercom, try to
speak to him. Nobody was in danger. You didn't see
anybody around him. There was no gun or any weapon
(32:18):
for that matter found on Christian. Absolutely none. Didn't even
have a knife pocket knife. I mean, he didn't even
have a plastic knife on him, And it could have
been avoided like that. That I think that's the biggest takeaway.
It could have very easily been avoided. The district attorney
at the time, Jackie Lacey, concluded that the deputies had
acted lawfully in self defense. George Gascon's d A office
(32:42):
looked at the case this year. They came to the
same conclusion. I'm not surprised. I mean, that's such a
gray area. I think it would have been hard for
the d d a's office to prove the reasonable doubt.
There's a difference between civil cases and um criminal cases,
and the burden of proof is is a lot higher
(33:03):
to criminal case. A civil case, we just have to
we just have to be a little bit more believable
than another guy, right, like the scale, and the scale
of the scale tips a little bit in our favorite
than we can win. And in a criminal case beyond
reasonable doubt, which is much higher burden of proof. So
I think it was it would probably been a tough
case for them to win. And Medina's family filed a
(33:24):
lawsuit against l A County, which was settled in for
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Taxpayers footed the bill.
(33:46):
On August around seven pm, two deputies with the Century
Station's summer violent crime Enforcement Team. We're driving their patrol
car near Nickerson Gardens. Dead beat Ryan roth Rock and
his partner pulled up to a car parked in the
wrong direction. Thirty four year old Kenneth Lewis was standing
(34:08):
near the vehicle. He ran away through a housing complex
and fell. Roth Rock claims Kenneth pointed a gun at him.
Then roth Rock says he shot Kenneth. As he fell
to the ground bleeding, roth Rock shot him several more times.
A deputy from Century Station later found a gun at
(34:29):
the scene. Roth Rock claims that's the gun that Kenneth
pointed at him. Kenneth died later at the hospital. He
has survived by his son, who was three months old
at the time of his death. His family settled with
the county for just over one million dollars, funded by taxpayers.
(34:49):
The county was additionally responsible for picking up the cost
of everyone's legal fees. The next known deputy gang killing
happened just two months later. They don't have very much
institutional memory, and they seem to be a to relive
their own mistake and they don't learn the lessons from before.
(35:11):
And that's true of a lot of departments in actuality.
And the first thing that they do is they try
to sweep everything under the carpet. This is Jorge Gonzalez,
attorney for the Senda House family. He represented the family
after the killing of their son, twenty year old Ricardo
Senda House Jr. Sadly, Jorge passed away in March of
(35:32):
this year. This is from an interview I did with
him about Junior's case. In his relationship with his father
had broken down. His parents were separated and remarried with
other people, and so you know, if he was behaving himself,
he do with his mother. If not, Chian ship him
off to be with his father, who lived down to content.
(35:53):
The separation and change in home life exacerbated mental health
issues for Junior. A courting to his father, he remained
a good kid and a hard worker. Occasionally he had
some behavior flare ups, but nothing wild fights with his
dad or skipping school. Essentially, you know the worst thing
that he has actually had actually done it smoked a
(36:15):
little pot. Junior eventually landed in l A County's Dorothy
Kirby Center. It's a lockdown fability and it has mostly
people that are mentally ill. He was diagnosed with anti
personality disorder. It just means it's the first thon who
acted that thinking, doesn't think about the consequences of their actions.
While at Dorothy Kirby Center, Junior was brutally beaten by
(36:39):
another incarcerated youth. That person had been hospitalized forty three
times for attacking other people. The family sued the county
for not protecting their son. The case was settled. Once
Junior was home, things were different. He retreated and self medicated.
On November two, seventeen, there was another incident with Jr.
(37:02):
He was armed with an assault rifle of some type
and people in the neighborhood saw him in the backyards.
Is like poking his head up over his pant. Somebody
called it in. He was in his father's yard, not
threatening anybody. Deputy Samuel Aldama, who was an alleged deputy
gang member, and Deputy Edgar Quevas, responded to the call.
(37:23):
Quevas told investigators that he heard and felt a gunshot
go off around him. He called for assistance. Compton and
Century Station deputies responded. An armored vehicle was dispatched. Soon
helicopters and a swat team swarmed the area. That means
the minute they heard that, the guys armed and that's it,
(37:44):
that's their shoot the guy. Uh. If this is a
person who who is uh, you know, has the proclivity
of using you know, lethal force or the desire to
use LEAFA for it's preordained, he's gonna go out. He's
going to use it because he's got it built an excuse.
(38:07):
You know, not only will they be able to justify
the use of lethal force, but then everybody's going to
take him out to the bar and gonna slap them
on the bag. During this, Junior's family tried to explain
to the deputies that he struggled with his mental health
and was harmless. They were arrested. They took the dad,
(38:27):
they took the stepmother. The stepmother and she was with
one of her daughters. They put him in police cars
and then they've taken to the station. And then after
they hold him for a while and they talked to
him and stuff. They make him sign a thing that
says I admit this was just a detention, not and arrest,
you know. And then um essentially some deputies they wanted
(38:48):
to go into the house, figured out that the keys
had been left in the band and so they went
and they and they told the girl to give them
give him the keys, and essentially they threatened them that
if they threatened her, that if she didn't do it,
that they would call Children's Services and have him come
pick them up, taking from down, you know. That's how
(39:10):
they talked a little thirteen fourteen year olds. Yeah, right
in front of the neighbor, you know. And of course
the little girl doesn't know what usually gave the keys.
And then they go in the house and they promise
you for stuff, and then they don't know what they're
looking for. They don't quite anything useful. Jr. Meanwhile, Pop
defense and crept through the alleyways between houses. He asked
(39:33):
his neighbors to let him hide inside. There was a
kid inside that house that Ricardlo when I'm tapped on
the window was saying, hey, let me and ask let
me and you know, the cats are looking for me,
and the kids would saying no, I don't think so.
My dad will get me in trouble if I do,
you know, I can't. I can't and regardless of accid him,
(39:53):
but he wouldn't let him in. So what happened was
regardless decided to put down the right cool behind a
little gas meter, you know how they're on the side
of the house, and you couldn't see it. It literally
covered it. The police report claimed that he pointed a
rifle at officers, though he was unarmed at the time.
(40:14):
They fired three shots at him. He died in a
nearby Hospital's watching you think these are like the best trained,
most ethical of all the officers, really the leadership corps,
you know, and in the end you get the impression
that they're like trained. This happen, you know, you could
(40:36):
see it in the picture. It's very from the street.
They never would have been able to see the weapon.
And so he was unarmed. He was shirtless, get on
these you know, these long basketball shorts and flip flop
and you could clearly see he was unarmed when he
was shot. But yet the police court claimed that that
(40:57):
we pointed a rifle at him and that when the
deputys thought he was endangered in shadow complete life. The
alleged bullet that Queva said he heard and felt never recovered.
