KPCC (California)
By Annie Gilbertson
February 10, 2016
Former
Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca has pleaded guilty to federal charges of
lying to investigators, the culmination of a years-long investigation
into abuses by jailers
that ended up focusing on the cover-up and resulted in the indictment
of over a dozen officials and deputies.
The
investigation, which put an early end to Baca's career, could end with
him spending time in federal prison. Baca is scheduled to be sentenced
May 16. According to
a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, he could face up to six
months in prison.
“Today’s
charge and plea agreement demonstrate that illegal behavior within the
Sheriff’s Department went to the very top of the organization,” United
States Attorney
Eileen M. Decker said, reading a prepared statement at a press
conference Wednesday.
She
added that her office wasn't celebrating: "It is indeed a sad day when a
leader of a law enforcement agency fails to honor his oath and instead
of upholding justice
chooses to obstruct it."
Baca is "somber but in a good mood," his attorney, Michael Zwieback said Wednesday.
"He
believes this is part of his life's journey and that it's time to put
this behind him," Zweiback said and "doesn't want the men and women of
the sheriff's department
to continue to be under this cloud."
He
said in exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to charge
Baca with obstruction of justice, a more serious crime.
According
to the plea deal, Baca "knowingly and willfully made a material false
and fictitious statement and representation" on April 12, 2013 regarding
his deputies'
dealings with an FBI agent.
Sheriff's
deputies approached the agent – who was part of a team investigating
allegations of inmate abuse in the jails – outside her home and
threatened to arrest her.
Federal investigators said the interaction was an attempt to intimidate
the FBI.
According
to the court documents, the charges come from Baca's statement to
investigators he "was not aware" deputies planned on approaching the
agent, and had no knowledge
of the exchange until an FBI official called him to complain.
"In
fact," the agreement states, not only did he know it was going to
happen, he directed the deputies to "do everything but put handcuffs" on
her.
Current
Sheriff Jim McDonnell, who was traveling out of town Wednesday, issued a
statement saying the waves of prosecution of Sheriff's deputies and
officials have been
"difficult" but that the department remains "focused and committed to
moving forward."
The
prosecution stems from a long-term federal investigation into civil
rights abuses and corruption in the largest county jail system in the
country.
Federal
investigators looking into abuses in the jail smuggled a cellphone into
an informant at the jail. When Baca found out about it in August 2011,
according to the
plea deal, he asked ordered the inmate isolated and asked federal
prosecutors to work with him and not the FBI.
At
the same time prosecutors allege deputies tried to hide the FBI jail
informant from his handlers for two weeks by shifting him from cell to
cell at various jails under
different names and altering jail computer records. The FBI wanted the
informant to testify to a grand jury.
At least 17 sheriff's officials have been implicated in the FBI's investigation and the plot to obstruct it.
Seven
other former Sheriff’s officials already have been convicted of
participating in the elaborate effort to erase the inmate’s name from
computer records and hide him
in a remote jail facility in San Dimas.
Former
Undersheriff Paul Tanaka has been accused of orchestrating the scheme.
He is scheduled to go on trial March 22. In a trial of multiple
deputies, Tanaka testified
for the defense that he was barely involved and was following Baca's
orders that he thought were lawful.
Baca stepped down as sheriff in 2014 under pressure from the mounting jail scandals.
In
the past, Baca said any movement of the inmate was take solely to
protect him from deputies who might retaliate against him for being an
FBI informant. The former sheriff
has consistently denied any wrongdoing, until now.
Former
federal prosecutor Miriam Krinsky, who headed up a county commission
tasked with investigating violence in the jails, called the guilty plea a
"tragic end to a
long career that had so much good associated with it."
She
said Baca was among the first law enforcement leaders in the United
States to acknowledge the country's over-reliance on incarceration.
"He was very passionate about those issues," she said.
Yet that idealism was hard to reconcile with some of the abuses inside Baca's jails.
"There
had been evidence over time of mistreatment of individuals," she said.
"I think he simply allowed that misconduct to occur and too often looked
the other way or
simply delegated leadership to others."
Diana
Zuniga of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, has raised
allegations of violence in the jails for years. She said "on paper" at
least, violence inside
the jails has gone down since Baca left.
But she chided McDonnell for being less accessible to the public and to activists than Baca, who frequently met with critics.
Wednesday's plea deal, she said, was a welcome acknowledgement of "lies" that have been perpetuated for years.
"How many times does law enforcement lie to protect its own?" she asked. "It's not an isolated incident."
Krinsky
said McDonnell's zero-tolerance policy for lying on the job has been
the biggest step aimed at changing the culture of the department.
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