November 23, 2022 • 42 mins
Outside the eyes of the public, violence inside Los Angeles County jails at the hands of the 3000 and 2000 Boys deputy gangs went unchecked. But the efforts of incarcerated people eventually brought down the sheriff himself.
A Tradition of Violence is hosted and executive produced by Cerise Castle. She's an award winning journalist who wrote the first ever history of deputy gangs for Knock LA, available at lasdgangs.com
Music by Yelohill and Steelz.
For breaking news and updates on deputy gangs, follow @lasdgangs on social media.
To support Cerise’s reporting, and for exclusive bonus content, subscribe to the patreon.com/lasdgangs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morning. This podcast can see's explicit language and details acts
of violence. Listener discretion is advised. Paul Tanaka a tatsued
member of the Vikings Deputy Gang, elevated to the role
of under Sheriff under Sheriff Lee Bacca. Tanaka has denied
affiliation with the Vikings Deputy Gang, although he is known
(00:22):
to have the gang's tattoo. As number two in the department,
he oversaw operation of l A Counties jails. Tanaka installed
many Deputy Gang members to high ranking positions in exchange
for money. A thing about Tanaka during this time, by
the way, from Celeste Freeman, who we heard from earlier
(00:43):
in the series. She's a journalist and founder of Witness
l A. She covers the Sheriff's department. He was also
the mayor of Guardina Go figure and that it was
either you're in the car with me, that was the expression,
or you're out of the cart, in which case forget advancement.
But those that were loyal did see career advancement, like
(01:06):
Charles McDaniel, a sergeant of Men's Central Jail. He was
tattooed with the skull associated with the Deputy Gang. The
regulators under Tanaka and McDaniel. Men's Central Jail became the
birthplace of one of the biggest deputy gangs within l
A s D. The three thousand lays this is a
(01:28):
tradition of violence, a history of deputy gangs inside the
l A County Sheriff's Department. The county's jails are an
ideal breeding ground for gangs. Most deputies get sent to
(01:49):
work the jail system straight out of the academy. There's
been stories about excessive violence against people incarcerated in the
l A County jail system since at least nineteen and
they were the subject of a lawsuit. A federal judge
ruled that the jails would be monitored by the American
Civil Liberties Union or a c l U that year,
(02:12):
and the monitors have been there ever since. When Tanaka
took over the jails, things got worse. Here's Peter Eliasburg,
Chief Council of the a c l U. There was
a lot of excessive force on the three thousand floor,
and I think a good chunk of that was a
result of a group of people who felt allied and
felt that the rules didn't apply to them. And we're
(02:32):
going to do whatever they want, and then they were
going to do what they wanted to do, and oftentimes
that was used force that wasn't appropriate, wasn't necessary, and
was grossly excessive. Many deputies are eager to prove themselves
by committing acts of violence. In the Los Angeles County
Board of Supervisors formed an oversight panel for the jails
(02:52):
called the Citizens Commission for Jail Violence or the c
c j V. In a report, the panel discovered the
three thousand Boys inside Men's Central Jail. The three thousand
Boys share a tattoo on the calf of a Roman numeral.
Three deputies earned the ink by beating inmates and filing
false reports to cover up the abuse. Reports described the
(03:16):
walls of the deputy booth in the three thousand block
or unit of the jail as full of graffiti filled
with derogatory writings. A bumper sticker on a wall reads quote,
don't feed the animals. The first known violent incident involving
the three thousand Boys took place on April seventeen, two
thousand and eight. Deputies ordered inmate Velt and Boone out
(03:40):
of his cell and beat him. Following a lengthy investigation
into the gang, the case was settled for just nine
hundred and fifty dollars. The brutality inside the three thousand
block caught the attention of many. One was jail chaplain
Paulino Juarez. I hear somebody was screaming, and I see
(04:02):
these three deputies beating this person, an African American, and
I'm sorry, and they were punching him. I never see
his hands because those rows always the inmates walk which handcuffed. Um.
(04:26):
I never see his hands trying to protect himself. He
just was saying, stop, please, stop, stop. I can do
nothing wrong. Paulino tried to blow the whistle for years
on these deputies, but was rebuffed. Sheriff Bacca even told
Paulino that he was quote exaggerating the beating. Eight years
later in the two deputies involved in the beating were
(04:51):
eventually convicted. One got eighteen months in federal prison and
the other got thirteen months for falsifying reports with the
intent to obstruct justice. According to the U. S. Attorney's Office,
in March two thousand nine, twenty one year old John
Horton found himself on the three thousand block. John was
(05:11):
an artistic person. He had a kind heart. He was strong,
you know. M John was six to He was really handsome.
And you know, and when I say that he loved
living life, John really loved life. And he just was
so carefree in life. That's John's mom, Helen Jones. He
(05:33):
was just a real care free person. John would just
he just had a love spirit. I mean, I'm saying
he was perfect. He had a good heart, and he
loved kids. He wanted kids, but he never had the
chest any children at all. John was a musician working
in the music industry. He worked at his mother's music label.
He dreamt of opening up a youth center in watts
(05:54):
if he ever hit the big time, but when John
missed a court ordered appointment for a drug program, his
dream was derailed. John was feeling sick, delirious, as his
mom puts it. His sister called the paramedics to help.
He was later arrested due to a warrant being out
for his arrest for the misappointment. Helen told John she'd
(06:16):
see him every day while he was in jail, but
the sheriff's deputies prevented that. She only got to see
her son once during his incarceration. That first visit that
was the only time I was able to talk to John,
and I've seen him in court one time, but I
wasn't able to talk to him in court, But as
far as talking to him, it was just at one time.
(06:38):
On later visits, she wasn't allowed to see John. During
one attempt, the visiting room sergeant told Helen that John
was in so called protective custody or solitary confinement. She
was told it could take two months to place John
elsewhere and for her to see him. John spent his
last birthday in solitary confinement. I didn't buy the ex
(06:59):
so I went home. I called my family, like I
just tried to visit John. They said that this could
take up. They said, no, Helen, they're doing something to him,
you know, like my family that been in there. And
that's when they told me, no, they're doing something to John.
They don't take, you know, two months to figure out
where somebody's gonna go. So my family already told me,
like they lying to you, they're doing something to John.
(07:20):
Then the jail called Helen. They told her that John
was dead. They said he had committed suicide after getting
in the fight with an inmate while in solitary confinement.
My baby is being accused of committing suicide and I
know he didn't. Helen says she was left to deal
with the fallout with no assistance from the jail or deputies.
(07:43):
They said John hung her. So that's it just clear
as that. They just said John hung yourself. That's what
we're standing on and you got to take the rest
of it with the corner. So I never really talked
to nobody after that. It was just really the corner
department and I'll disc stuff would after debt at the corner.
Helen says things weren't adding up with the suicide story.
(08:06):
I took pictures and video ma Son, I said, so
I had the picture of his score, how hard he
was hitting his forehead with that flashlight, and the print
left on my baby forehead. An autopsy report confirmed her suspicions.
The coroner found damage to John's liver, kidney, pancreas, spleen, pelvis,
(08:29):
and a large pink ring of flesh around John's wrist.
Additional injuries included a lacerated muscle in his back, a
broken nose and a blood clot, and a knot in
John's head. The Sheriff's department originally stated that John had
died by hanging himself. That was eventually overturned too unknown.