Junior's dad was left in the dark about what was happening,
including his son's death. When he asked what was going on,
(41:18):
he wasn't told. He was detained and taken to a park,
then a station, and held overnight. The rest of the
Sunday Houses were detained overnight too. Ricardo Sr. Went back home,
his son wasn't there. He returned to the station, where
a sergeant finally told him his son had been shot.
(41:39):
The family was left to try cold calling hospitals to
find their son. Junior was listed under a wrong birthday,
making the search more difficult, but Junior had already died.
The Sunday House family brought a civil rights lawsuit against
the county. It was settled for eight hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars. County taxpayers paid for the settlement and
(42:02):
attorney's fees on all sides which were not part of
the settlement. Litigation didn't stir up any information on deputy
gangs in the case, but the county keeps a list
of litigation related to deputy gangs. They called the file
a quote chronological list of claims, lawsuits and other settlement agreements.
Involving allegations that a sworn member of l A s
(42:25):
D was a member of a secret society or click.
The Sunday House case is on it. Gonzalez didn't know
this until I informed him during our interview. So I
received a list from the County Board of Supervisors with
a list of cases they've settled where deputy gangs are
(42:47):
involved and the Sunday House cases on there. They What
are your thoughts on that? Oh so, I don't know
what list, youth. I'd love to see it. There's a
huge problem with that pretty game. They're not going to
give that information up very easily. The Spartans still appear
to be active on the streets. In December, Lyles Sprill
(43:11):
got off work early. He was a welder working in
downtown l A. He grew up in South l A
and decided to head back to the neighborhood for a
bite to eat before a long drive back home. He
parked at Golden Bird Chicken in willow Brook that night,
so he's in that parking lot. This is Greg Krokosian,
Lyle's attorney, and I think he went inside the barbershop
(43:33):
at some point to say hi to some people. Went
next door to the liquor store to get I forgot
what drink to eat, and you know, so he can
have And he starts walking to his car, very calmly,
very slowly. As he's kind of doing that, there was
a group of I forget how many six seven, eight
black gentleman sitting on their car kind of in the
(43:55):
parking lot, not too far from him, but at least,
you know, thirty ft away, and two deputy cars or
three deputy cars roll up. They all come out and
they immediately start detaining this group of black gentlemen who
are right outside the barbershop. They clearly see Lyle Sprule
(44:16):
who's at a distance away, continuing to walk in the
other direction. He's going to his car that's on kind
of the other side of the parking lot. This is
lyles hometown. He knows the area and the people, and
he knows not to get involved in things like this.
But then he opens the car door and is about
to sit when another deputy car rules in from kind
(44:39):
of the other side of the parking lot. They park
right in front of Lyle. They get out, start talking
to him, make him get out of the car, and
start asking a bunch of questions searching him. You know,
were you involved in this shooting. There's apparently some shooting
that happened like four hours before the deputies the side
(45:00):
to arrive. But the initial group of deputies didn't even
bother with Lyle. They knew he wasn't in that group
of people that I guess they were looking for. He
gets out and he knows this neighborhood, he knows the deputies.
He's lived through what they've done before, He's heard of
what they've done before. And even though he did nothing wrong,
he had nothing on him, you know, no guns, no drugs,
(45:22):
no nothing. He panicked and ran. Lyle is a big guy.
He ran, but not far. He was tackled, arrested, and
eventually detained and taken in for questioning. The deputies involved
included Ryan Rothrock, who killed Brian Pickett and Kenneth Lewis.
In their report, they lied and said that Lyle ran,
(45:44):
turned back towards them and shot at them. This was
a surprise to Lyle. Why did you fire? And in
the interview he kind of like stops like, whoa fire? What?
What don't you fire? What? Why did you shoot at
the deputies? And he's like, shoot out what deputies? Like,
if I shot at deputies, I'd be dead right now. No,
(46:06):
come on, man, just be cool. Tell us why you
did it. Why did you do this? Why did you
do that? Just kind of admitted, you know, it's no
big deal, and we just want to know why, like
oh friendly, And he is like, like, you're crazy. I've
never shot at anybody. If I shot at anyone that day,
I'd be dead right now. I did not have a gun,
I did not fire, I did not do anything. And
then he finds out all this information that you know,
(46:28):
there's all these reports that he started to run, and
then they're so detailed. I mean, this, this report of
what this deputy saw is so beautifully detailed, which is
kind of the funniest part of the case because he's
trying to sell it in his report of what he
saw and everything he remembers, and he remembers him running
(46:51):
giving him this look stopping turning around because he's running away,
but he stops turns. I think he even describes it
like slinging his gun out. And the muzzle flash was
bright with orange hues with a dark circle in the middle,
and it was loud and it was a gunshot, and
(47:13):
it was aimed directly at me. Lyle Sprill was charged
with the attempted murder of a police officer. The next
six months of his life were spent in jail. His
bail was posted at four million dollars. I mean, there's
no way he's going to pay the whole whole amount.
But even finding a bail agent who's gonna make him
pay five percent even is still just way outside anyone's means.
(47:36):
So he just kind of sat there in custody for
six months, and he was telling me he started going
a little crazy. He started getting really nervous. He started
because he knew he didn't do anything. One of the
things they do is they call it ghost gun. Okay,
so my history of understanding what ghost gun was was
(47:58):
a gun without a serial and non br so you
can't trace where it's from and that kind of stuff.
Apparently the l A. Sheriff's Department gangs have a thing
that they do for ships and giggles or whatever the funk.
The motive is, I really don't know. What they do
is they will just make up that somebody had a gun.
(48:20):
They'll make it up that they later cannot find it's
a ghost. It's gone. They saw it, they heard it,
you know, they know it was there, but damn it,
it disappeared and we can't find it anymore. But we
all saw it, and we all heard it, and we
all saw, you know whatever. They corroborate each other's versions
of what happened and what they saw, and that made
(48:44):
me kind of look into the gangs because I'm like,
this is the playbook. This is what they do. This
is what the gangs do. Not every not every deputy.
This isn't you know, a normal l A County Sheriff's
Department kind of playbook. This is a l A. S d.
Gang playbook. They do this. This is exactly what they do.
They do it to new recruits, they do it, you know,
(49:04):
the members do it. I mean, it's just one of
the things that they do. And I kept looking into
it and looking into it, and that's when I started
really making allegations and doing discovery with the Sheriff's Department
regarding gangs. And so yeah, that's what happened, and that's
why I got the started looking into the gangs a
(49:25):
lot more because that was exactly what they do that
the gangs Lyle was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in June,
a potentially life altering sentencing hanging over his head for
shooting at a police officer. It wasn't until the video
came out that he was finally like, oh my God, like,
there's no way I can actually get prosecuted for this.
