On Wednesday, April 24, California Attorney General announced that his office has filed criminal charges against Diana Teran, an Assistant District Attorney at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office (LADA).
At the time of some of the alleged actions described in the new charges, Teran was the Constitutional Policing Advisor at the LA County Sheriff’s Department, under former sheriff Jim McDonnell.
Specifically, the charges allege that, in 2018, while she was working for the LASD, Teran accessed computer data including a bunch of confidential peace officer files. Then, when former sheriff Alex Villanueva defeated McDonnell, who in November 2018, ran unsuccessfully for a second four-year term, the new sheriff fired Teran, and nearly everyone else who worked with his predecessor. When Teran left, and was hired for various other positions in the county, she took the files.
Around two-and-a-half years later, after Teran had joined the LA DA’s office in the spring of 2021, she allegedly made use of some of the material she’d downloaded in late 2018, still without permission.
“After an extensive investigation,” writes the California AG in Wednesday’s announcement, “the California Department of Justice charged Teran with 11 felony violations of Penal Code section 502, subdivision (c)(2), alleging repeated and unauthorized use of data from confidential, statutorily-protected peace officer files.”
According to the warrant for Teran’s arrest, her bail is set at $50,000
“No one is above the law,” said AG Bonta.
Indeed. No one is above the law. But, from what WLA knows from our past reporting, and that of the LA Times involving Teran, this is likely not a simple story.
More soon. So…watch this space.
Wonder if Max Huntsman is shredding files and wiping hard drives. The AG is coming for you Max. Your cell mate Ridley-Thomas has your bunk ready bud.
Hilarious. Will she point a finger at Huntsman? Where is my popcorn?
Bonta is full of it. He took over Villanuevas investigation of L.A County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, and has done nothing with it. She wss tipped off of a LASD raid by Max Huntsman! Why not cover that story WLA?!
Wow, this woman did so much evil to so many people, she put me through hell while I was employed as a deputy sheriff for her own personal agenda and political gain. She advised and encouraged a Deputy Sheriff named Gary Harman from LASO-ICIB to investigate me for a crime they knew I did not commit. They were able to get a filing against me by lying on the criminal report, by feeding the words to the informant against me, by getting creative and embellishing the facts against me. Ironically, she charged me with a remarkably similar crime that she is now being charged with, under section 502 PC. I was charged with section 502(c) (4) PC, she has been charged with 502(c)(2) PC. Deputy Harman was embarrassed at court when the case was dismissed by the judge on a motion to dismiss filed by my attorney Steve Escovar from Pasadena. The reason for the dismissal was lack of evidence I committed any crime, and the judge opined that it appeared to him the informant was the one who deleted his data. Although the informant alleged, he did not know who deleted his data, Deputy Harman encouraged him to say I did. Karma is a b-I-tch, and I did not believe I could ever see it in action. My case lasted for about 5 years, and I was able to retire, with a smaller pension. At the time of this ordeal, I was extremely disappointed and concerned about my future, little did I know they were doing me a favor. Today I am better off in all aspects of my life, better than if I had stayed in the Sheriff’s Department. I should say thank you Diana Teran, Gary Harman, Arthur Scott, Gregory Gutierrez, and others, your evil acts were a blessing. I hope Diana Teran calls Steve Escovar; he is the best defense attorney in California. Anyone interested in reading the motion to dismiss or the crime reports written by Gary Harman against me, let me know, they are enjoyable reading. It would not be a crime, would it? Gary Harman may want to get creative and turn my comments into something illegal, lol
Respectfully submitted,
Pedro Castillo. Employee No. 447527
562-619-9937
From the Public Defender’s office to the district attorney’s office.. playing both side of the fence..they even come from other Counties to run public Defenders office…. They’re all bred in the same SHITBAG Mill!!
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2018/tinkham011918.htm
Diana Teran’s lawyer is James W. Spertus (his bio can be Googled–suffice to say he’s a top 100 lawyer whose cases usually gets won) & this is what he says about the whole thing
https://www.yahoo.com/news/top-advisor-l-district-attorney-033549040.html
She is pure evil when it comes to the police. A lot of the current members of the Sheriff’s Department never had to deal with her heavy handed discipline. Another one that Jim McDonnell owns. Aside from the fact she should have had no say and was only an “advisor” she was a shot caller. McDonnell brought her on and let her run wild. The Chiefs and above feared her and most would not even consider going against her demand for a certain discipline. Up to and including discharge. I would often hear them say, hopefully they will prevail in civil service. Cowards.
On the rare occasion when a chief with a backbone would stand up to her, she would run right to McDonnell. Often, the chief would change it. And good luck going to case review. The Assistant Sheriff’s and Undersheriff would NEVER go against her. She singlehandedly ruined a lot of lives and careers. Did some deserved to be discharged, of course.
