ABC7 SHOWS WHAT THE JURY HEARD & SAWA IN LASD OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE TRIALS
The video that shows Sergeants Scott Craig and Maricella Long confronting FBI Special Agent Leah Marx outside her home and threatening her with arrest in September 2011, (even though they never intended to arrest her) was one of the pieces of evidence that resulted in felony convictions for the two sergeants and for four other former members of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. (All six are expected to surrender for their respective prison terms on January 4.)
ABC7 News has obtained that video plus various other recordings and documents that were considered crucial to the jury’s guilty verdict.
Here are a couple of clips from the excellent expanded web version of Tuesday night’s story by investigative producer Lisa Bartley.
By late September 2011, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department “Special Operations Group” had FBI Agent Leah Marx under surveillance for more than two weeks. Her partner, FBI Agent David Lam, was under surveillance as well.
“Locate target and establish lifestyle,” reads the surveillance order for Agent Lam.
Surveillance logs on Agent Marx turned up nothing more nefarious than the young agent picking up after her medium-sized brown and white dog. The surveillance team notes in its report that the dog went “#2”.
It’s highly unusual for a local law enforcement agency to investigate and conduct surveillance on FBI agents, but this is an incredibly unusual case. Seven former deputies, sergeants and lieutenants stand convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice for their roles in trying to block a federal investigation into brutality and corruption in L.A. County Jails.
[LARGE SNIP]
Lying to the FBI is a crime, as Sgt. Craig would soon find out. Marx was not “a named suspect in a felony complaint” and Craig knew he could not arrest the FBI agent for her role in the FBI’s undercover operation at Men’s Central Jail. The FBI sting included smuggling a contraband cell phone into inmate-turned-FBI informant Anthony Brown through a corrupt sheriff’s deputy who accepted a cash bribe from an undercover FBI agent.
Craig did not have probable cause to arrest Marx because the contraband phone was part of a legitimate, authorized FBI investigation. No less than the head of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office had told then-Sheriff Lee Baca that himself more than a month before the threat to arrest Agent Marx.
The federal judge who oversaw all three trials delivered a harsh rebuke to six of the defendants at their sentencing last month.
Judge Percy Anderson: “Perhaps it’s a symptom of the corrupt culture within the Sheriff’s Department, but one of the most striking things aside from the brazenness of threatening to arrest an FBI agent for a crime of simply doing her job and videotaping yourself doing it, is that none of you have shown even the slightest remorse.”
The story also features other evidence such as the audio of Sgt. Long lying to Agent Marx’s FBI supervisor, Special Agent Carlos Narro, when he called to inquire about the arrest threat. (Then, after hanging up, Long appears to laugh with a sort of gloating amusement at Narro’s reaction, as the recorder was still rolling.)
In addition, there are examples of former Lt. Stephen Leavins and Sgt. Craig attempting to convince various witnesses not to cooperate with the FBI—AKA witness tampering.
For the jury—as those of us sitting in the courtroom who heard these and other recording snippets played over and over—the evidence could not help but be very potent.
ABC7’s Bartley has still more, which you can find here.
GONE GIRLS: LA MAG LOOKS AT SEX TRAFFICKING OF CALIFORNIA’S CHILDREN
In the US, California has become a tragic growth area for sex trafficking of minors. Out of the nation’s thirteen high-intensity child trafficking areas, as identified by the FBI, three of those thirteen are located in California—namely in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas.
In the November issue of Los Angeles Magazine, Mike Kessler has a terrific, in-depth, and very painful story about those who are fighting to help the young victims of repeated rape for the profit of others.
We’ve excerpted Kessler’s important story below.