(49:47):
Turns out surveillance video once again told a different story
than deputies. They had the video, they knew that he
didn't have any gunpowder to do the gunshot residue on
his hand, but they accused them of stopping turning, firing
(50:07):
one or two shots at Deputy Gonzalez and Gomez. And
once the d A finally got all this evidence, the
d A hadn't gotten the negative GSR, the gunshot residue analysis,
hadn't seen the video footage, and the minute the DA
finally got it, which did say take some time. Das
are packed with a million stuff. Once they finally looked
(50:29):
at it, they dropped all charges. The district attorney found
that the charges lacked evidence. Lyle filed a civil lawsuit
against l A County, which was settled for five hundred
thousand dollars and yes, that was funded by taxpayers. But
once again, none of this had any impact on the
culture of deputy gangs and a violent style of policing.
(50:53):
All of this behavior was increasingly normalized and became part
of the environment deputies were trained in. That's coming up
next week, but before I go, I have a request.
I want to hear from you. What are some of
your questions about deputy gangs. We're going to have a
special episode answering questions, so please send them to l A.
(51:14):
S D Gangs at gmail dot com. DDA, who hood
U 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.
(51:36):
We want to hear from you. If you have a
question about deputy gags or the L A. S D.
Please send an email to L A s D Gangs
at gmail dot com. For breaking news and updates and
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(51:58):
enjoying a traditional violence le's give us a five star
rating and leave a written review
Morning. This podcast contains explicit language and details acts of violence.
Listener discretion is advised. A skull, a smoking gun, and
red eyes. Those are images people usually associate with something bad,
something evil, But for some inside the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department, that imagery is seen as a sign of
(00:23):
loyalty to a lethal brotherhood, a unifier. In two thousand seven,
Deputy Curtis Sykes joined the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Gang
Enforcement Task Force or GET, at the Palmdale station. The
GET team is part of Operations Safe Streets, the department's
Gang Bureau, which is ironically a place where lots of
(00:44):
deputy gang members end up working. Sykes was recommended to
the unit by Deputy Douglas Parkhurst. Sykes and Parkhurst worked
together before at the North County Correctional Facility. The duo
became partners on Palmdale's GET Team. Court doc huments described
the two as quote like brothers, they quote developed a
(01:04):
strong bond based upon mutual respect and trust that they
still share to this day. In two thousand nine, Sykes
moved to the Compton GET Unit and worked with Deputy
Steve Vargas the two also got close and decided to
get matching tattoos. They worked with a Pico rivera tattoo artist,
(01:24):
and came up with a design. The skull with glowing
red eyes holding a smoking revolver. There's a bandana wrapped
around the top of the skull with the letters O
S S for Operation Safe Streets. Behind the skull are
two playing cards, an ace, and an eight of spades,
(01:45):
also known as a dead man's hand. Each tattoo is
numbered and placed on the lower leg. This was the
birth of the jump Out Boys, and this is a
tradition of violence a history of deputy gangs inside the
(02:06):
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The jump Out Boys were
incredibly organized. They kept records about the gang, how it functioned,
how someone became a member, and how they had a
so called black book listing all the people they've killed.
(02:27):
This has been reported on by the l A Times
and l A Weekly. Here's the meaning behind their tattoo
from their records, which I asked an actor to read.
The jump Out Boys was an idea that was thought
of by the first few members. The name jump Out
Boys was given to us in Compton by various gang
members who we all at contact with on a daily basis.
(02:50):
The red eyes will be on all jump Out Boy tattoos.
If they've got of smoking, that means that the member
has been involved in at least one shooting. The number
you were given means you are part of an organized
brotherhood that follows a structure in order to compile and
review the members who are entered into a booklet. They
even had the blessing of higher ups like Paul Tanaka
(03:12):
to operate outside of the law. To quote work in
the gray Area, Elias D personnel engaged in activity that
was plainly illegal. Here's the gang's mission red verbatim. The
mission and origin of the jump Out Boys is to
recruit real people whose work ethic is above all others anywhere.
Jump Out Boys are alpha dogs who think and act
(03:35):
like the wolf, but never become the wolf. They understand
where the line needs to be crossed and cross back.
They need to work hard, they need to get guns,
they need to take bad people to jail, and sometimes
they need to do the things they don't want to
do in order to get where they want to be.
In conclusion, they need people like us who gets there first.
(03:59):
And leave last. Jump out. Boys are not afraid to
get their hands dirty and without any disgrace, dishonor or hesitation.
We are committed to each other, committed to our job,
and committed to excellence INN The gang began recruiting and
the tattoo gained popularity among deputies. Sykes hit up his
(04:22):
old partner Parkhurst, who was working on Catalina Island. He
asked Parkhurst if he was up for the skull and
revolver tattoo. Parkhurs was quote honored to be asked since
he was no longer a member of GET, and said
yes to getting inked. Deputy Julio Martinez worked GET at
Compton Station between two thousand nine and two thousand ten
(04:44):
with Deputy Ronnie Perez. Around two thousand ten, Martinez transferred
to the unit in East l A. And briefly partnered
with Deputy Anthony Paiez. Martinez noticed Vargas's tattoo while he
was working out at the East Los Angeles A station
jim In. Martinez told his partner Ronnie Perez about the design. Parkhurst, Martinez, Paez,
(05:09):
and Perez were later tattooed together on the same day.
Deputy Jason Lanska saw the design and received the tattoo
About a week later. After getting their tattoos, the jump
Out Boys quickly implemented their mission of quote crossing the line.
On August, Martinez and Paez claimed in their reports that
(05:32):
they witnessed a drug deal in front of a marijuana
dispensary while they were on patrol. Luckily, local media outlet
l A Weekly obtained video surveillance of what actually happened.
In the video, a man later identified as Antonio Rhodes
is seen exiting the Superior Herbal Health dispensary. He's followed
(05:53):
by a security guard, Dante Benton. The two bump fist
Martinez said that the fist bump was actually a drug transaction.
He also wrote that Antonio saw the officers and reached
for a gun. Martinez says he chased Antonio into the dispensary,
but the door locked after Antonio got inside. Martinez says
(06:15):
he demanded the door be opened and saw Antonio stashing
a gun through a window, but the tape shows something else.
Antonio goes back into the dispensaries display room, returns a
bag of marijuana to the cashier, and stands against a wall.
Then Martinez and Paez come into the dispensary and order
(06:36):
everyone to leave. After the store clears out, Paez reaches
into a display room drawer and plants the black handgun
on a chair. Martinez wrote in his report that after
a quote protective sweep that he and Piez uncovered an
unregistered gun along with three others that belonged to security
(06:57):
guards of the dispensary. The deputies arrested Antonio and charged
him with possessing an unregistered weapon. However, the gun placed
into evidence was chrome. Remember the one on the video
was black. Eventually, the charges against Antonio were dropped. Other
(07:17):
people outside of the gang were starting to notice the
jump Out Boys. Robert Rifkin, who was Captain of Operations
Safe Streets Bureau at this point, spotted the tattoo on
Deputy Jason Lanska at a golf tournament in He asked
Lieutenant Henry Sauceto to investigate. Several months later, in February
(07:38):
two thousand twelve, Sauceto and Sergeant Patrick Tapia opened up
the trunk of Curtis Sykes and Stephen Vargas squad car.