She is finally getting her just dessert. I guess her years of running unchecked got her ego a little to big. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Good luck “D.” Not really. Another issue caused by the first one to run unchecked, Lil Paul Tanaka (Convicted Felon).
Arraignment for Mrs Teran is Monday, April 29, 2024. Dept. 30
More on all-of-this-from the L.A. Times:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/high-ranking-l-prosecutor-booked-100003845.html
The case I spoke about a few days ago above, which was engineered and manufactured against me by Diana Teran had a second part and more macabre. They engineered a second criminal case against me, yup a second case after they lost the first against me. (Standard procedure in the LASO)
During the time the first case against me was pending I was telling anyone who wanted to hear about my case how I believed I was being falsely accused and charged by crooked people in the sheriff’s department. In hindsight I should have stayed quiet, but no, not me, I would do it again. I spoke publicly about the details of my case and wrote several letters to various people who wanted to know about my case. Persons unknown to me took it upon themselves to send detailed letters, most likely copied and pasted to various individuals, who included Diana Teran, the prosecuting DA, the LA County Board, OIR Max Huntsman, the parents of the informant who was being used against me by Gary Harman etc. As it should be expected, the Sheriff’s department people, Diana Teran and the prosecuting DDA David Reinert (now a judge, go figure) all these people involved got truly angry at me, claiming I was interfering with the orderly administration of justice and the retaliation began immediately after the first case was dismissed. (They are democrats). Retaliation and manufacturing of second cases when the Sheriff’s department loses a case against one of its own is standard procedure, and it should be expected and be ready to rock and roll, lol.
They immediately began surveilling me and my family in preparation for search warrants at my house. The day of the search warrant I saw what I believed could be undercover deputies outside my house observing my house early in the day. I called the local PD about the suspicious vehicle and alerted my family of the eventuality of a search warrant coming our way. By now, Gary Harman had been promoted to Lieutenant (of course Teran put the good word out for him) and he was no longer the investigating officer on my case. This second case was assigned to a deputy from ICIB that I do not remember his name anymore, I would have to look at the files, but he was no longer relevant because I knew he was just following orders, most likely directly from Teran.
The day before the search warrant at my house I received a call from my unit of assignment, Industry Station telling me that my captain Tim Murakami wanted to speak with me, and to be at the station the following day at 10:00 am. I knew it was a ruse, but I could not figure out what exactly was going on, I told deputy (Sgt. Contreras) I could go after my doctor’s appointment which was about the same time. The morning of the search warrant, I drove to my doctor’s office and saw a Ford Explore or similar that was following me, it was not that difficult to lose them, I guess they did not think I knew they were following me. In fact, they had been following me for weeks, they were probably expecting me to break some of the stay home rules to get me, you know how they are when they really want you, lol. Anything is good to claim later, that I was lying the easiest ticket to get me fired. After my doctor’s appointment I drove to Industry station lobby and advised the purpose of my visit to the lobby personnel. I noticed they were quite and barely said hi to me, which was very unusual. They did not invite me in, rather they told me to sit and wait at the lobby. About an hour later the operations lieutenant (I believe he was a good man) came to the lobby and told me to follow him to his office. When I entered his office there were inside three ICIB deputies, one with the rank of Lieutenant and two sergeants. The lead deputy asked me to sit while the supervising deputy shut the office’s door and leaned against it, preventing me from entertaining the idea of me leaving. The lead deputy told me that the reason for me being at the station with them, was because they had a few questions for me.
I immediately told them I was not going to answer any questions without my attorney present and stood up requesting permission to leave. The lead deputy told me to sit down and to listen to what he had to say. He told me he had a search warrant for me and for my family, and they would search our house and our effects. He further said he believed I participated in the intimidation of witnesses during the time my first case was pending and that it was in my best interest to cooperate, and answer all the questions, otherwise my entire family was going to pay the price. I refused to answer further questions and again requested my attorney and the right to leave. They told me I was detained pending the completion of the search warrant at my house.
I had parked my car at the industry station parking for visitors, they searched my car there and collected evidence, signs for the “Vote for Alex Villanueva” Sheriff’s election campaign, other campaign items and legal files. They were amused at the idea of Alex Villanueva winning the election. From there I was transported against my will to my house where other ICIB deputies were waiting in tactical gear ready to tackle my ex-wife, and my three children, who are now US Navy JrLT, US Army 1sLT, and US Navy Airman respectively. Although the deputies had search warrants to detain my children and search them, one of them was not home, she was in Colombia serving in the US Peace Corps, evidence they were sloppy in their investigation and went in there with a fish net, hope to catch something.