The sex trafficking of minors, we’ve come—or maybe want—to believe, is limited to developing nations, where wretched poverty leaves girls with few options. But too many children in Los Angeles County know that the sex trade has no borders. They can be runaways fresh off the Greyhound, immigrants from places like Southeast Asia and eastern Europe, aspiring “models” whose “managers” have them convinced that sexual favors are standard operating procedure. Uncovering the sale of children is difficult at best. While some authorities suspect that boys are sexually exploited as often as girls, nobody knows for sure. Boys are rarely pimped, which isn’t the case for girls. And what little law enforcement agencies can track usually happens on the street, at the behest of pimps, albeit in areas that society tends to ignore. In L.A. County that means poor black and Latino neighborhoods such as Watts, Lynwood, Compton, and parts of Long Beach, along with Van Nuys and Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley. “This is the demographic that’s most afflicted,” Kathleen Kim, a professor at Loyola Marymount University’s law school, a member of L.A.’s police commission, and an expert on human trafficking, told me. “It’s a problem among marginalized children.” According to the district attorney’s office, 29 confirmed cases of child sex trafficking were reported in L.A. County in the first quarter of this year. That’s roughly 120 minors sold for sex annually, but, authorities agree, the statistics fall short of reality when there are so many ways to hide the crime.
LAPD Lieutenant Andre Dawson is a 32-year department veteran who, for the past four years, has run an eight-person team dedicated to slowing the commercial sexual exploitation of children, whom he once thought of us prostitutes. Now he sees the kids as the victims they are.
Fifty-six and a year away from retirement, Dawson is six feet three inches, bald, and handsome, with a graying mustache. When I met him on a recent Friday evening, he was sharply dressed in a black Kangol cap, chunky glasses, a collarless white shirt, and dark designer jeans. In his cubicle he keeps binders documenting the lengths to which pimps go to lay claim to the children they sell. There’s a photo of a girl’s chest, the words “King Snipe’s Bitch” tattooed on it. King Snipe, or Leroy Bragg, is in prison now. Girls are stamped in dark ink with their pimp’s nickname, “Cream,” an acronym for “Cash Rules Everything Around Me.” One bears his name on her cheek. The girl was 14 and pregnant at the time she was branded. The burn mark on a different young woman’s back was from an iron applied by her pimp, Dawson said. He brought out a twist of lime-colored wires that was two feet long and as thick as three fingers, duct tape binding them together. “We call this ‘the green monster,’ ” he said. “It’s what one of these pimps used to discipline his girls. He beat one of them so bad, he pulled the skin off of her back.”
Once the sun went down, Dawson draped a Kevlar vest over my torso and drove me through “the tracks,” stretches of city streets where money is exchanged for sex. They’re also known collectively as “the blade,” owing to the risks one takes when walking them. Threading his SUV through the crush of downtown traffic, he recounted how he used to regard the kids he arrested as willing participants. They were defiant toward police, he said. Invariably the girls protected their pimps and went back to the streets. But as he talked to child advocates, he came to the realization that most of the kids lacked the emotional maturity to know they were being abused. “The chain is around the brain,” he said, passing the big airplane by the science museum at Fig and Expo. “The more I work with this population, the more I understand that 12- and 13-year-old girls don’t just call each other up and say, ‘Hey, let’s go out prostituting.’ They’re not just using bad judgment. They’re doing it because they’re desperate for love or money or both. They think they’re getting what they can’t get somewhere else.” Even more tragic, Dawson said, is that “these girls think the pimp hasn’t done anything wrong.”
While poverty, parentlessness, and crushingly low self-esteem are all factors, there’s another reason so many kids wind up in “the game,” or, as some call it, “the life”: Dawson estimates “nine-and-a-half or ten out of ten” of the girls he encounters were victims of sexual abuse that began long before they turned their first trick. I asked him how many adult prostitutes he encounters started when they were underage. “Ninety-nine percent,” he said. “It’s all they’ve known.”
Kessler met up with LA County Supervisor Don Knabe in Washington D.C. when Knabe—who says he has grandchildren the age of some of the sex trafficking victims—was working to shake loose federal dollars to fund some of LA County’s programs, like LA’s STAR Court (that WLA posted about here), that prevent underage girls from being bought and sold for sex. The supervisor brought with him a trafficking survivor, who predictably had more of an affect on the D.C. crowd at a press conference on the topic, than the gathered politicians.