Inside they found a fitness magazine with four pages of
an article titled police gang discovered stuffed in it. Tucked
next to that article was the jump Out Boys Manifesto.
(07:58):
Tapia and Sauce took the documents they discovered to their lieutenant,
who instructed Sauceto to inform the get team that this
conduct was unacceptable. That message didn't appear to have any
impact on the jump Out Boys. They kept up what
they were doing, and worse, just a few weeks later,
they killed someone. On March seventh, two thousand, twelve, two
(08:37):
year old Arturo Cabrales was hanging out at his house
with his friend Freddy Solis. As he was standing in
the yard, he saw a group of deputies harassing his uncle.
The deputies who included jump Out Boy Anthony Paez, we're
trying to get into the home without a warrant. Attorney
on Bertuzar represented the Cabrales family. He said, the deputies
(09:01):
swarmed our Touro and his uncle in their yard. Pious
and the other deputies rolled up on him. They went
up a one way street on the opposite direction and
pulled up on them. So we called the jump Off Boys.
It jumped out on them when they were talking Umbertso
says the deputies were watching our Touro. They had evidence
that he had been involved in a lot of drug cells,
(09:23):
like even before the incident happened. And at the time,
this is before marijuana was legal, and this was near
the Watts Towers and near the area where a lot
of drugs are being sold. So I believe that my
client was involved in the marijuana distribution. They were even
out of their territory when they went there, out of
their territory, meaning the deputies were outside of the area
(09:46):
they were supposed to be patrolling. When he wrote up
on him. They wrote up in a way like demanding
him to let him in, and he said, no, you
can't come in unless you have a warrant. Pious are said,
I don't need a fucking warranty like that they tried
to force and he said you can't come in, you
can't come in. And then when you realize you were
going to come in no matter what, he ran and
pies went in and they shot him at the back.
(10:07):
Six time. Our Touro's family filed a lawsuit against l
A County, claiming the deputies didn't get our tour medical
attention after he was shot. They allege the deputies let
him die bleeding out alone on the pavement. As our
Tour was dying, the deputies shut down the area and
did a raid. They found a gun, and they found
(10:29):
a big scale, which just big scales that they used
to measure marijuana, not even a Graham absolutely zero marijuana.
He had a four year old son that was raised
without a father. No, because they shot him and killed
him and executed him, you know, for sawing marijuana, for
(10:50):
not doing anything wrong other than running away. He didn't
want to get arrested. That's why I threw the gun.
Didn't want to get caught with a gun, and he
stead he ends up getting shot in the back multiple
times and actually murdered. Jump Out boys Curtis Sykes and
Stephen Vargas responded to the scene. Martinez showed up too,
and allegedly recovered a gun on the other side of
(11:10):
the homes fence. L A s D homicide detectives concluded
in their reports that Our tourro turned and pointed a
gun at Paez, who then shot him in self defense,
but the medical examiner said that was impossible. Witness accounts
also indicate that our Touro was unarmed when he was shot.
(11:31):
There was a witness that we had to set they
heard a gun, They heard the noise of a gun
fall from over a fence and ended up on the
floor in their yard, and when they shot him, that
was after that had happened. So clearly was unarmed when
he was shot, and I was able to establish he
had thrown the gun over a fence before he got shot,
so he knew he didn't have a gun in his hand,
(11:52):
and they just still shot him in the backage he
was running. The case was eventually settled. The family received
one point five million dollars, with taxpayers on the hook
for the award, along with attorney costs. In April two
thousand twelve, the jump Out Boys became quote concerned about
(12:15):
changes within l A. S D. According to court documents,
Martinez tried to rally some deputies to sit out the
department's annual Baker to Vegas charity run, but they changed
their minds and participated during the run. The l A.
Times published a story about the gang and their tattoos.
(12:35):
The article also claimed the group was the subject of
a probe internal affairs. Interviewed twenty one GET deputies about
the gang. Five deputies said they were asked to get
the tattoo. Deputy Chad Sessman said he was quote honored
to be asked because he quote considered the deputies as
(12:55):
hard working deputies who go out and take bad guys
to jail. The probe uncovered several instances of the gang
and its existence. Parkhurst sent an email to Mike Zalo,
a former GET member, asking Zalo to get the jump
Out Boys tattoo. Perez sent a photo to his girlfriend
(13:15):
displaying his tattoo on his lower leg. Deputy Martinez sent
a photo to a group text with several deputies of
multiple l a s d. Brass including then under Sheriff Tanaka,
flashing what looks like gang signs and showing off tattoos.
The Times reported that Captain Bob Rifkin gathered the jump
(13:36):
Out Boys and told them that the creed being exposed
brought shame on the department, but no one would be
fired for it. But according to internal documents, witnesses said
Rifkin encouraged them to quote peak over or quote bend
the line to get results, echoing Tanaka's work in the
(13:57):
Gray Area. Speech Rifkin asked Martinez, a shop caller, and
the jump Out Boys to look into the gang. Rifkin
met with Vargas, who identified Deputies Lanska, Paiez, Parkhurst, Perez, Sykes,
and himself as members. In May two thousand twelve, they
were all relieved of duty and put on administrative leave.
(14:19):
The following year, they were discharged from the department. The
seven deputies all filed appeals to get their jobs back. Meanwhile,
Internal Affairs was taking a second look at the dispensary
raid Martinez and Paez carried out in twenty eleven. They
found that Martinez lied in his report. In Martinez and
(14:41):
Paiez were criminally charged for their actions in the dispensary raid.
They were both hit with felony counts of obstructing justice, perjury,
and filing a false police report. The next year, the
Civil Service Commission, who decides whether county employees were justly
fired or not, voted to overturn the discharges against Lansca, Perez,
(15:04):
and Parkhurst. They had their discharges reduced to thirty days suspensions.
That's not unusual. The commission usually sides with Deputies Sykes
and Vargas, filed their own cases to reclaim their jobs.
Chief James Lopez, who discharged the group, testified that allowing
the jump Out Boys to keep their jobs would be
(15:25):
quote devastating to the public trust. But Lansca, Perez, and
park Hurst won their cases in seventeen rounded to the
nearest thousand, they were awarded payments of one hundred and
three thousand dollars, one hundred and sixty three thousand dollars,
and one hundred and nine seven thousand dollars, all funded
(15:46):
by taxpayers. In the Civil Service Commission recommended that Anthony Paez,
who killed our to Ro cabrals and lied about planting
guns at the dispensary, be rehired. In Martinez pled guilty
to falsifying police reports, which by then had been reduced
to a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to three hundred hours
(16:08):
of community service. Because of his plea, the charges against
Piez were dropped. Once that was done, the deputies filed
civil suits to have their suspensions from the Sheriff's department removed.
