LEE BACA GOES TO TRIAL
Jury selection starts next Tuesday for the federal trial of Leroy Baca, the man who ran the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for fifteen years.
The trial itself will likely begin Wednesday morning.
WitnessLA will be covering the proceedings, of course. But we will also give you relevant pre-trial updates between now and Tuesday.
So stay tuned.
Photo of Lee Baca taken in late 2013 by Saxon Brice
And in the meantime, McDonnell has just declared that Tanaka trained sycophants are the only approved executives for his management team. All non-tanakaites are being systematically rounded up for purging. I’m sure that will do wonders for recruitment…
Celeste, who are all the witnesses that will be called upon to testify?
Yep, ole “Fresh Eyes” was fooled again. His idea of coming in and not making change for the sake of making change, might not have been such a great idea. I for one look forward to all the new promotions. “Fresh Eyes” now owns every one of these fools. LATBG we can’t continue to call them “Tanakites”, as they are now just “McClowns-Yes Men”. Every one of them is afraid to make a decision. And those that are not Yes-Men, and can make a decision, those are the true leaders, yet most have been cast aside.
Maybe someone should check the ankle tattoo that the incoming Undersheriff has. Jim would not be happy. Celeste, can you investigate this.
Not Again you are right, we need new terminology. Fresh Eyes is going down as an utter failure and now a world class liar as well. For Jim, establishing public trust was paramount, yet for some strange reason he thought internal trust was not needed.
Too bad the sheriff wasted two years getting to know the members of a failed and corrupt management team. It was anything BUT time well spent. As the saying goes, you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit. He would have been better served getting to know the department’s unsung heroes, but instead got the company line from ass kissers and boot lickers.
Jim, you were voted into office for the sole propose of reforming the department. You refused to do so and instead doubled down on the same corrupt patronage system that gave us Baca and Tanaka. You wasted an entire term in office, don’t bother asking voters for a second term. Accountability is paramount, and you failed spectacularly.
The members of LASD are paying the price for essentially, a political appointment orchestrated by the BOS and the LA County based Democrat Party machine. Members of the public are oblivious to the internal strife, they see McD as the face of LASD and as a politician, he says all the right things and goes to the right political events. It is quite apparent the media, as with Baca, could care less what goes on, who he promotes, what ink is on what ankle, what level of incompetence gets the nod. Absent a Tanaka type scandal, a major controversial field incident, the media will take note of nothing. This is the price LASD pays for the incompetence of Baca, which is about to be placed on full display in Federal court next week. And this is the price LASD pays for more than a decade of The Tanaka Crime Family of thugs and coin holders.
Fresh Eyes had more than one opportunity to clean house when he first took the throne and that, he did not. McD decided to play nice, take the path of least resistance and laid out new rules and gave everyone a clean slate, keeping virtually all EPC in the same seats, no investigations of well known misconduct at the highest levels. Starting with Rothans and working your way down, the scandals continue, to no ones surprise. This is what happens when you bring an outsider into a scandal ridden law enforcement organization, McD was clueless and kept clueless by his inner circle with very little change then, now and in the future. It won’t happen. But hey, how about those new brass buttons and Class A dinner jacket, now that’s progress. I don’t have an opinion one way or the other about the two new promotions. I can think of many I would not want to see get the nod. But all eyes will be one the replacements of A/S, Chief, Commander and Captain to back fill. Been with LACERA or several months now, great gig. But it hurts to look back to see my friends still on the job who are hurt and disappointed in what hasn’t happened in the last two years, and apparently never will.
#5: LASD’s official website says that The Jail now has a Tattoo Removal Service.
All Executive promotees, I think, have to go through it prior to promotion.
Witness List, Government
1 Robert Olmsted
2 Peter Eliasberg
3 Mark Rosenbaum
4 Chaplain Paulino Juarez Ramirez
5 Brian Yanagi
6 James Sexton
7 Judy Gearhardt
8 Michele Miller
9 Robert Bayes
10 Jason Dalton
11 Micky Manzo
12 David Dahle
13 Linda Farrar
14 Yolanda Baines
15 Tara Adams
16 Gus Academia
17 Michael Bornman
18 Gilbert Michel
19 William David Curson
20 John Powell
21 William “Tom” Carey
22 John Torribio
23 Cecil Rhambo
24 Leah Tanner
25 Pete Angelini
26 Andre Birotte
27 Steve Martinez
28 Robert Faturechi
#5 Jim Diamond,
Hello? Are you new? Are you completely tone deaf?
Laberge could have a viking tattoo on his forehead. He could go around hustling female recruits in the academy. He could spend 40 hrs. a week playing golf. He could do just about anything he wants.
Neither Celeste nor the LA Times will be reporting anything negative about him.
See if you can figure it out Sherlock !
LATBG,
Get used to McDonnell. Like I told you way back when before he was even elected, he is going to be the sheriff for as long as he chooses to be. You might as well be screaming in the wilderness bro.
As you can imagine, Santa is very busy at this time of year. However his helpers have implored him to contribute to #9 Malibu’s list of Government’s witnesses against Former Sheriff Leroy Baca. Therefore Santa has two announcements to make:
“Santa’s helpers have learned through the FBI Database that two “secret” witnesses will be testifying at the trials of Former Sheriff Lee Baca. They have not officially been added to the Government’s Witness list so as to provide the appropriate “Perry Mason” moment in both trials to maximize their impact. These witnesses both worked many years side-by-side with F/Sheriff Baca and, indeed, were hand-selected by F/Sheriff Baca to be his right-hand men. These witnesses will former Undersheriffs Lawrence Waldie and Paul Tanaka.
Waldie will be expected to testify at the trial dealing with false statements made to the FBI. He will offer evidence that Baca has been mentally unstable for years and has not shown any increase in his instability in recent years, as claimed by the defense. He will be be able to point out many bizarre episodes involving Baca before and after his statements to the FBI. It is anticipated that Waldie’s testimony will undermine the testimony of Baca’s expert witnesses that the former Sheriff was suffering from an early onset of Alzheimer’s Disease when he made these statements. Waldie will refute this by recalling numerous statements, both public and private, which were bizarre, fictional, and downright lies dating back to his days before he actually became Sheriff in 1998.
Tanaka will testify in both trials and will guide the juries through Baca’s detailed instructions of how he wanted the Sheriff’s Department to obstruct the FBI in conducting their investigation of alleged on-going abuse of prisoners in Central Jail. Tanaka will highlight Baca’s scheme of changing the prisoner’s name in the booking system and sequestering him at a station jail where he was to be under 24 hour guard from a hand-selected cadre of guards. Tanaka will also describe how Baca “rehearsed” what he was going to tell the FBI prior to the interview where he allegedly made his false statements, even to the point of asking Tanaka to write out potential false scenarios for Baca to use in formulating his answers. It is anticipated that Tanaka will be the final witness in both trials.”
Reserve your seat now!
Santa, you may cause a case of paranoia but as is said ” Lee, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you”. : -)
For the Deps or inmates?