Knabe has been a vocal supporter of California legislation introduced by Republican state senator Bob Huff, of Diamond Bar, and Democrat Ted Lieu, of Torrance. Their “War on Child Sex Trafficking” package consists of bills that would make it easier for law enforcement agencies to obtain wiretap warrants on suspected pimps and list pimping as an official gang activity, since pimps often have gang affiliations and sentences can be stiffened for crimes committed by members. Consequently Governor Jerry Brown this year created a CSEC budget of $5 million, which will go toward training and services; next year that budget will jump to $14 million. At the federal level Knabe has been a point man for Democratic Representative Karen Bass, whose district encompasses several South L.A. County neighborhoods, and for Texas Republican Congressman Ted Poe, both of whom are pushing tough-on-trafficking legislation.
Knabe had brought Jessica Midkiff, the survivor I’d met at the diner in L.A., to D.C. for the press conference. After the supervisor spoke, she took the microphone and addressed the 30 or so reporters in the room. Choking back her nervousness, she said, “I was exploited beginning at the age of 11 and was arrested several times across the United States before the age of 21. For a lot of young women like me, trauma began at an early age. Before the commercial sexual exploitation, abuse was a major factor in most of our childhoods. In my case, I was raped, beaten, and mentally abused from 3 to 11 years old by a number of men.” She made no effort to conceal the blot of ink on her neck, the indecipherable result of one pimp’s tattoo being covered by another’s over the course of a decade. She spoke of the violence and coercion, the desperation and loneliness that victims suffer, the cruelty of pimps and the ubiquity of johns. “Our buyers can be members of law enforcement, doctors, lawyers, and business owners,” Jessica said. “Why would anybody believe us?” One of her johns, she added, was an administrator at a school she attended “who followed, stalked, and harassed me to get into his car” when he was “in his forties and I was only 14 years old.”
During the Q&A afterward, a reporter asked what Jessica or her pimps charged for their services. She demurred at first. Asked again a few minutes later, she reluctantly said, “It starts at 50 dollars and moves its way up to a couple hundred and even thousands. The younger the child, the higher the cost.”
There’s lots more to the story, so be sure to read on.
THREE BROTHERS & THREE VERY DIFFERENT TALES OF THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM
On a Sunday in 2006, three brothers escaped from the home of their alcoholic, abusive grandmother. (Their mother was a drug addict so they no longer lived with her.) A month later, social services showed up at their sister’s door and took the three boys—Matt, 14, Terrick, 12, and Joseph, 11—into the foster care system. A social worker told them they would not be separated. The promise turned out not to be true.
Brian Rinker of the Chronicle of Social Change looks at the experiences and subsequent paths of each of the three boys, and what those paths say about the foster care system in California.
Here’s a clip:
They stashed a black plastic garbage bag full of clothes next to a dumpster outside their grandmother’s apartment in Whittier, California, and wore extra socks, shirts and pants underneath their church outfits. Their older sister, 23, would pick them up at a nearby Burger King. From there, according to the brothers, she would whisk them away and raise them as her own.
So instead of stepping onto that church bus as they had done every week past, the Bakhit brothers walked to Burger King praying that whatever lay ahead was better than what they left behind.
Matt, the eldest, was the mastermind. At 14, a wrestler and high school freshman, Matt said living in the strict, abusive home stifled his maturity. How could he grow into a man?
“My grandma, over any little thing, would pull my pants down and whoop me with a belt,” Matt, now 22, said in an interview.
But freedom from his abusive grandmother didn’t mean an end to his and his brothers’ hardships.
Child protection intervened less than a month later at their sister’s San Diego home. The brothers remember a social worker telling them they would not be separated. They packed their belongings once again into plastic bags and piled into the social worker’s car. The brothers cried.