Piez's termination was reduced to only a fifteen days suspension
in September. In a hearing on July, Piez's petition to
(16:32):
work within the department again was granted. He also won
back pay with interest. Here's attorney on Bertoguizar. There's clear
evidence he planted a gun. There was video evidence showing
that he planted a gun under dispensary. Criticulate arrest the
guy at the marijuana dispensary. It was just and they
broke the cameras surveillance cameras, except they forgot that there
(16:54):
was They didn't know there was one other camera. That
guy that on the dispensary waited till he got out
of jail. He was pulled like ten months in the
Ali County jail. When he got out, he came forward
with that video and that's what the Dean unraveled about
what they did. But they still rehired him. They still
rehired Anthony Pious, which is just unbelievable. The jump Out
Boys are just some of the many deputies known to
(17:18):
be in a deputy gang and allowed to work in
the department. Sheriff Leebaka had resigned after his botched attempt
to block an FBI investigation that landed him with a
federal indictment and later a conviction. He was replaced by
interim sheriff Jim Scott, then Jim McDonald. After an election
(17:41):
a new leader didn't stop the deputy gangs in the department.
They continued to grow, but a new gang had formed
at the Century Station, the Spartans. Brian Pickett's relationship with
cops mirrored the experiences of many people of color getting
pulled over, being questioned on the curb without cause, that
(18:03):
kind of stuff. He still had a successful football career
despite the harassment, and played for the University of Texas
at al Paso. It wasn't just playing football that he loved.
He loved coaching children too, especially his own young sons.
He had plenty of experience mentoring kids, starting with helping
(18:23):
his younger sisters with their homework. Throughout childhood. He was
close with his girlfriend to Mike Gilbert and her young son.
To my says, Brian was very involved with the kids.
He read with the boys and built them a playhouse
in the yard. He had a passion for music too.
He was a skilled rapper, discussing police brutality, his faith,
(18:44):
and the importance of family. On December, Brian's third son
was born. Just nine days later, Brian was killed by deputies.
On January six, deputies Edward martine Us and Ryan roth
Rock responded to a family disturbance call. According to a
(19:05):
district attorney report, Brian had been acting strange that day.
His mom, Tammy, says she talked about it with her
daughter that particular to day it seemed a little different,
and Burnette was like, Mom, I don't know why Brian
is like so hike today like And I was like, Ryan,
are you okay? And he just kept rapid. Every time
(19:25):
you would talk to him. He would rap to us
in a song. Brian was cooking food on the stove
and almost let it burn. His girlfriend scolded him for
not paying attention. It was around nine o'clock at night,
so finally he just went in the bathroom, closed the door,
blast the music of Real, Real Loud, and I was like, no,
(19:46):
I have to go to work in the morning. Just
you know, we're knocking on the door. He's not answering
the door. So finally he came out, and then him
and Brnnett continue to argue with one another, and I
was like, Brian, you're not gonna be able to stay
in his house and do this music. She got to
go to work. I got to go to school and
it just became what we know, he wasn't gonna get
(20:10):
any sleep, and so I asked, and I was like, well,
did you smoke something? Yeah, he smoked some weat but
we don't make you act like that. But he just
was acting different. It was a different how he was moving.
He was in the bathroom the whole time. I asked
him to turn the music down and he turned to
(20:31):
back up. So me and Bernette we sat in the
living room and she was like, Mom, you have to
do something. And I said, well, they told me that
they would come and get him and take him to
a psychological evaluation if I called them. The family had
(20:51):
interactions with the police before concerning Brian. He struggled with
his mental health and Tammy called them in the past
for help. Ryan had been violently committed and tasered by
deputies the year before when he was taken in for
a mental health evaluation. The police had been to my
house several times through Brian's depression and what we understand
(21:14):
his illness now we didn't understand then. He was on
a cycle up and down. Sometimes he's very very happy.
Sometimes he's laughing and joking and then sometimes he said,
and he depressed. When the deputies arrived that evening, he
was in the bathroom rapping to himself. A deputy told
Tammy what was going to happen. He was like, Okay,
(21:36):
we're gonna go in there and talk to him. If
he doesn't want to go, we're gonna have to like
handcuff them, and we'll try to make him leave. And
all you can hear is bumbling boots rumbling in the house,
(21:56):
and then all of a sudden, you heard this loud
and then it was just quiet. I mean, Brannette was
sitting there like what's going on? Like why is he
not rapping? Why is he not talking anymore? Deputies Renee
bar Again, Ryan roth Rock, Miguel Ruiz and Edward Martinez
(22:17):
went into the bathroom and knocked Brian to the floor.
Once Brian was down, the deputies tazered him repeatedly. The
deputies hog tied Brian and dragged him into the living room.
Pools of blood gathered around his head. The deputies did
not provide medical attention, according to witness testimony. They came
(22:37):
out and they started drilling me more questions. We need
to know if he was on any drugs. He said,
I did everything, But he's a jokester like that, like
I never know. I tested him before as far as
like to see if he had drugs in his system,
because that's a thing that I would do in my house,
so you can stay at my house. But what I
(22:58):
feel like they were trying to do is to get
my attention off my son. So all I saw it
was them like his hands was handcuffed behind his back,
and they like drug him. They just drug him and
laid him on the living room floor and we're standing
at the door, and I was like, okay, so what's happening,
(23:19):
Like why is he not talking? I was like, Oh,
he's okay, he's okay. And then all I can see
is like this phone and like some blood like coming
out of his mouth, and I was like, he's not okay.
They didn't do CPR, they didn't try to assess his
vital signs or anything. And then within maybe another ten minutes,
(23:41):
the ambulance came and start asking me the same questions
and what kind of drugs he did? What did he do?
And and they asked anybody could do CPR, Nobody did CPR?
Why did anybody try to save my son. Why did
anybody try to help him? Why Why would you just
(24:02):
telling us to go outside, it's gonna be okay. But
we stood right there at the door and he he
was not movie. The family filed a civil lawsuit, which
was settled in March of this year after seven years
of litigation. Because one of Brian's sons was not his
biological child, attorneys for Los Angeles County argued that the
(24:25):
boy was not entitled to any money. The family took
the fight to the Court of Appeals and one setting
a new precedent for parents across California. It's one of
the rare times that a change that can help families
has come out of a police killing. But this doesn't
change that Bryant Pickett was killed by deputies and his
(24:46):
death did nothing to stop violence at the hands of
deputy gangs. Just four months after Brian's death, deputies affiliated
with the Spartans killed another man in South l A.
Deputy J. Brown started out brutalizing people at Men's Central
Jail with the three thousand and two thousand Boys. He
was alleged to be one of their affiliates. In two
(25:09):
thousand ten, he broke twenty two year old Christopher Lee
Wilder's jaw. Brown attacked Christopher, punching him in the face repeatedly.