(08:51):
Helen filed a civil rights lawsuit against the county in
two thousand ten over her son's death. In court filings,
two deputies say they went on a quote chow run
for food outside of the jail with the blessing of
Sergeant Clifford Yates, a self admitted Linewood Viking, who I
spoke about an episode. One one of the deputies said
(09:14):
that instead of performing their usual rounds in the three
thousand block, they used a bar code cheat sheet to
show they did a security check. The deputies claim that
when they came back from their chow run, John was
dead from hanging. The case settled for two million dollars
in that cost was covered by taxpayers. Yates, the viking
(09:38):
who let the deputies leave the jail, retired. He appears
to be collecting a pension of over one hundred and
forty dollars annually. After retiring, he wrote a book titled
Deputy Thirty five Years as a Deputy Sheriff from Upstate
New York to l A. The book contains racist and
(09:59):
transphobics lurs has Yates describing how he'd instruct his subordinates
to lie. Admits to committing crimes as well as routinely
violating department procedures while on duty. The three Thousand Boys
have attacked people outside of the jails too. In two
thousand seven, Deputy David Ortega was arrested at Slide Bar
(10:21):
in Fullerton, California, after he threatened to fight and kill
a bouncer. Local Los Angeles station kat l A got
wind of the incident. A so called three thousand Boy
who was involved in a barroom fight that was caught
on tape. It is a tape that might provide some
insight into the swagger of the gang behind the badge.
(10:43):
Bouncer Chris Barton was trying to clear the bar for closing.
Everyone left except the Sheriff's deputies. Martin asked them to leave,
but Nith tells us that he's an Elle County Sheriff's deputy,
that he has the right to be here. He's a
cop that doesn't matter what we say or what the
laws are. As Barton tries to get Ortega and his
(11:03):
friends to go home, he says, Ortega gets belligerent. He
tells me he wants to fight me, and he's like,
I just want you to throw the first punch. Throw
the first punch. I said no, I mean just go home.
He's like, what happens if I spit on you? He
wants to fight right here, and he spits on my face.
He said that him and his boys from the three
thousand Boys or the three thousand Blocks are going to
(11:24):
take care of me. He said he's gonna beat the
crap out of me. He was gonna leave me into
a pool of my own blood, leave me there to die.
Ortega pled no contest, his punishment probation and a demotion,
and he still appears to be working in Men's Central Jail.
One year after Ortega threatened to kill a bouncer, he
(11:45):
brutally beat a man inside of Men's Central Jail. Evans
Tut was attacked on July two thousand nine after complaining
about the inhumane conditions in the facility. In court documents,
other incarcerated men described witnessing deputies David Ortega, Hernan Delgado,
(12:05):
Jason Snyder, and others calling Evans a fucking as they
assaulted him. I talked to John Riefling a senior researcher
on criminal justice for Human Rights Watch about this case.
He was evans lawyer. They wrote whatever they wrote in
their report, it didn't work the tasor sometimes the dart
doesn't stick well enough, and you know, so sometimes it
(12:29):
works better than other times. I forget the medical term,
but the dead flesh on his arm gave me a
pretty good idea that something was happening. I forget the phrase.
It was in the medical reports. But when I asked
the medical experts, yes, the dead flesh. So he was.
He was injured. The deputies t hazard, kicked, and hit
(12:52):
a handcuffed Evans with flashlights. His nose was broken in
multiple places, his tooth chip and bruises covered his head, legs,
and torso. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley filed
against the deputies for filing a false report. Nineteen of
(13:12):
the charges were dismissed. Evans filed his own federal civil
rights lawsuit against the county and was awarded four hundred
thousand dollars of taxpayer money. About two months after Evans
was attacked, a deputy who worked at Men's Central Jail
was killed by members of the Avenue Street gang. In
(13:33):
a reported case of mistaken identity, deputies at the jail
began beating and threatening to kill incarcerated Lapinos. They incorrectly
believed that one of them put a hit out on
the deputy. After another brutal beating of an incarcerated man,
several inmates in the three thousand block refused to leave
(13:54):
their cells in protest. Body camera footage obtained by ABC
show Lieutenant Christopher Blasnack, a supervisor at the jail, briefing
a group of deputies before they unleashed a six hour
attack on them. Retaliation, they have started breaking up with
horselan sinks flooding the rose Lading Fire eddie Berto Rodriguez
(14:19):
was on the three thousand block in his cell. He
covered himself with the mattress and continued his protests. His
attack was captured on body camera footage. Several deputies fired
projectiles at his leg, entered his cell and kicked him
as he lay on the floor. One deputy pulled the
shirt around Rodriguez's neck and choked him until he was unconscious.
(14:43):
Rodriguez was shocked back into consciousness with a taser. Tasers
were also used on his testicles, armpits, back, buttocks, and
the back of his knees until its charge was extinguished.
One deputy pressed his knee down on Rodriguez's right elbow
in what Rodriguez believed was an attempt to break it.
(15:06):
Another clubbed him in the back of the head with
a flashlight. Rodriguez was left with a tablespoon sized fracture
on his skull. I was involved in a big case
called Roberto Rodriguez versus the County of Los Angeles. It
was a massive jail beating in which scores of cops
spent six hours going from cell to sell beating inmates.
(15:31):
This is James Mueller, an attorney. He worked on Eddie
Berto's case. He had some issues with the supposed oversight
of the officers involved the internal affairs interviews. They didn't
ask the pertinent questions, they didn't interview the pertinent players,
and predictably, they exonerated the deputies who were involved. Mueller
(15:56):
notes that the exoneration on the legal level isn't without
some perceived help. We look at the Rodriguez case where
the counties gave us millions upon millions, I think almost
ten million for the plaintiffs and the attorneys. In that case,
they had five attorneys, six attorneys sometimes who basically a
(16:20):
large part of their job was backing up the lies
of the deputies and the supervisors. Now these attorneys are smart.
I'm not saying they explicitly told them to lie, but
they knew they were lying. They had to have known,
in my opinion, the county was paying their bills. The
(16:41):
county was saying, hit the plantiffs side with anything you got,
spend whatever money you need. And essentially the county was
paying these attorneys to help the twenty four defendants deputy
supervisors to go to court, go to deposition, and perja themselves.
(17:03):
So that's corruption on a very micro level, but it
happens over and over again in cases. Mueller says, the
taxpayers are the ones that suffer while these cases drag
on and on. They actually hired two outside firms in
or about to Rodriguez, and early on in the case,
I said, look you see these injuries. My five clients
(17:26):
were all beaten into unconsciousness and sent to sent to
l A County USC by ambulance. Not one deputy was hit.
There's no allegation anywhere that anyone took a swing at
a deputy. How how are you going to win this case?
If we keep going. This is a case where the
attorney's fees are going to be astronomical because this is
(17:47):
a huge incident. That's a six hour incident. They beat
my clients, my five clients, and then there were another
fourteen inmates that they beat. I said, this case could
settle for a reasonable amount, or we could go to trial,
and it's going to cost the county millions. And we
ended up going to trial and a cost almost ten
(18:08):
million dollars for the county, where it could have been
settled for under a million, all funded by taxpayers. Yeah,
money that could have been better spent that. The ten
million estimate that I'm giving you doesn't even count how
much the county paid to their private attorneys at trial.
There were two of us mainly on represented plaintiffs, and
(18:32):
they had five to six attorneys on the other side
for a six week trial. That adds up. I can imagine. Yes, Yes,
(19:01):
Men's Central Jail had a holiday party on December tenth,
two thousand ten, at the Quiet Cannon restaurant in Montebello.
The department asked some deputies to be designated drivers so
their colleagues could drink. Deputy Christian Vasquez drank ten beers
and washed it down with a shot of liquor. Party
goers said he looked intoxicated. Vasquez, who worked in visiting
(19:25):
says he had a conversation with a deputy from the
three thousand floor. The deputy told Vasquez his colleagues seemed
to be slow at getting incarcerated men to the visiting area.
Around eleven PM, Vasquez was approached by a group of
three thousand boys in a stairwell outside the banquet hall.