Despite the promise, 20 minutes later the social worker dropped Matt off at a foster home. Terrick and Joseph were taken to the Polinsky Children’s Center, a 24-hour emergency shelter in San Diego for kids without a home, or as Joseph calls it, “purgatory.”
[BIG SNIP]
The tale of the brothers Bakhit exemplifies the strengths and weaknesses of a foster care system struggling to care for thousands of abused and neglected children. The same system that nurtured Joseph also alienated Matt, and lost Terrick to the juvenile justice system, which cut him from foster care and cast him out on the streets: broke, hungry and with nowhere to go.
[SNIP]
Despite a traumatic childhood, Joseph, the youngest, now 19, grew up a success by most standards. He graduated as valedictorian from San Pasqual Academy, a residential school for foster youth. The academy gave him a car: a black 2008 Toyota Scion XD.
When he got accepted to UC Berkeley, scholarships and financial aid available only to foster youth paid his full ride. And because of a 2010 law extending foster care to age 21, he gets a $838 check every month until age 21.
Now in his second year of college, Joseph works at a dorm cafeteria and is engaged to his high school sweetheart.
Terrick and Matt’s experience was totally different.
By the time Joseph graduated from high school, Terrick and Matt were homeless on the streets of downtown San Diego….
AZ PRISONS & JAILS CAN NO LONGER PEPPER SPRAY SCHIZOPHRENICS FOR ANY OLD REASON…AND OTHER SETTLEMENT TERMS
Across the nation, 45 percent of those in solitary confinement are mentally ill, notes Shane Bauer, of Mother Jones Magazine in a story about a class action lawsuit brought by the ACLU, the Prison Law Office, and by inmates at 10 of Arizona’s state prisons, which reached a settlement Tuesday with the Arizona Department of Corrections today to improve health care—including mental health care—and solitary confinement conditions in Arizona’s prisons.
Here’s a clip from Bauer’s story about the settlement:
The lawsuit, which has been going on for two years, won concessions that would seem to be common sense. Prison guards, for example, now can’t pepper spray severely mentally ill prisoners unless they are preventing serious injury or escape. And while these types of inmates were previously let out of their solitary cells for just six hours a week, the settlement requires Arizona to let them out for at least 19 hours a week. With some exceptions for the most dangerous, this time will now be shared with other prisoners, and will include mental health treatment and other programming.
People like this—–the schizophrenic, the psychotic, the suicidal—–are not a small portion of the 80,000 people we have in solitary confinement in the US today. According the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 45 percent of people in solitary have severe mental illnesses. The country’s three largest mental health care providers are jails.
Tim Hull of the Courthouse News also has a story on Tuesday’s settlement that even requires Arizona to pay $5 million in attorneys’ fees.
The cost of arrogance and cockiness is Federal Prison. The laughter of Craig and Long went from “LAUGHING OUT LOUD” to “CRYING OUT LOUD”. And to think that they could “Punk” the FBI……..What idiots!
When the “Federal Swat Team” hit their homes last December., I wonder if they were laughing then. So much for “throwing out” Tanaka’s name. Karma
Many deputies will learn what “Not to Do” as they move forward in the Sheriff’s Department.