They searched the house and took all the electronics, including new phones and computers and old cameras from the 1990’s that did not work any longer. They searched the garage and the garage attic. They were looking for electronic devises that could be used to type papers in the attic of the garage, lol. I was not arrested, and I was let go after they ransacked my house; in fact, they were “kind” to take me back to the station to retrieve my vehicle while they were still talking to me hoping I made spontaneous statements I suppose.
The following day I took that car and sold it to CarMax just in case they had planted a tracking or listening device, I also sold all my guns they handled out of precaution in case they planted some evidence, at this point to me they were no less than thugs and criminals doing what supposedly they are preventing field deputies from doing.
A few months later when Alex Villanueva was now the sheriff, the lead deputy called my attorney advising him that I and my entire family needed to submit DNA samples, per a signed search warrant. After my attorney spoke with the lead deputy it was agreed upon, I would be the only one providing a DNA sample. About a year later, I learned that in their quest to file the second criminal case against me, they compared my DNA with DNA found on paper letters allegedly sent by me, they came empty handed. They contracted the services of the retired FBI profiler James R. Fitzgerald – Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent/Criminal Profiler/Forensic Linguist and Member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, he reviewed and compared copious amounts of reports written by me for analysis and comparison. He believed there was 50/50 chance or better I wrote the letters, but it was inconclusive.
The sheriff department was charging me again, this time for witness intimidation. However, this second time around the DDA who reviewed my case declined to file charges against me for the following reasons. There was no evidence that I wrote the letters proven by the DNA, Dr. Fitzgerald said the probability was 50/50 or better that I authored them, they were inconclusive. None of the people who received the letters were witnesses to the alleged crime I was charged in the first case, the fact that the first case was dismissed for lack of evidence, and constitutional violations, validated the assertions made on the letters that I allegedly wrote. However, even if “Deputy Castillo” wrote the letters they are not criminal in nature, alleging the Sheriff Department is corrupt and stating his opinions does not rise to the level of crime. Anyone interested in reading the DDA reject report let me know, is entertaining.
Now, all these began when I and my trainee took a report call from the PM shift, since we were EM shift. The suspect on the call, allegedly was terrorizing the East Valinda Neighborhood with a gun and threatening to kill them. The victim was desirous of prosecution and stated if something happened to them because we did not arrest the suspect, she would sue us. It was 4th of July night, extremely busy, post George Floyd issues and the genius at Industry scheduling thought it was a good idea to have deputy (Sgt) Gutierrez as the only supervisor at the station, one sergeant in the field and just half the field units that we would normally operate on EM shift. I decided to do some due diligence and search for the suspect, even though we were being bombarde with 4-15 A through Z calls.
During the detention of a verbally uncooperative suspect who resembled our suspect of the call, my trainee used profanity to deescalate the situation that could have escalated to the use of force. The “mean” words uttered by my trainee, were later made by Sgt, Gutierrez, and Lt. Arthur Scott a possible criminal threat, which were not, but it was still music to the ears of Diana Teran. Yet they failed to do the most basic police work pursuant to department policy, such as collecting evidence and notification to ICIB, when a deputy is being accused of a crime. The suspect was holding his phone during his detention, and he used his phone to briefly videorecord us, in that brief video, audio could be heard of us talking and the alleged profanity.
After we released the detainee, he made a video of us driving away as we determined he was not our suspect. In that video he stated, “Watch they are not going to get away with this”, later he texted his friends saying he was going to get two deputies fired. He then deleted the videos and went to the station to claim that my trainee and I had just used force on him, and that he had videotaped us but that either my trainee or I deleted his videos. That phone was not collected for evidence at the time of incident, it was analyzed few weeks later by the orders of Arthur Scott and a year later ICIB analyzed a second phone pretending it was the first. During the taking of the report from the complainant and after further inquiry, he told the field sergeant that it was possible he deleted the video himself, but as always, exculpatory evidence is not documented so it did not happen.
Now, this is such a large story that I had already forgotten, as my life has turned out better than I ever imagined. However, my trainee and I were doing the lord’s work, and damn it we were doing it right. In fact, the following day during my dayshift overtime, with the assistance of the aero unit, the field deputies and I set up a containment. I personally arrested the suspect for criminal threats with a gun. I should have received a commendation, instead they spent millions of dollars to manufacture a crime that did not exist, they tried twice to put me in prison. They spent millions of dollars in their quest as if was the Unabomber lol. Is so Fkn unbelievable.