They asked him why he was disrespecting them. They began
(19:47):
to argue. Deputy Ilizario Perez saw the scuffle and tried
to break it up, but got caught up in the
fight himself. Both Perez and Vasquez were punched repeatedly by
deput d's affiliated with the three thousand Boys. Over two
hundred people witnessed the brawl, including Captain Daniel Cruz, who
(20:08):
ran Men's Central Jail at the time. Several photographs taken
that night showed the three thousand Boys flashing their gang
sign before the fight, three fingers held upward. A female
deputy who also worked in visitation, Susie Ayala confronted some
of the deputies attacking Perez and Vasquez. She was punched
(20:29):
in the face by a three thousand boy. Several Montabello
Police Department officers reported to the Quiet Canon in response
to a nine one one call and were told that
their help wasn't needed. In October of this year, a
special hearing was held by the Civilian Oversight Commission concerning
deputy gangs. Former Los Angeles SHAFF candidate Eric Strong was
(20:52):
subpoena to testify about his investigation into the fight at
the Quiet Cannon. Anthony Pacheco, an attorney and former member
of the l A Police Commission, questioned Strong. There was
over a hundred interviews, and in those interviews there were
a lot of people who basically said they weren't there,
they didn't see anything, and we had video evidence that verily,
(21:15):
very clearly showed that not only were they there present,
but they either protected those that were doing the assaulting
by keeping other people away um and they like in
their interview. So when it was presented to Paul Tanaka
at the time, we presented him with those six that
(21:39):
were obviously identified as as as the culprits of the assault.
And then we began to identify other members that we
felt should have been made subjects or could be made
subjects in the investigation for giving false statements and an investigation,
and we were told, no, that that was not of
his concern. He was simply going to make an example
(22:00):
out of the six and they were going to get fired.
And you know, I remember my lieutenant even pressing and saying, yeah,
but we have we probably have another half a dozen,
maybe even until a dozen that we can make subjects.
And he got a little, probably a little indignant, and basically, basically,
very firmly said no, we're not doing that. We're not
(22:22):
looking at any of that. We're going to fire these
six and that's it. And that was his his stance
on it. An Internal Affairs Bureau investigation into the brawl
resulted in the firing of only six deputies. It's unclear
if there was an appeals process which could have resulted
in the reinstatement of those deputies. Light discipline like this
(22:43):
weighed on strong. Did Mr Tanaka dissuade you and others
from investigating sheriff deputy gained members further in that investigation.
I won't say that he dissuaded us from investigating further.
I mean, at that point the investigation was pretty much
on and like I said, you know, we we dug
into why the assault occurred, which, like I said, boiled
(23:06):
down to a level of disrespect UM. But he definitely
did dissuade the decision makers because as the investigator, I'm
simply the fact finder. But he definitely dissuaded the decision
makes makers, which should have been the chief of that
division against UM naming any other personnelis subjects and disciplining them.
(23:29):
If the discipline only went to six members and more
people were involved in some of whom lied UM, what
happened to them? Did they go back into the department?
They stayed on the department. And actually I I know
of at least one or two who have promoted since
and Mr Tanaka was promoted after this, right he became undershriff. Yes,
(23:51):
the question has arisen asked by some of the commissioners
on the commission about how is it that law enforcement
gang have endured in the department? Can you address that
the leadership has allowed it? Vasquez and Perez filed federal
civil rights suits alleging that l A. S d was
(24:11):
quote inadequate with disciplining deputies. Three thousand boy Jason Snyder,
who beat Evan Stutt and was one of the people
allegedly participating in the brawl, sued Paul Tanaka after being disciplined,
alleging retaliation. Both cases were settled. Federal suits did nothing
(24:31):
to reduce the power or influence of the growing gang.
By March, Men's Central Jail had a reputation for abuse
of incarcerated people. The l A Times reported that year
that the department routinely transferred deputies convicted of crimes or
found guilty of serious misconduct to the county jail as
(24:52):
a way to keep them away from the public. The
three Thousand Boys continued to unleash violence on their victims.
Around seven thirty a m. On March eleventh, eleven, William
Tillman says the sounds of a porn video coming from
the deputy's control booth woke him up. It wasn't the
first time this had happened. Several incarcerated people complained about
(25:16):
the deputy's behavior. A few days later, a deputy told
Tillman that he knew Tillman had been one of the complainers.
The deputy told him, quote, we the three thousand boys.
The deputies on this floor let you guys get away
with too much. The police here are too soft. That
ship ends now. Then he beat William As he lay
(25:38):
on the floor, The deputy tazered him with the help
of two others. William was taken to the jail's medical
clinic and interviewed about what happened. He said, quote, these
three thousand boys beat the ship out of me for
no reason. The cameraman was ordered to quote cut the camera.
William later filed suit with the county and settled for
(25:59):
one thousand dollars, paid for by taxpayers. The violent culture
eventually spread to the two thousand block of the jail,
giving way to the creation of the two thousand Boys.
They also share the tattoo on the calf like the
three thousand Boys, but there's depicts the Roman numeral too.
Like the three thousand Boys. It's earned by beating inmates
(26:22):
in custody and filing false reports to cover up the abuse.
One custody deputy on the two thousand block fractured the
orbital bone of a non combative inmate to earn his tattoo.
There were several other instances of violence. Frank Mendoza, a
gay man who was incarcerated in Men's Central Jail after
(26:43):
an arrest for public drunkenness, made a joke about a deputy.
The deputy said that men in lock up quote all
walk like girls. Mendoza equipped to another incarcerated man, quote,
there's a male who's unsure of his masculinity. The deputy
grab Mendoza uh and slammed him against a wall, threatening him.
(27:03):
What followed that night was disturbing. Remember, you know, being
arrested for being publicly drunk and being terrified because I
was in jail and I had to let them know that,
you know, I'm I was gayy and different. One of
(27:24):
the officers made a threat against me and said that
he was going to come get me later on. Everybody's
pod was shut except my pod, and I remember what,
you know, it seemed verily quiet. I see the gentleman
sor that betting me earlier, coming towards my cage. I
started screaming and yelling, and you know, to know, nobody
(27:48):
came to my rescue, and he just came in and
the Manhattan Loving and strained me about naked and and
um sexually as also me and left me nake, it,
bloodied and terrified. Multiple incidents like this led to complaints
and an investigation by the a C l U. Deputy
(28:11):
Michael Rathbun was assigned to Operations Safe Jails, a unit
that monitors gangs inside of the county jails. Rathbun worked
with Deputy James Sexton, his father served as a chief
within the department. Rathbun and Sexton specialized in turning incarcerated
members of white supremacist gangs into informants, but there were
(28:34):
also white supremacists like the Vikings working within the l
a s D. James and Michael were these two really smart,
really enthusiastic young deputies who wanted to rise up the ranks,
wanted to be good cops, and both had cops for fathers,
and they were good humans. They were part of a
(28:57):
group inside the jail that investigated things within the jail system,
and they had an informant that told them that there
was a gang shot caller inside the jail that was
giving perks to one of the deputies. In February two
(29:17):
thousand twelve, one of Their informants told them that Deputy
Joseph Britain was allegedly passing information to Charles Fritz Rhymer,
the top white supremacist shot caller in the l A
County jail system. Rymer promised Britain that if he gave
them information, he'd get free tattoos at his shop. Rathman
(29:38):
and Sexton put their suspicions of Britain in a memo
to Greg Thompson, their boss, and an alleged Viking. They
saw that something was going on on the inside, and
they told Greg Thompson, their supervisor, who they liked a
lot because he seemed really a strong guy and a
real leader and a little bit of a badass, but
(29:59):
not engaged in a little illegal activity. And he was
also known to be very close to Paul to Naka.
But Thompson told Britain about the complaint, giving Briton a
chance to cover his tracks. That also blew the informants cover.
He was moved out of protective custody and into general population,
where someone tried to kill him in the showers. They
(30:20):
reported it, and what Greg Thompson did is allowed their
report to be distributed throughout the jail and that, as
I remember, he put their informant back in general population
and it was just blind luck. He wasn't killed when
he was jumped in the shower. He just managed he
(30:41):
was stronger and he'd beat the other guy. He beat
the other guy down, otherwise he would have been dead.
The O s J team had no explanation for why
the informant was moved. Sexton was later told it was
meant to be a quote message from Thompson that bad
things would happen if Rathman and Sexton did not dropped
their complaint about their relationship between deputies and white supremacists.