And the gloating continues…….too bad the FBI has such a hard time investigating any other type of crime than allegations made against peace officers. They have difficulty doing threat assessments with potential terrorists, their awesome bank robbery cases are usually solved by local agencies, and in most cases they struggle with developing credible informants. Case in point here. Here’s some news for you…..no one could care less about johnny thug getting his ass kicked in the jail. With all the other more pressing threats to public safety in our community, that ranks pretty close to the bottom for me and other adults who live in the real world. Now, should we do our best to ensure that undeserved and unwarranted force, in all environments, does not occur? Of course. Should we discipline those deputies who take it too far. Yes, we should. But I would hope the FBI has better things to do. Of course, this case was about them getting their feelings hurt, when confronted with the uncovering of their wacky uc operation. Using the supremacy clause, they can indict and convict just about anyone they want, especially when the judge is hopelessly biased. But this was not the investigation of the year, or the case of the century. It’s easy to win when you get to make the rules. Now lets go do some real police work. I know at least a few of you are with me…
Hardtimes, I’m sorry friend, but your are trivializing Pandora’s Box as if it were some high school prank. This was NOT some stupid “pissing” contest between the Feds and LASD. This prosecution was NOT because the FBI got their “feeling hurt.” This was full fledged Obstruction of Justice that was mastermind by Baca and Tanaka. Tanaka was hell bent on finding out what type of investigation the Feds were conducting inside of HIS beloved MCJ, you know, the jail facility where he told Cruz to “take care of the boys,” and “Fuck IA.” Remember all of that? Remember the CCJV hearings? The LA Times and WLA investigative reports? There was an element of rampant felony ass whippings going on inside of MCJ because Tanaka was trying to curry favor with the boot MCJ deputies and told them essentially, “anything goes, I got your back. Don’t forget me when I’m running my campaign for Sheriff, plenty of room in my car. Remember the 2000 & 3000 Boyz? Aren’t they the shit?
Lets cut the crap, this entire Pandora’s Box was a friggen slow motion train wreck, the engineer was Tanaka and the conductor was Baca. They were both so arrogant that they felt they could intimate the Feds right out of MCJ and send them back to Wilshire Blvd. Until you and others who think like you get it through your thick skull that beating the shit out of inmates for sport, for ink, for bragging rights, to get in the car, is only get you a trip to Federal Court, then you are on borrowed time. Go ahead and circle the wagons and tell the boys to keep on lumping inmates for fun. Keep it up and you will be joining the Pandora’s Box crew on January 4, Happy New Year.
#3: “…Too bad the FBI has such a hard time investigating…”
The head of the FBI is Frank Comey, and he has been on the job only a year. He is an appointee of Barack Obama, but is a Republican, supporting Mitt Romney in the last election. He was interviewed extensively by Scott Pelley on Sixty Minutes the last couple of week-ends. These interviews can be Googled; a link to Part Two of the interviews:
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/10/cbs-60-minutes-apple-has-the-power-to-upend-the-rule-of-law.html
If his priorities are indeed straight then LASD is in a heap of trouble
The video of what ABC7 calls a “confrontation” between Sgts. Scott Craig and Maricela Long and Agent Leah Marx didn’t do anything other than cement Pandora’s Box as a truly trivial matter so far. This was more of a businesslike discussion. Sgt. Craig offered Agent Marx business card, for crying out loud! This was supposed to be the highlight? No, this whole affair will continue to be dogged until 1) the FBI and Department of Justice actually prove inmate abuse (they dinked around with this obstruction stuff first), and 2) those who were in a actual decision-making capacity are equally held to account. So far, all we have is the feds going after the little guy, because that’s easy, and a pretty empty Pandora’s Box. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, I am proudly Scott Craig’s friend. If this was supposed to be a confrontation, then he was actually quite pleasant in it. No wonder Ron the jury member had a hard time convicting him.
@ cut the crap, where are Baca and Tanaca now??? FREE and the FEDS want justice??? You are right about it being a train wreck but this was about the FEDS flexing their muscles and no balls or they would have gone after the masterminds!!! Not all convicted deserve the punishment. Where are the indictments for the officers that were beating prisoners??? This case was about job promotions for the prosecutors. How can they send these seven to jail and not hold Baca and Tanaka responsible????
@Hardtimes: Although I agree with your general assessment of the FBI, but what would you expect to happen when people are arrogant enough to interfere with their investigation. What usually happens when someone interferes with “us” doing our job, they end up in jail.
Cut the Crap, do yourself a favor and take your own advice.
Hard times, when “someone interferes with us doing our job” it’s a highly frowned upon misdemeanor arrest, not years in federal prison. And oh by the way even if it was a felony in California because of Federal Oversight and the biproduct that is AB109 they would serve a small percentage of their time in “county prison” or on work release.