Christopher was only inside Twin Towers Correctional Facility for a
total of seventeen hours. A jury later awarded him over
eighty thousand dollars funded by taxpayers. Just a few years later,
(25:32):
in fourteen, Brown's violence poured into the streets. He shot
and killed Johnny Martinez. Johnny was having a mental health crisis.
We talked about the incident in an earlier episode. Sometimes
you would think and get paranoid that people were coming
after him. That's Ryan Casey, the Martinez family attorney. He
(25:53):
says that when Deputy Jason Zabela and four other deputies,
including Brown, arrived, they ignored names who tried to explain
what was going on. Johnny had a small steak knife
in his hands and laid it on the ground when asked,
but the deputies still tazard and pepper sprayed him. Brown,
Zabola and two other deputies fired thirties six shots at Johnny,
(26:17):
killing him. Zabola has tattoos linking him to the regulators
and cowboys, deputy gangs. Ryan Casey says that tattoos came
up in the case. We did have a lot of
evidence come up in the case regarding tattoos that are
affiliated with gangs being on or potentially on the deputies
(26:39):
that were involved in the in the shootings, and that
these were linked historically to our should say, potentially to
deputy gangs or clicks that were associated with high levels
of excessive force and violence. In that particular case, It's
hard to say whether or not there was a causal
or related sort of link, but it was very interesting
(27:02):
because they were very very resistance on letting us get
into any of the evidence regarding tattoos regarding gang affiliation.
We had to file many motions to compel production of
that information with the court because they were instructing their
clients not to answer. Jay Brown is alleged to be
an affiliate of the Spartans, the younger generation of the regulators.
(27:26):
His violent acts on the streets of South l A
were just getting started. Tashawan Gaither was walking through the
streets of South l A on the night of April tenth,
in the midst of a mental health crisis. He thought
someone was after him. I spoke to his attorney, Eric Vealezuela.
He said that Tashaun tried to hide from the hallucinations
(27:49):
by going inside of a toe yard. As the gate shut,
one of the cars had the keys in the ignition
and he climbed in the lots. Employees saw Tashaun and
you another car to block him in as they called deputies.
The first two that showed up shot pepper balls into
the car Tashaun was in. Then Deputy J. Brown and
(28:10):
two others showed up. They shot pepper balls at the
car again, everyone except for Brown, he used a gun.
All the security footage of the shooting was taken by
the Sheriff's department, who says they were unable to retrieve
anything from the files. Valenzuela says that the officers accounts
of the shooting were contradictory to They settled the case
(28:33):
for seventy two thousand, five hundred taxpair dollars, but that
didn't mean the case was a slam dunk. Tashaun shooting
is a great example of how district attorneys across the
United States used the cops words against yours when they
shoot you. In The U. S. Supreme Court ruled in
Heck v. Humphrey, establishing the Heck doctrine. Because of that case,
(28:58):
you cannot file a civil rights lawsuit for police brutality
if you've entered a plea for any charges resulting from
the incident. So because Tashaun had already entered a guilty
plea of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer,
his claims of excessive force could be jeopardized in the
civil case. Vealenezuela told me that district attorneys are complicit
(29:22):
in police brutality because of action like this. In his experience,
he has seen Day's charge people excessively if they threatened
to sue, but promise to release them from custody if
they plead guilty. The Spartans were groomed and abetted by
Paul Tanaka's preachings to work in the gray area. Tanaka
(29:43):
was gone by, but his policy of not charging deputies
for their crimes continued and people continued to be killed.
Twenty three year old Christian Medina was standing on a
sidewalk in the Florence neighborhood of Los Angeles on the
morning of sixteen. He made a nine one one call
(30:04):
at four am from a pay phone. He told the
operator that someone was getting beat up with a gun.
He said the suspect was wearing a hoodie and shorts,
which is what Christian was also wearing. Deputies Renee bar Again,
one of the deputies who killed Brian Pickett and Jay Brown,
responded to the call. They saw a Christian matching the description.
(30:27):
They show up. He's still standing by the payphone that
he called from, So I mean that should be right.
Like the first thing you noticed. If he was going
calling from and he stand next to the payphone, that's
probably not the person that was holding the gun beating
somebody up. And they started shooting at the first shots
fired from inside inside the police vehicle, and then they
get out of the cars and they continue shooting. He
(30:50):
was shot thirteen times. He passed away at the scene.
A county medical examiner said that several of the gunshot
wounds were consistent with Christian laying on the ground. Christian
struggled with severe depression, mental illness and was suicidal, according
to his sister. The Medina family's lawyer, Jack Bazarkanian, said
(31:12):
that christians mental health issues were well documented something that
l a s D didn't handle well. Our police department
in our Sheriff's department is a poor job of training
people on how to handle themselves when there's somebody with
a mental illness involved. Both deputies claimed that Christian had
a gun and was in a quote shooting stance. Bazar
Kanian doesn't believe this explanation is logical. If I'm standing
(31:36):
somewhere but my back turned and I hear police sirens
right behind me and like lights flashing at me, I mean,
is it unreasonable to figure somebody might turn around and
look at that, or if you're driving up to me
from behind? What your sirens on flashing lights at me?
And I turned around and put my hand up because
the block let's say, the light from my eyes. Am
(31:56):
I putting my hands up to shoot you? I mean,
is that enough for you to start shooting at me
from with from like inside your car? I think that's
that's the saddest part that it was like nobody ever
tried talking to him, like why don't you park your
car a little bit further, use your intercom, try to
speak to him. Nobody was in danger. You didn't see
anybody around him. There was no gun or any weapon
(32:18):
for that matter found on Christian. Absolutely none. Didn't even
have a knife pocket knife. I mean, he didn't even
have a plastic knife on him, And it could have
been avoided like that. That I think that's the biggest takeaway.
It could have very easily been avoided. The district attorney
at the time, Jackie Lacey, concluded that the deputies had
acted lawfully in self defense. George Gascon's d A office
(32:42):
looked at the case this year. They came to the
same conclusion. I'm not surprised. I mean, that's such a
gray area. I think it would have been hard for
the d d a's office to prove the reasonable doubt.
There's a difference between civil cases and um criminal cases,
and the burden of proof is is a lot higher
(33:03):
to criminal case. A civil case, we just have to
we just have to be a little bit more believable
than another guy, right, like the scale, and the scale
of the scale tips a little bit in our favorite
than we can win. And in a criminal case beyond
reasonable doubt, which is much higher burden of proof. So
I think it was it would probably been a tough
case for them to win. And Medina's family filed a
(33:24):
lawsuit against l A County, which was settled in for
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Taxpayers footed the bill.
(33:46):
On August around seven pm, two deputies with the Century
Station's summer violent crime Enforcement Team. We're driving their patrol
car near Nickerson Gardens. Dead beat Ryan roth Rock and
his partner pulled up to a car parked in the
wrong direction. Thirty four year old Kenneth Lewis was standing
(34:08):
near the vehicle. He ran away through a housing complex
and fell. Roth Rock claims Kenneth pointed a gun at him.