Just in case you don’t know, after you get targeted by the Sheriff’s Department as a member, many people will deny you. For instance, during a campaign meeting with Bob Lindsey when he was campaigning to unseat Sheriff Jim McDonell I stood up and told them about my case. He promised he would look into my allegations if he won. He did not win as we know, however, months later when IAB questioned me about who sent the letters if not me, I told them I had no idea it was their job to find out. They ordered me to give names as to whom I told my story. I did not want to get current deputies involved so I figured Bob Lyndsey was retired, he knows how crooked ICIB and IAB are, he would tell them to F-off. To my disbelief he told them he did not know me, and he did not remember me telling him about my case. When IAB told him “Didn’t you go to his house once to drop off campaign signs”, Bob Lindsey said no, he then remembered he went to give me some money that I had asked for as I was in financial trouble, or something like that. Money was never my issue, what a bunch of lies. But anyhow, politicians do what they do, it is what is.
I wrote this kind of hastly, I am still learning how to write in english lol, you can always call me, I always answer the phone, and it is the same number since 1998.
P.S I wonder if LASO has ever hired the “Unabomber” Dr. Fitzgerald and used his time and skills to solve an actual heinous real crime? Any information on that I would appreciate it.
Pedro Castillo
WOW!!!
You’ve been through a lot with the LASD–good luck & hope soon you can put all of this behind you so that you can find quietude in your turbulent life.
In all of this it looks like Diana Teran is just a small cog on a much bigger wheel; more on her
https://www.yahoo.com/news/woke-california-prosecutor-ironically-charge-080040381.html?
Alan Yochelson supports who again?
https://news.yahoo.com/d-office-withheld-decision-excessive-222030094.html
They should ask Alan Yochelson if he has delayed any decisions in cases he supervised?
Rakkasan, thank you for your good wishes, the situation I have described happened between July 2015 and March 2021. So if it wasnt for the fact that I was told about Diana Teran’s arrest, I would no be remembering all this. Thanks to all the persons who have taken the time to check up on me, it was truly my pleasure receiving your phone calls.
It would be preposterous to say the issues with the Sheriff Department did not cause me a great deal of stress, and a major setback. However, it only made me stronger, throughout my life I have encountered major “turbulence” as you say, I somehow have always managed it. You see I immigrated from Mexico at the age of 18 with just the clothes I was wearing. I did not speak English, nor did I know how to read or write it. This great country the United Staes of America has given me the opportunity to be who I am today. I believe in hard work, perseverance, and a passion for what I do, and I always get what I want if I so desire.
Today without sounding pompous I would tell you that I am as healthy as I can be, and by all measures I am a wealthy individual. I have three kids, two of them are Commissioned Officers in the United States Navy and Army, and the youngest is enlisted in the United States Navy as a Sailor. By all measures I am living and enjoying the American dream. All I worry about is which part of the world I want to be in next.
I am glad some deputies are reading my comments, I hope there is something to learn, and I hope none of you ever go through the bullshit I went through. However, if you do find yourself in the situation I was, trust the United States Constitution, be strong, and give them a fight so they can always remember you, yet be willing to lose and pay the price.
I was lucky when Angel Jaimes recommended me attorney Steve Escovar who believed in me, and lucky that the Superior Court Judge, Mark Arnold was able to call it as it was. When the judge dismissed the case the DDA Reinert began protesting and acting like a sore loser, the judge told him, if he did not like the ruling to take it to court of appeals, that he know how to do it. That judge was bound by the law and followed it rigorously without giving into these democrats so called liberals-pro-justice-get-the-cops-attitude.
But yeah, Diana Teran was a small part of a bigger scheme that included some deputies. For instance, Gary Harman was never a real cop, nor was the second deputy who investigated me. Without knowing much about them, I can tell you that they were never trusted by the actual hard-working deputies, nor did they have the experience needed to complete a good investigation. As field deputies they did the bare minimum, never experienced the challenges of training newly assigned deputies to field duties and most likely resented the hard-working deputies. They suffered from contempt of cop; they probably had their lunch taken when they were in training. All the deputies I knew from working field operations that ended up at IAB or ICIB were slops, straight soup sandwiches. I wonder why and how they end up working on such an important assignment, you would think their job would be to at least do a very thorough and unbiased investigation, hoping they could clear a fellow deputy, go figure. Of course, it is only my opinion, they might have been hard core deputies patrolling South-Central Los Angeles County.
Pedro Castillo
Sounds like you’ve cleared the hurdles in your life & the road ahead is clear; if so, glad to hear it. In court, it looks like you have found out, the truth will out–eventually. You had a good attorney & a good judge, so the stars aligned perfectly there.
Congratulations on your English. My Baccalaureate is in English Literature from U.C.–Berkeley & I daresay if you were to take a college level English Composition course at a Community College your lowest grade would be a “B”.
Best wishes & thanks for your post
Pedro,
I never worked with you at the same station, but met you several times on some calls. Glad to see this is all behind you and you’re doing better now. Several of my partners know you and say you’re a solid guy and you got railroaded. Hope for nothing but the best for you.