(31:05):
The intimidation towards Rathbun and Sexton didn't stop there. A
confidential interview featuring Sexton appeared on YouTube. Thompson refused to investigate.
Thompson also found out that Sexton received a call from
the l A. Times. He told Sexton and Rathbun that
there would be consequences for speaking to the press. Additionally,
(31:27):
Rathman received white supremacist literature sent to his home, and
another O s J deputy told Sexton that he needed
to keep his mouth shut about Thompson and Brittain. The
department's internal affairs looked into the claims, but the investigators
had a good relationship with Thompson. Sexton was contacted in
May two thousand twelve by Internal Investigation Bureau investigator no Garcia,
(31:52):
a reported regulator. Sexton says in a complaint that he
believed this to be retaliation for his whistle blowing. Rathbun
saw misdemeanor charges as he picked up a d y
bumped up to a felony Sexton, and Rathbun met with
Sheriff Lee Baca as a last resort and got no
relief With a c l U investigations, retaliations, informant beatings,
(32:34):
and more. Men's Central Jail soon found someone sniffing around
their misdeeds, the FBI. FBI officer Lea Mars, who is
new and from Hawaii and had a background in social
work and not terribly experienced, but she was starting to
hear all this stuff and she decided she wanted to
(32:55):
take a look at brutality and corruption inside at the
Men's Central Jail. And she was just poking around and
they got an informant. That informant was Anthony Brown, who
was incarcerated for robbing a bank. Brown was being used
to see if he could get a deputy to bring
(33:17):
him in a phone or you know, break the rules.
And that was Anthony Brown, who was a bank robber,
not the person that will probably be running for office
anytime soon, but he's a bright guy and was interested
in helping. And so one thing led to another. There
was a deputy who agreed to get him a phone,
and one thing led to another. That phone was supposed
(33:40):
to be used by Brown to capture evidence of abuse
and dirty deputies. He witnessed everything from smuggling items to
corruption and brutality. He checked in weekly with an FBI handler.
Brown's cover was eventually blown after deputies found and looked
through his phone and realized he was working with the FBI.
I Sheriff officials visited FBI agent Leah Marks to intimidate
(34:04):
her and threaten her with arrest right outside of her home.
Lieutenant Greg Thompson ordered Rathman and Sexton to transfer and
hide Brown from the FEDS. That illegal order came from
the top brass Sheriff Lee Baca and under Sheriff Paul Tanaka.
The FEDS did say gradually that there was this giant
(34:27):
group of people interacting at the direction of Paul Tanaka
and down from there Greg Thompson. Brown was moved multiple
times under aliases such as Robin Banks, and held in
solitary confinement with deputies around him all hours of the
day shielding him from the FBI. He was guarded over
(34:49):
and moved for eighteen days with no medical treatment. In
two thousand twelve, Rathman and Sexton began working with Marx's
FBI investigation, but there was fallout from their involvement. Rathman
was suspended without pay and Sexton was harassed by several deputies.
The Internal Criminal Investigation Bureau investigators later told Sexton that
(35:13):
one of the deputies, Michael Comaho, violated the penal Code,
but that l A District Attorney Steve Cooley, would never
file criminal charges. Sexton was told by another deputy not
to enter the Temple station for his safety. Sexton was
cornered by Deputy Matthew Thompson, their boss's son, who was
(35:33):
allegedly sent by Boaka and Tanaka. Rathman's car was found vandalized.
Deputies Manzo and Gerard Smith both told Sexton and Rathman
that they would be physically harmed if they did not
stop whistleblowing. Sexton and Rathbun's personnel files, only accessible by
l A s D officials, became publicly disseminated. Thompson, meanwhile,
(35:57):
was transferred to a coveted position in the narcotics division.
The l A Times eventually ran an article about the
informant and the harassment of Rathmann and Sexton. Not long
after the article was published, Bocca called Rathmun and Sexton
to his office. Both men told Bocca they feared for
their safety. Rathbun, who was Jewish, was subjected to anti
(36:20):
Semitic remarks from Bacca himself. Multiple people said under oath
that Bacca repeatedly made anti Semitic remarks, like using the
phrase jew money at a captain's meeting. In August two
thousand twelve, Rathmann and Sexton testified before a grand jury
in a case that brought down Deputies Department Brass and
(36:42):
Sheriff Lee Bacca himself. The U. S. Attorney's Office described
the case as quote a month long scheme to obstruct
the investigation, which included members of the conspiracy concealing the
informant from the FBI, the United States Marshal Service, and
the grand jury. Members of the conspiracy also engaged in
witness tampering and harassing the FBI agent. Many convictions and
(37:07):
guilty please ranging from low level deputies to retired higher ups,
came from the case. Roughly thirty people within the l
A Sheriff's Department were indicted, with several being charged with
blocking the FBI probe into abuses in the jail. Some
deputies you've heard about throughout this series, Scott Craig, a
(37:28):
former sergeant, and Marcella Long, were convicted of lying to
the FBI. Craig, who threatened FBI agent Mars, received thirty
three months in prison. Long was sentenced to twenty four
months in prison. Deputy Manzo received twenty four months in prison.
Deputy Gerard Smith received twenty one months in prison. Lieutenant
(37:49):
Greg Thompson received thirty seven months in prison and a
seven thousand, five hundred dollar fine. He still collects an
annual pension of over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Retired Lieutenant Steve Levins, an alleged grim reaper, received forty
one months in prison. Tanaka, who was taking a leave
of absence from his mayoral duties in Guardina said during
(38:12):
the trial that he never broke the law and cooperated
with the FBI's request to enter the jails and talk
to inmates. He said Bocca slowed down the FBI's investigation.
Funny enough, this slight division saw itself play out in
the polls. Tanaka announced he'd be running for the seat
of his boss, Lee Bacca. He eventually lost in a
(38:35):
landslide to Jim McDonald, who took forty nine point four
percent of the vote to Tanaka's fifteen point one percent.
Tanaka was eventually convicted on conspiracy and obstruction of justice
in his part of the scandal. He was sentenced to
five years in prison and was recently released. He's been
spotted in Orange County playing golf. Bacca wasn't charged with
(38:58):
abusing inmates, but he was charged with participating in the
attempt to cover it up. He pled guilty it's a
lying to federal investigators on February tenth, and served less
than two years in prison for his crimes. He got
out in January of this year. I spoke to him
on the phone and he told me that he had
no regrets and that I was a quote very dedicated reporter.
(39:22):
As for Sexton and Rathbun, Rathbun was recommended for termination,
despite the fact that numerous l as D employees have
not been fired for receiving multiple d uise, he still
appears to be with the department. Sexton was convicted of
obstruction of justice for his role in helping to hide
federal informant Anthony Brown. Many of the people Sexton and
(39:45):
Rathbun reported and who faced charges in the grand jury
case continued to serve in the department, including deputies Joseph Brittain,
Michael Camacho, and Matthew Thompson. Internal investigator and alleged regulator
no Gar was promoted to lieutenant in following these incidents.
He held that position as recently as nineteen. The violence
(40:08):
on the three thousand block, two thousand block and in
the jails has not stopped. Melissa Camacho Chung, a senior
staff attorney of the a c l U, received so
many complaints about the three thousand block she went in
to investigate last year. At the end of one I
received enough complaints from the three thousand block of M
(40:31):
c J that I went in and spent a couple
of days in viewing people in the attorney room, in
viewing people at the front of cell to try and
hear what was going on and raise their concerns to
command staff. So, while there's no way we can investigate
(40:51):
and actually determine whether or not the three thousand Boys
still exists, our concern is that there reports of violence
that we received from m c J, the reports of
retaliation and harassment we received from m c J, and
in particular reports from the three thousand block. We're very
concerned that deputy gangs are still a very live issue.
(41:16):
But the culture of the three thousand Boys was already
making its way out into the streets of l A
and the three thousand Boys were founding your own new
deputy gangs. I used to bellowda whole hood. Now me
fuck the police. I'm a fucking trophy. You've been listening
(41:37):
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 Steeles.