Then roth Rock says he shot Kenneth. As he fell
to the ground bleeding, roth Rock shot him several more times.
A deputy from Century Station later found a gun at
(34:29):
the scene. Roth Rock claims that's the gun that Kenneth
pointed at him. Kenneth died later at the hospital. He
has survived by his son, who was three months old
at the time of his death. His family settled with
the county for just over one million dollars, funded by taxpayers.
(34:49):
The county was additionally responsible for picking up the cost
of everyone's legal fees. The next known deputy gang killing
happened just two months later. They don't have very much
institutional memory, and they seem to be a to relive
their own mistake and they don't learn the lessons from before.
(35:11):
And that's true of a lot of departments in actuality.
And the first thing that they do is they try
to sweep everything under the carpet. This is Jorge Gonzalez,
attorney for the Senda House family. He represented the family
after the killing of their son, twenty year old Ricardo
Senda House Jr. Sadly, Jorge passed away in March of
(35:32):
this year. This is from an interview I did with
him about Junior's case. In his relationship with his father
had broken down. His parents were separated and remarried with
other people, and so you know, if he was behaving himself,
he do with his mother. If not, Chian ship him
off to be with his father, who lived down to content.
(35:53):
The separation and change in home life exacerbated mental health
issues for Junior. A courting to his father, he remained
a good kid and a hard worker. Occasionally he had
some behavior flare ups, but nothing wild fights with his
dad or skipping school. Essentially, you know the worst thing
that he has actually had actually done it smoked a
(36:15):
little pot. Junior eventually landed in l A County's Dorothy
Kirby Center. It's a lockdown fability and it has mostly
people that are mentally ill. He was diagnosed with anti
personality disorder. It just means it's the first thon who
acted that thinking, doesn't think about the consequences of their actions.
While at Dorothy Kirby Center, Junior was brutally beaten by
(36:39):
another incarcerated youth. That person had been hospitalized forty three
times for attacking other people. The family sued the county
for not protecting their son. The case was settled. Once
Junior was home, things were different. He retreated and self medicated.
On November two, seventeen, there was another incident with Jr.
(37:02):
He was armed with an assault rifle of some type
and people in the neighborhood saw him in the backyards.
Is like poking his head up over his pant. Somebody
called it in. He was in his father's yard, not
threatening anybody. Deputy Samuel Aldama, who was an alleged deputy
gang member, and Deputy Edgar Quevas, responded to the call.
(37:23):
Quevas told investigators that he heard and felt a gunshot
go off around him. He called for assistance. Compton and
Century Station deputies responded. An armored vehicle was dispatched. Soon
helicopters and a swat team swarmed the area. That means
the minute they heard that, the guys armed and that's it,
(37:44):
that's their shoot the guy. Uh. If this is a
person who who is uh, you know, has the proclivity
of using you know, lethal force or the desire to
use LEAFA for it's preordained, he's gonna go out. He's
going to use it because he's got it built an excuse.
(38:07):
You know, not only will they be able to justify
the use of lethal force, but then everybody's going to
take him out to the bar and gonna slap them
on the bag. During this, Junior's family tried to explain
to the deputies that he struggled with his mental health
and was harmless. They were arrested. They took the dad,
(38:27):
they took the stepmother. The stepmother and she was with
one of her daughters. They put him in police cars
and then they've taken to the station. And then after
they hold him for a while and they talked to
him and stuff. They make him sign a thing that
says I admit this was just a detention, not and arrest,
you know. And then um essentially some deputies they wanted
(38:48):
to go into the house, figured out that the keys
had been left in the band and so they went
and they and they told the girl to give them
give him the keys, and essentially they threatened them that
if they threatened her, that if she didn't do it,
that they would call Children's Services and have him come
pick them up, taking from down, you know. That's how
(39:10):
they talked a little thirteen fourteen year olds. Yeah, right
in front of the neighbor, you know. And of course
the little girl doesn't know what usually gave the keys.
And then they go in the house and they promise
you for stuff, and then they don't know what they're
looking for. They don't quite anything useful. Jr. Meanwhile, Pop
defense and crept through the alleyways between houses. He asked
(39:33):
his neighbors to let him hide inside. There was a
kid inside that house that Ricardlo when I'm tapped on
the window was saying, hey, let me and ask let
me and you know, the cats are looking for me,
and the kids would saying no, I don't think so.
My dad will get me in trouble if I do,
you know, I can't. I can't and regardless of accid him,
(39:53):
but he wouldn't let him in. So what happened was
regardless decided to put down the right cool behind a
little gas meter, you know how they're on the side
of the house, and you couldn't see it. It literally
covered it. The police report claimed that he pointed a
rifle at officers, though he was unarmed at the time.
(40:14):
They fired three shots at him. He died in a
nearby Hospital's watching you think these are like the best trained,
most ethical of all the officers, really the leadership corps,
you know, and in the end you get the impression
that they're like trained. This happen, you know, you could
(40:36):
see it in the picture. It's very from the street.
They never would have been able to see the weapon.
And so he was unarmed. He was shirtless, get on
these you know, these long basketball shorts and flip flop
and you could clearly see he was unarmed when he
was shot. But yet the police court claimed that that
(40:57):
we pointed a rifle at him and that when the
deputys thought he was endangered in shadow complete life. The
alleged bullet that Queva said he heard and felt never recovered.
Junior's dad was left in the dark about what was happening,
including his son's death. When he asked what was going on,
(41:18):
he wasn't told. He was detained and taken to a park,
then a station, and held overnight. The rest of the
Sunday Houses were detained overnight too. Ricardo Sr. Went back home,
his son wasn't there. He returned to the station, where
a sergeant finally told him his son had been shot.
(41:39):
The family was left to try cold calling hospitals to
find their son. Junior was listed under a wrong birthday,
making the search more difficult, but Junior had already died.
The Sunday House family brought a civil rights lawsuit against
the county. It was settled for eight hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars. County taxpayers paid for the settlement and
(42:02):
attorney's fees on all sides which were not part of
the settlement. Litigation didn't stir up any information on deputy
gangs in the case, but the county keeps a list
of litigation related to deputy gangs. They called the file
a quote chronological list of claims, lawsuits and other settlement agreements.
Involving allegations that a sworn member of l A s
(42:25):
D was a member of a secret society or click.