We want to hear from you if you have a
question about deputy gangs. 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
(41:58):
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social media. To support series's reporting and for exclusive bonus content,
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enjoying a tradition of violence, please give us a five
star rating and leave a written review. God
Morning. This podcast can see's explicit language and details acts
of violence. Listener discretion is advised. Paul Tanaka a tatsued
member of the Vikings Deputy Gang, elevated to the role
of under Sheriff under Sheriff Lee Bacca. Tanaka has denied
affiliation with the Vikings Deputy Gang, although he is known
(00:22):
to have the gang's tattoo. As number two in the department,
he oversaw operation of l A Counties jails. Tanaka installed
many Deputy Gang members to high ranking positions in exchange
for money. A thing about Tanaka during this time, by
the way, from Celeste Freeman, who we heard from earlier
(00:43):
in the series. She's a journalist and founder of Witness
l A. She covers the Sheriff's department. He was also
the mayor of Guardina Go figure and that it was
either you're in the car with me, that was the expression,
or you're out of the cart, in which case forget advancement.
But those that were loyal did see career advancement, like
(01:06):
Charles McDaniel, a sergeant of Men's Central Jail. He was
tattooed with the skull associated with the Deputy Gang. The
regulators under Tanaka and McDaniel. Men's Central Jail became the
birthplace of one of the biggest deputy gangs within l
A s D. The three thousand lays this is a
(01:28):
tradition of violence, a history of deputy gangs inside the
l A County Sheriff's Department. The county's jails are an
ideal breeding ground for gangs. Most deputies get sent to
(01:49):
work the jail system straight out of the academy. There's
been stories about excessive violence against people incarcerated in the
l A County jail system since at least nineteen and
they were the subject of a lawsuit. A federal judge
ruled that the jails would be monitored by the American
Civil Liberties Union or a c l U that year,
(02:12):
and the monitors have been there ever since. When Tanaka
took over the jails, things got worse. Here's Peter Eliasburg,
Chief Council of the a c l U. There was
a lot of excessive force on the three thousand floor,
and I think a good chunk of that was a
result of a group of people who felt allied and
felt that the rules didn't apply to them. And we're
(02:32):
going to do whatever they want, and then they were
going to do what they wanted to do, and oftentimes
that was used force that wasn't appropriate, wasn't necessary, and
was grossly excessive. Many deputies are eager to prove themselves
by committing acts of violence. In the Los Angeles County
Board of Supervisors formed an oversight panel for the jails
(02:52):
called the Citizens Commission for Jail Violence or the c
c j V. In a report, the panel discovered the
three thousand Boys inside Men's Central Jail. The three thousand
Boys share a tattoo on the calf of a Roman numeral.
Three deputies earned the ink by beating inmates and filing
false reports to cover up the abuse. Reports described the
(03:16):
walls of the deputy booth in the three thousand block
or unit of the jail as full of graffiti filled
with derogatory writings. A bumper sticker on a wall reads quote,
don't feed the animals. The first known violent incident involving
the three thousand Boys took place on April seventeen, two
thousand and eight. Deputies ordered inmate Velt and Boone out
(03:40):
of his cell and beat him. Following a lengthy investigation
into the gang, the case was settled for just nine
hundred and fifty dollars. The brutality inside the three thousand
block caught the attention of many. One was jail chaplain
Paulino Juarez. I hear somebody was screaming, and I see
(04:02):
these three deputies beating this person, an African American, and
I'm sorry, and they were punching him. I never see
his hands because those rows always the inmates walk which handcuffed. Um.
(04:26):
I never see his hands trying to protect himself. He
just was saying, stop, please, stop, stop. I can do
nothing wrong. Paulino tried to blow the whistle for years
on these deputies, but was rebuffed. Sheriff Bacca even told
Paulino that he was quote exaggerating the beating. Eight years
later in the two deputies involved in the beating were
(04:51):
eventually convicted. One got eighteen months in federal prison and
the other got thirteen months for falsifying reports with the
intent to obstruct justice. According to the U. S. Attorney's Office,
in March two thousand nine, twenty one year old John
Horton found himself on the three thousand block. John was
(05:11):
an artistic person. He had a kind heart. He was strong,
you know. M John was six to He was really handsome.
And you know, and when I say that he loved
living life, John really loved life. And he just was
so carefree in life. That's John's mom, Helen Jones. He
(05:33):
was just a real care free person. John would just
he just had a love spirit. I mean, I'm saying
he was perfect. He had a good heart, and he
loved kids. He wanted kids, but he never had the
chest any children at all. John was a musician working
in the music industry. He worked at his mother's music label.
He dreamt of opening up a youth center in watts
(05:54):
if he ever hit the big time, but when John
missed a court ordered appointment for a drug program, his
dream was derailed. John was feeling sick, delirious, as his
mom puts it. His sister called the paramedics to help.
He was later arrested due to a warrant being out
for his arrest for the misappointment. Helen told John she'd
(06:16):
see him every day while he was in jail, but
the sheriff's deputies prevented that. She only got to see
her son once during his incarceration. That first visit that
was the only time I was able to talk to John,
and I've seen him in court one time, but I
wasn't able to talk to him in court, But as
far as talking to him, it was just at one time.
(06:38):
On later visits, she wasn't allowed to see John. During
one attempt, the visiting room sergeant told Helen that John
was in so called protective custody or solitary confinement. She
was told it could take two months to place John
elsewhere and for her to see him. John spent his
last birthday in solitary confinement. I didn't buy the ex
(06:59):
so I went home. I called my family, like I
just tried to visit John. They said that this could
take up. They said, no, Helen, they're doing something to him,
you know, like my family that been in there. And
that's when they told me, no, they're doing something to John.
They don't take, you know, two months to figure out
where somebody's gonna go. So my family already told me,
like they lying to you, they're doing something to John.
(07:20):
Then the jail called Helen. They told her that John
was dead. They said he had committed suicide after getting
in the fight with an inmate while in solitary confinement.
My baby is being accused of committing suicide and I
know he didn't. Helen says she was left to deal
with the fallout with no assistance from the jail or deputies.
(07:43):
They said John hung her. So that's it just clear
as that. They just said John hung yourself. That's what
we're standing on and you got to take the rest
of it with the corner. So I never really talked
to nobody after that. It was just really the corner
department and I'll disc stuff would after debt at the corner.
Helen says things weren't adding up with the suicide story.
(08:06):
I took pictures and video ma Son, I said, so
I had the picture of his score, how hard he
was hitting his forehead with that flashlight, and the print
left on my baby forehead. An autopsy report confirmed her suspicions.
The coroner found damage to John's liver, kidney, pancreas, spleen, pelvis,
(08:29):
and a large pink ring of flesh around John's wrist.
Additional injuries included a lacerated muscle in his back, a
broken nose and a blood clot, and a knot in
John's head. The Sheriff's department originally stated that John had
died by hanging himself. That was eventually overturned too unknown.
(08:51):
Helen filed a civil rights lawsuit against the county in
two thousand ten over her son's death. In court filings,
two deputies say they went on a quote chow run
for food outside of the jail with the blessing of
Sergeant Clifford Yates, a self admitted Linewood Viking, who I
spoke about an episode. One one of the deputies said
(09:14):
that instead of performing their usual rounds in the three
thousand block, they used a bar code cheat sheet to
show they did a security check. The deputies claim that
when they came back from their chow run, John was
dead from hanging. The case settled for two million dollars
in that cost was covered by taxpayers. Yates, the viking
(09:38):
who let the deputies leave the jail, retired. He appears
to be collecting a pension of over one hundred and
forty dollars annually. After retiring, he wrote a book titled
Deputy Thirty five Years as a Deputy Sheriff from Upstate
New York to l A. The book contains racist and
(09:59):
transphobics lurs has Yates describing how he'd instruct his subordinates
to lie. Admits to committing crimes as well as routinely
violating department procedures while on duty. The three Thousand Boys
have attacked people outside of the jails too. In two
thousand seven, Deputy David Ortega was arrested at Slide Bar
(10:21):
in Fullerton, California, after he threatened to fight and kill
a bouncer. Local Los Angeles station kat l A got
wind of the incident. A so called three thousand Boy
who was involved in a barroom fight that was caught
on tape. It is a tape that might provide some
insight into the swagger of the gang behind the badge.
(10:43):
Bouncer Chris Barton was trying to clear the bar for closing.
Everyone left except the Sheriff's deputies. Martin asked them to leave,
but Nith tells us that he's an Elle County Sheriff's deputy,
that he has the right to be here. He's a
cop that doesn't matter what we say or what the
laws are. As Barton tries to get Ortega and his
(11:03):
friends to go home, he says, Ortega gets belligerent. He
tells me he wants to fight me, and he's like,
I just want you to throw the first punch. Throw
the first punch. I said no, I mean just go home.
He's like, what happens if I spit on you? He
wants to fight right here, and he spits on my face.
He said that him and his boys from the three
thousand Boys or the three thousand Blocks are going to
(11:24):
take care of me. He said he's gonna beat the
crap out of me. He was gonna leave me into
a pool of my own blood, leave me there to die.
Ortega pled no contest, his punishment probation and a demotion,
and he still appears to be working in Men's Central Jail.
One year after Ortega threatened to kill a bouncer, he
(11:45):
brutally beat a man inside of Men's Central Jail. Evans
Tut was attacked on July two thousand nine after complaining
about the inhumane conditions in the facility. In court documents,
other incarcerated men described witnessing deputies David Ortega, Hernan Delgado,
(12:05):
Jason Snyder, and others calling Evans a fucking as they
assaulted him. I talked to John Riefling a senior researcher
on criminal justice for Human Rights Watch about this case.
He was evans lawyer. They wrote whatever they wrote in
their report, it didn't work the tasor sometimes the dart
doesn't stick well enough, and you know, so sometimes it
(12:29):
works better than other times. I forget the medical term,
but the dead flesh on his arm gave me a
pretty good idea that something was happening. I forget the phrase.
It was in the medical reports. But when I asked
the medical experts, yes, the dead flesh. So he was.
He was injured. The deputies t hazard, kicked, and hit
(12:52):
a handcuffed Evans with flashlights. His nose was broken in
multiple places, his tooth chip and bruises covered his head, legs,
and torso. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley filed
against the deputies for filing a false report. Nineteen of
(13:12):
the charges were dismissed. Evans filed his own federal civil
rights lawsuit against the county and was awarded four hundred
thousand dollars of taxpayer money. About two months after Evans
was attacked, a deputy who worked at Men's Central Jail
was killed by members of the Avenue Street gang. In
(13:33):
a reported case of mistaken identity, deputies at the jail
began beating and threatening to kill incarcerated Lapinos. They incorrectly
believed that one of them put a hit out on
the deputy. After another brutal beating of an incarcerated man,
several inmates in the three thousand block refused to leave
(13:54):
their cells in protest. Body camera footage obtained by ABC
show Lieutenant Christopher Blasnack, a supervisor at the jail, briefing
a group of deputies before they unleashed a six hour
attack on them. Retaliation, they have started breaking up with
horselan sinks flooding the rose Lading Fire eddie Berto Rodriguez
(14:19):
was on the three thousand block in his cell. He
covered himself with the mattress and continued his protests. His
attack was captured on body camera footage. Several deputies fired
projectiles at his leg, entered his cell and kicked him
as he lay on the floor. One deputy pulled the
shirt around Rodriguez's neck and choked him until he was unconscious.
(14:43):
Rodriguez was shocked back into consciousness with a taser. Tasers
were also used on his testicles, armpits, back, buttocks, and
the back of his knees until its charge was extinguished.
One deputy pressed his knee down on Rodriguez's right elbow
in what Rodriguez believed was an attempt to break it.
(15:06):
Another clubbed him in the back of the head with
a flashlight. Rodriguez was left with a tablespoon sized fracture
on his skull. I was involved in a big case
called Roberto Rodriguez versus the County of Los Angeles. It
was a massive jail beating in which scores of cops
spent six hours going from cell to sell beating inmates.
(15:31):
This is James Mueller, an attorney. He worked on Eddie
Berto's case. He had some issues with the supposed oversight
of the officers involved the internal affairs interviews. They didn't
ask the pertinent questions, they didn't interview the pertinent players,
and predictably, they exonerated the deputies who were involved. Mueller
(15:56):
notes that the exoneration on the legal level isn't without
some perceived help. We look at the Rodriguez case where
the counties gave us millions upon millions, I think almost
ten million for the plaintiffs and the attorneys. In that case,
they had five attorneys, six attorneys sometimes who basically a
(16:20):
large part of their job was backing up the lies
of the deputies and the supervisors. Now these attorneys are smart.
I'm not saying they explicitly told them to lie, but
they knew they were lying. They had to have known,
in my opinion, the county was paying their bills. The
(16:41):
county was saying, hit the plantiffs side with anything you got,
spend whatever money you need. And essentially the county was
paying these attorneys to help the twenty four defendants deputy
supervisors to go to court, go to deposition, and perja themselves.
(17:03):
So that's corruption on a very micro level, but it
happens over and over again in cases. Mueller says, the
taxpayers are the ones that suffer while these cases drag
on and on. They actually hired two outside firms in
or about to Rodriguez, and early on in the case,
I said, look you see these injuries. My five clients
(17:26):
were all beaten into unconsciousness and sent to sent to
l A County USC by ambulance. Not one deputy was hit.
There's no allegation anywhere that anyone took a swing at
a deputy. How how are you going to win this case?
If we keep going. This is a case where the
attorney's fees are going to be astronomical because this is
(17:47):
a huge incident. That's a six hour incident. They beat
my clients, my five clients, and then there were another
fourteen inmates that they beat. I said, this case could
settle for a reasonable amount, or we could go to trial,
and it's going to cost the county millions. And we
ended up going to trial and a cost almost ten
(18:08):
million dollars for the county, where it could have been
settled for under a million, all funded by taxpayers. Yeah,
money that could have been better spent that. The ten
million estimate that I'm giving you doesn't even count how
much the county paid to their private attorneys at trial.
There were two of us mainly on represented plaintiffs, and
(18:32):
they had five to six attorneys on the other side
for a six week trial. That adds up. I can imagine. Yes, Yes,
(19:01):
Men's Central Jail had a holiday party on December tenth,
two thousand ten, at the Quiet Cannon restaurant in Montebello.
The department asked some deputies to be designated drivers so
their colleagues could drink. Deputy Christian Vasquez drank ten beers
and washed it down with a shot of liquor. Party
goers said he looked intoxicated. Vasquez, who worked in visiting
(19:25):
says he had a conversation with a deputy from the
three thousand floor. The deputy told Vasquez his colleagues seemed
to be slow at getting incarcerated men to the visiting area.
Around eleven PM, Vasquez was approached by a group of
three thousand boys in a stairwell outside the banquet hall.
They asked him why he was disrespecting them. They began
(19:47):
to argue. Deputy Ilizario Perez saw the scuffle and tried
to break it up, but got caught up in the
fight himself. Both Perez and Vasquez were punched repeatedly by
deput d's affiliated with the three thousand Boys. Over two
hundred people witnessed the brawl, including Captain Daniel Cruz, who
(20:08):
ran Men's Central Jail at the time. Several photographs taken
that night showed the three thousand Boys flashing their gang
sign before the fight, three fingers held upward. A female
deputy who also worked in visitation, Susie Ayala confronted some
of the deputies attacking Perez and Vasquez. She was punched
(20:29):
in the face by a three thousand boy. Several Montabello
Police Department officers reported to the Quiet Canon in response
to a nine one one call and were told that
their help wasn't needed. In October of this year, a
special hearing was held by the Civilian Oversight Commission concerning
deputy gangs. Former Los Angeles SHAFF candidate Eric Strong was
(20:52):
subpoena to testify about his investigation into the fight at
the Quiet Cannon. Anthony Pacheco, an attorney and former member
of the l A Police Commission, questioned Strong. There was
over a hundred interviews, and in those interviews there were
a lot of people who basically said they weren't there,
they didn't see anything, and we had video evidence that verily,
(21:15):
very clearly showed that not only were they there present,
but they either protected those that were doing the assaulting
by keeping other people away um and they like in
their interview. So when it was presented to Paul Tanaka
at the time, we presented him with those six that
(21:39):
were obviously identified as as as the culprits of the assault.