The Sunday House case is on it. Gonzalez didn't know
this until I informed him during our interview. So I
received a list from the County Board of Supervisors with
a list of cases they've settled where deputy gangs are
(42:47):
involved and the Sunday House cases on there. They What
are your thoughts on that? Oh so, I don't know
what list, youth. I'd love to see it. There's a
huge problem with that pretty game. They're not going to
give that information up very easily. The Spartans still appear
to be active on the streets. In December, Lyles Sprill
(43:11):
got off work early. He was a welder working in
downtown l A. He grew up in South l A
and decided to head back to the neighborhood for a
bite to eat before a long drive back home. He
parked at Golden Bird Chicken in willow Brook that night,
so he's in that parking lot. This is Greg Krokosian,
Lyle's attorney, and I think he went inside the barbershop
(43:33):
at some point to say hi to some people. Went
next door to the liquor store to get I forgot
what drink to eat, and you know, so he can
have And he starts walking to his car, very calmly,
very slowly. As he's kind of doing that, there was
a group of I forget how many six seven, eight
black gentleman sitting on their car kind of in the
(43:55):
parking lot, not too far from him, but at least,
you know, thirty ft away, and two deputy cars or
three deputy cars roll up. They all come out and
they immediately start detaining this group of black gentlemen who
are right outside the barbershop. They clearly see Lyle Sprule
(44:16):
who's at a distance away, continuing to walk in the
other direction. He's going to his car that's on kind
of the other side of the parking lot. This is
lyles hometown. He knows the area and the people, and
he knows not to get involved in things like this.
But then he opens the car door and is about
to sit when another deputy car rules in from kind
(44:39):
of the other side of the parking lot. They park
right in front of Lyle. They get out, start talking
to him, make him get out of the car, and
start asking a bunch of questions searching him. You know,
were you involved in this shooting. There's apparently some shooting
that happened like four hours before the deputies the side
(45:00):
to arrive. But the initial group of deputies didn't even
bother with Lyle. They knew he wasn't in that group
of people that I guess they were looking for. He
gets out and he knows this neighborhood, he knows the deputies.
He's lived through what they've done before, He's heard of
what they've done before. And even though he did nothing wrong,
he had nothing on him, you know, no guns, no drugs,
(45:22):
no nothing. He panicked and ran. Lyle is a big guy.
He ran, but not far. He was tackled, arrested, and
eventually detained and taken in for questioning. The deputies involved
included Ryan Rothrock, who killed Brian Pickett and Kenneth Lewis.
In their report, they lied and said that Lyle ran,
(45:44):
turned back towards them and shot at them. This was
a surprise to Lyle. Why did you fire? And in
the interview he kind of like stops like, whoa fire? What?
What don't you fire? What? Why did you shoot at
the deputies? And he's like, shoot out what deputies? Like,
if I shot at deputies, I'd be dead right now. No,
(46:06):
come on, man, just be cool. Tell us why you
did it. Why did you do this? Why did you
do that? Just kind of admitted, you know, it's no
big deal, and we just want to know why, like
oh friendly, And he is like, like, you're crazy. I've
never shot at anybody. If I shot at anyone that day,
I'd be dead right now. I did not have a gun,
I did not fire, I did not do anything. And
then he finds out all this information that you know,
(46:28):
there's all these reports that he started to run, and
then they're so detailed. I mean, this, this report of
what this deputy saw is so beautifully detailed, which is
kind of the funniest part of the case because he's
trying to sell it in his report of what he
saw and everything he remembers, and he remembers him running
(46:51):
giving him this look stopping turning around because he's running away,
but he stops turns. I think he even describes it
like slinging his gun out. And the muzzle flash was
bright with orange hues with a dark circle in the middle,
and it was loud and it was a gunshot, and
(47:13):
it was aimed directly at me. Lyle Sprill was charged
with the attempted murder of a police officer. The next
six months of his life were spent in jail. His
bail was posted at four million dollars. I mean, there's
no way he's going to pay the whole whole amount.
But even finding a bail agent who's gonna make him
pay five percent even is still just way outside anyone's means.
(47:36):
So he just kind of sat there in custody for
six months, and he was telling me he started going
a little crazy. He started getting really nervous. He started
because he knew he didn't do anything. One of the
things they do is they call it ghost gun. Okay,
so my history of understanding what ghost gun was was
(47:58):
a gun without a serial and non br so you
can't trace where it's from and that kind of stuff.
Apparently the l A. Sheriff's Department gangs have a thing
that they do for ships and giggles or whatever the funk.
The motive is, I really don't know. What they do
is they will just make up that somebody had a gun.
(48:20):
They'll make it up that they later cannot find it's
a ghost. It's gone. They saw it, they heard it,
you know, they know it was there, but damn it,
it disappeared and we can't find it anymore. But we
all saw it, and we all heard it, and we
all saw, you know whatever. They corroborate each other's versions
of what happened and what they saw, and that made
(48:44):
me kind of look into the gangs because I'm like,
this is the playbook. This is what they do. This
is what the gangs do. Not every not every deputy.
This isn't you know, a normal l A County Sheriff's
Department kind of playbook. This is a l A. S d.
Gang playbook. They do this. This is exactly what they do.
They do it to new recruits, they do it, you know,
(49:04):
the members do it. I mean, it's just one of
the things that they do. And I kept looking into
it and looking into it, and that's when I started
really making allegations and doing discovery with the Sheriff's Department
regarding gangs. And so yeah, that's what happened, and that's
why I got the started looking into the gangs a
(49:25):
lot more because that was exactly what they do that
the gangs Lyle was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in June,
a potentially life altering sentencing hanging over his head for
shooting at a police officer. It wasn't until the video
came out that he was finally like, oh my God, like,
there's no way I can actually get prosecuted for this.
(49:47):
Turns out surveillance video once again told a different story
than deputies. They had the video, they knew that he
didn't have any gunpowder to do the gunshot residue on
his hand, but they accused them of stopping turning, firing
(50:07):
one or two shots at Deputy Gonzalez and Gomez. And
once the d A finally got all this evidence, the
d A hadn't gotten the negative GSR, the gunshot residue analysis,
hadn't seen the video footage, and the minute the DA
finally got it, which did say take some time. Das
are packed with a million stuff. Once they finally looked
(50:29):
at it, they dropped all charges. The district attorney found
that the charges lacked evidence. Lyle filed a civil lawsuit
against l A County, which was settled for five hundred
thousand dollars and yes, that was funded by taxpayers. But
once again, none of this had any impact on the
culture of deputy gangs and a violent style of policing.
(50:53):
All of this behavior was increasingly normalized and became part
of the environment deputies were trained in. That's coming up
next week, but before I go, I have a request.
I want to hear from you. What are some of
your questions about deputy gangs. We're going to have a
special episode answering questions, so please send them to l A.
(51:14):
S D Gangs at gmail dot com. DDA, who hood
U 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.
(51:36):
We want to hear from you. If you have a
question about deputy gags or the L A. S D.
Please send an email to L A s D Gangs
at gmail dot com. For breaking news and updates and
deputy gangs, follow at l A s D Gangs on
social media. To support Serius's reporting and for exclusive bonus content,
subscribe to the l S D Gangs Patreon. If you're
(51:58):
enjoying a traditional violence le's give us a five star
rating and leave a written review
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