And then we began to identify other members that we
felt should have been made subjects or could be made
subjects in the investigation for giving false statements and an investigation,
and we were told, no, that that was not of
his concern. He was simply going to make an example
(22:00):
out of the six and they were going to get fired.
And you know, I remember my lieutenant even pressing and saying, yeah,
but we have we probably have another half a dozen,
maybe even until a dozen that we can make subjects.
And he got a little, probably a little indignant, and basically, basically,
very firmly said no, we're not doing that. We're not
(22:22):
looking at any of that. We're going to fire these
six and that's it. And that was his his stance
on it. An Internal Affairs Bureau investigation into the brawl
resulted in the firing of only six deputies. It's unclear
if there was an appeals process which could have resulted
in the reinstatement of those deputies. Light discipline like this
(22:43):
weighed on strong. Did Mr Tanaka dissuade you and others
from investigating sheriff deputy gained members further in that investigation.
I won't say that he dissuaded us from investigating further.
I mean, at that point the investigation was pretty much
on and like I said, you know, we we dug
into why the assault occurred, which, like I said, boiled
(23:06):
down to a level of disrespect UM. But he definitely
did dissuade the decision makers because as the investigator, I'm
simply the fact finder. But he definitely dissuaded the decision
makes makers, which should have been the chief of that
division against UM naming any other personnelis subjects and disciplining them.
(23:29):
If the discipline only went to six members and more
people were involved in some of whom lied UM, what
happened to them? Did they go back into the department?
They stayed on the department. And actually I I know
of at least one or two who have promoted since
and Mr Tanaka was promoted after this, right he became undershriff. Yes,
(23:51):
the question has arisen asked by some of the commissioners
on the commission about how is it that law enforcement
gang have endured in the department? Can you address that
the leadership has allowed it? Vasquez and Perez filed federal
civil rights suits alleging that l A. S d was
(24:11):
quote inadequate with disciplining deputies. Three thousand boy Jason Snyder,
who beat Evan Stutt and was one of the people
allegedly participating in the brawl, sued Paul Tanaka after being disciplined,
alleging retaliation. Both cases were settled. Federal suits did nothing
(24:31):
to reduce the power or influence of the growing gang.
By March, Men's Central Jail had a reputation for abuse
of incarcerated people. The l A Times reported that year
that the department routinely transferred deputies convicted of crimes or
found guilty of serious misconduct to the county jail as
(24:52):
a way to keep them away from the public. The
three Thousand Boys continued to unleash violence on their victims.
Around seven thirty a m. On March eleventh, eleven, William
Tillman says the sounds of a porn video coming from
the deputy's control booth woke him up. It wasn't the
first time this had happened. Several incarcerated people complained about
(25:16):
the deputy's behavior. A few days later, a deputy told
Tillman that he knew Tillman had been one of the complainers.
The deputy told him, quote, we the three thousand boys.
The deputies on this floor let you guys get away
with too much. The police here are too soft. That
ship ends now. Then he beat William As he lay
(25:38):
on the floor, The deputy tazered him with the help
of two others. William was taken to the jail's medical
clinic and interviewed about what happened. He said, quote, these
three thousand boys beat the ship out of me for
no reason. The cameraman was ordered to quote cut the camera.
William later filed suit with the county and settled for
(25:59):
one thousand dollars, paid for by taxpayers. The violent culture
eventually spread to the two thousand block of the jail,
giving way to the creation of the two thousand Boys.
They also share the tattoo on the calf like the
three thousand Boys, but there's depicts the Roman numeral too.
Like the three thousand Boys. It's earned by beating inmates
(26:22):
in custody and filing false reports to cover up the abuse.
One custody deputy on the two thousand block fractured the
orbital bone of a non combative inmate to earn his tattoo.
There were several other instances of violence. Frank Mendoza, a
gay man who was incarcerated in Men's Central Jail after
(26:43):
an arrest for public drunkenness, made a joke about a deputy.
The deputy said that men in lock up quote all
walk like girls. Mendoza equipped to another incarcerated man, quote,
there's a male who's unsure of his masculinity. The deputy
grab Mendoza uh and slammed him against a wall, threatening him.
(27:03):
What followed that night was disturbing. Remember, you know, being
arrested for being publicly drunk and being terrified because I
was in jail and I had to let them know that,
you know, I'm I was gayy and different. One of
(27:24):
the officers made a threat against me and said that
he was going to come get me later on. Everybody's
pod was shut except my pod, and I remember what,
you know, it seemed verily quiet. I see the gentleman
sor that betting me earlier, coming towards my cage. I
started screaming and yelling, and you know, to know, nobody
(27:48):
came to my rescue, and he just came in and
the Manhattan Loving and strained me about naked and and
um sexually as also me and left me nake, it,
bloodied and terrified. Multiple incidents like this led to complaints
and an investigation by the a C l U. Deputy
(28:11):
Michael Rathbun was assigned to Operations Safe Jails, a unit
that monitors gangs inside of the county jails. Rathbun worked
with Deputy James Sexton, his father served as a chief
within the department. Rathbun and Sexton specialized in turning incarcerated
members of white supremacist gangs into informants, but there were
(28:34):
also white supremacists like the Vikings working within the l
a s D. James and Michael were these two really smart,
really enthusiastic young deputies who wanted to rise up the ranks,
wanted to be good cops, and both had cops for fathers,
and they were good humans. They were part of a
(28:57):
group inside the jail that investigated things within the jail system,
and they had an informant that told them that there
was a gang shot caller inside the jail that was
giving perks to one of the deputies. In February two
(29:17):
thousand twelve, one of Their informants told them that Deputy
Joseph Britain was allegedly passing information to Charles Fritz Rhymer,
the top white supremacist shot caller in the l A
County jail system. Rymer promised Britain that if he gave
them information, he'd get free tattoos at his shop. Rathman
(29:38):
and Sexton put their suspicions of Britain in a memo
to Greg Thompson, their boss, and an alleged Viking. They
saw that something was going on on the inside, and
they told Greg Thompson, their supervisor, who they liked a
lot because he seemed really a strong guy and a
real leader and a little bit of a badass, but
(29:59):
not engaged in a little illegal activity. And he was
also known to be very close to Paul to Naka.
But Thompson told Britain about the complaint, giving Briton a
chance to cover his tracks. That also blew the informants cover.
He was moved out of protective custody and into general population,
where someone tried to kill him in the showers. They
(30:20):
reported it, and what Greg Thompson did is allowed their
report to be distributed throughout the jail and that, as
I remember, he put their informant back in general population
and it was just blind luck. He wasn't killed when
he was jumped in the shower. He just managed he
(30:41):
was stronger and he'd beat the other guy. He beat
the other guy down, otherwise he would have been dead.
The O s J team had no explanation for why
the informant was moved. Sexton was later told it was
meant to be a quote message from Thompson that bad
things would happen if Rathman and Sexton did not dropped
their complaint about their relationship between deputies and white supremacists.
(31:05):
The intimidation towards Rathbun and Sexton didn't stop there. A
confidential interview featuring Sexton appeared on YouTube. Thompson refused to investigate.
Thompson also found out that Sexton received a call from
the l A. Times. He told Sexton and Rathbun that
there would be consequences for speaking to the press. Additionally,
(31:27):
Rathman received white supremacist literature sent to his home, and
another O s J deputy told Sexton that he needed
to keep his mouth shut about Thompson and Brittain. The
department's internal affairs looked into the claims, but the investigators
had a good relationship with Thompson. Sexton was contacted in
May two thousand twelve by Internal Investigation Bureau investigator no Garcia,
(31:52):
a reported regulator. Sexton says in a complaint that he
believed this to be retaliation for his whistle blowing. Rathbun
saw misdemeanor charges as he picked up a d y
bumped up to a felony Sexton, and Rathbun met with
Sheriff Lee Baca as a last resort and got no
relief With a c l U investigations, retaliations, informant beatings,
(32:34):
and more. Men's Central Jail soon found someone sniffing around
their misdeeds, the FBI. FBI officer Lea Mars, who is
new and from Hawaii and had a background in social
work and not terribly experienced, but she was starting to
hear all this stuff and she decided she wanted to
(32:55):
take a look at brutality and corruption inside at the
Men's Central Jail. And she was just poking around and
they got an informant. That informant was Anthony Brown, who
was incarcerated for robbing a bank. Brown was being used
to see if he could get a deputy to bring
(33:17):
him in a phone or you know, break the rules.
And that was Anthony Brown, who was a bank robber,
not the person that will probably be running for office
anytime soon, but he's a bright guy and was interested
in helping. And so one thing led to another. There
was a deputy who agreed to get him a phone,
and one thing led to another. That phone was supposed
(33:40):
to be used by Brown to capture evidence of abuse
and dirty deputies. He witnessed everything from smuggling items to
corruption and brutality. He checked in weekly with an FBI handler.
Brown's cover was eventually blown after deputies found and looked
through his phone and realized he was working with the FBI.
I Sheriff officials visited FBI agent Leah Marks to intimidate
(34:04):
her and threaten her with arrest right outside of her home.
Lieutenant Greg Thompson ordered Rathman and Sexton to transfer and
hide Brown from the FEDS. That illegal order came from
the top brass Sheriff Lee Baca and under Sheriff Paul Tanaka.
The FEDS did say gradually that there was this giant
(34:27):
group of people interacting at the direction of Paul Tanaka
and down from there Greg Thompson. Brown was moved multiple
times under aliases such as Robin Banks, and held in
solitary confinement with deputies around him all hours of the
day shielding him from the FBI. He was guarded over
(34:49):
and moved for eighteen days with no medical treatment. In
two thousand twelve, Rathman and Sexton began working with Marx's
FBI investigation, but there was fallout from their involvement. Rathman
was suspended without pay and Sexton was harassed by several deputies.
The Internal Criminal Investigation Bureau investigators later told Sexton that
(35:13):
one of the deputies, Michael Comaho, violated the penal Code,
but that l A District Attorney Steve Cooley, would never
file criminal charges. Sexton was told by another deputy not
to enter the Temple station for his safety. Sexton was
cornered by Deputy Matthew Thompson, their boss's son, who was
(35:33):
allegedly sent by Boaka and Tanaka. Rathman's car was found vandalized.
Deputies Manzo and Gerard Smith both told Sexton and Rathman
that they would be physically harmed if they did not
stop whistleblowing. Sexton and Rathbun's personnel files, only accessible by
l A s D officials, became publicly disseminated. Thompson, meanwhile,
(35:57):
was transferred to a coveted position in the narcotics division.
The l A Times eventually ran an article about the
informant and the harassment of Rathmann and Sexton. Not long
after the article was published, Bocca called Rathmun and Sexton
to his office. Both men told Bocca they feared for
their safety. Rathbun, who was Jewish, was subjected to anti
(36:20):
Semitic remarks from Bacca himself. Multiple people said under oath
that Bacca repeatedly made anti Semitic remarks, like using the
phrase jew money at a captain's meeting. In August two
thousand twelve, Rathmann and Sexton testified before a grand jury
in a case that brought down Deputies Department Brass and
(36:42):
Sheriff Lee Bacca himself. The U. S. Attorney's Office described
the case as quote a month long scheme to obstruct
the investigation, which included members of the conspiracy concealing the
informant from the FBI, the United States Marshal Service, and
the grand jury. Members of the conspiracy also engaged in
witness tampering and harassing the FBI agent. Many convictions and
(37:07):
guilty please ranging from low level deputies to retired higher ups,
came from the case. Roughly thirty people within the l
A Sheriff's Department were indicted, with several being charged with
blocking the FBI probe into abuses in the jail. Some
deputies you've heard about throughout this series, Scott Craig, a
(37:28):
former sergeant, and Marcella Long, were convicted of lying to
the FBI. Craig, who threatened FBI agent Mars, received thirty
three months in prison. Long was sentenced to twenty four
months in prison. Deputy Manzo received twenty four months in prison.
Deputy Gerard Smith received twenty one months in prison. Lieutenant
(37:49):
Greg Thompson received thirty seven months in prison and a
seven thousand, five hundred dollar fine. He still collects an
annual pension of over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Retired Lieutenant Steve Levins, an alleged grim reaper, received forty
one months in prison. Tanaka, who was taking a leave
of absence from his mayoral duties in Guardina said during
(38:12):
the trial that he never broke the law and cooperated
with the FBI's request to enter the jails and talk
to inmates. He said Bocca slowed down the FBI's investigation.
Funny enough, this slight division saw itself play out in
the polls. Tanaka announced he'd be running for the seat
of his boss, Lee Bacca. He eventually lost in a
(38:35):
landslide to Jim McDonald, who took forty nine point four
percent of the vote to Tanaka's fifteen point one percent.
Tanaka was eventually convicted on conspiracy and obstruction of justice
in his part of the scandal. He was sentenced to
five years in prison and was recently released. He's been
spotted in Orange County playing golf. Bacca wasn't charged with
(38:58):
abusing inmates, but he was charged with participating in the
attempt to cover it up. He pled guilty it's a
lying to federal investigators on February tenth, and served less
than two years in prison for his crimes. He got
out in January of this year. I spoke to him
on the phone and he told me that he had
no regrets and that I was a quote very dedicated reporter.
(39:22):
As for Sexton and Rathbun, Rathbun was recommended for termination,
despite the fact that numerous l as D employees have
not been fired for receiving multiple d uise, he still
appears to be with the department. Sexton was convicted of
obstruction of justice for his role in helping to hide
federal informant Anthony Brown. Many of the people Sexton and
(39:45):
Rathbun reported and who faced charges in the grand jury
case continued to serve in the department, including deputies Joseph Brittain,
Michael Camacho, and Matthew Thompson. Internal investigator and alleged regulator
no Gar was promoted to lieutenant in following these incidents.
He held that position as recently as nineteen. The violence
(40:08):
on the three thousand block, two thousand block and in
the jails has not stopped. Melissa Camacho Chung, a senior
staff attorney of the a c l U, received so
many complaints about the three thousand block she went in
to investigate last year. At the end of one I
received enough complaints from the three thousand block of M
(40:31):
c J that I went in and spent a couple
of days in viewing people in the attorney room, in
viewing people at the front of cell to try and
hear what was going on and raise their concerns to
command staff. So, while there's no way we can investigate
(40:51):
and actually determine whether or not the three thousand Boys
still exists, our concern is that there reports of violence
that we received from m c J, the reports of
retaliation and harassment we received from m c J, and
in particular reports from the three thousand block. We're very
concerned that deputy gangs are still a very live issue.
(41:16):
But the culture of the three thousand Boys was already
making its way out into the streets of l A
and the three thousand Boys were founding your own new
deputy gangs. I used to bellowda whole hood. Now me
fuck the police. I'm a fucking trophy. You've been listening
(41:37):
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 Steeles.
We want to hear from you if you have a
question about deputy gangs. 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
(41:58):
deputy games. Follow at l A s K Gangs on
social media. To support series's reporting and for exclusive bonus content,
subscribe to the L S G Gangs Patreon. If you're
enjoying a tradition of violence, please give us a five
star rating and leave a written review. God
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