To both of you mistakes were made on both sides; however, this entire case is and always will be a flexing contest and the Feds have more legal “muscle”
I can’t wait to see what the 9th Circuit has to say about all of this. The appeal is our first chance to see an impartial third party view the facts
Unfortunately they are guilty. The terrible part of all of this is they took their instruction from Baca and Tanaka, both of whom are walking free. Baca still gets to bask in the glory of the HOJJ re-dedication well seven of his staff are going to prison.
Has he no shame.
Hey guys and gals, the video and tapes sale a lot of papers, but you got 7 people barely sentenced to any time. You know why? Because it is chicken s@*# crime.
Not one indictment for a true color of authority abuse. Not one indictment of somebody who can control or regulate the culture.
If a DSG or executive were indicted for something truly under color of authority, it would carry more time than all seven combined.
Hell, Deputy Bribery takes cash and he gets no time. Complete mockery of justice.
I for one can tell you that the pompous attitude that these ICIB investigators exemplified in these videos is nothing new within that unit. I often wonder how many laughs ICIB and IA investigators have had behind closed doors when they would throw deputies under the bus for bogus allegations in order to please the brass and gain “cred” (that is of course only if they aren’t related to someone important within the department). Karma is a b****. Hopefully the feds start looking to indict more ICIB “yes men/women”.
Looks like the Bullies (LASD) were reduced to little boys and girls. Funny, how that works.
Jack I agree however whenever the Feds can not make a case for the primary reason they always fall back on lying during a Federal investigation and/or obstruction. The senior executives in charge used their positions and authority to obstruct the federal investigation and these seven employees are taking the fall. Senior executives and their advisors should have know this!
What is amazing is I am sure they all thought at one point or another, they were operating in the “Gray Area”, while conduction this investigation. The fact that Baca was involved indicates, he support Paul’s gray area approach!
I feel terrible for these seven guys but they have only a collection of executives from Captain to the a Sheriff in their respect chains of command to blame.
@Cut the crap,
If you really believe Pandora’s Box was about “justice” maybe you could give us your theory about why the feds haven’t indicted Baca or Tanaka.
Are the seven guilty of obstructing the feds investigation? Absolutely. Are the seven as high as it went? Absolutely not. The seven are the low lying fruit that the feds found EASY to indict and convict and send the message that they are the big dogs in the yard. That was the EASY way for the feds to send their message, which was their intent all along. They don’t need to do any extra work, or truly seek “justice” to achieve their goal. The message has been sent. Loudly. VERY LOUDLY to the line swine who will always be the foot soldiers who actually do the deeds.
“Don’t fuck with us or you’ll end up in prison”.
Pandora’s Box became a pissing contest the day after the meeting where the feds told Baca to butt out and he refused. If they were only concerned with “justice” they would have never called Baca to that meeting and warned him. They would’ve just let him and the rest of them involved run amok, then brought the hammer down on all of them.
Justice has nothing to do with it! But, Ladies lets not cry foul when you think this was a pissing match either. How many hundreds of times has a person talked trash to you on a T-Stop and you go, ok, lets just see who wins this battle. Next thing you know the loud mouth has hooks on, his car is impounded and he is going to jail for a “roach” in his ash tray, thus winning the pissing match. How many times have these ICIB Dumb Azzes got attitude from Deputies and then said, “We will see who wins this pissing match” and put the wood to them? Yes, Baca and Tanaka need to be do more time than the combined sentences of this whole crew, but we are dealing with the Feds, the same people who were stuffed in their locker all 4 years of high school. Sgt. Craig and Dep. Long came out of the exact same mold as the Feds that investigated them, so you won’t see any tears here! Besides, Sgt. Craig can use his short stay in “Camp Snoopy” to work on his sit up routine to get a handle on that cooler he is sporting!
@ Cut the Crap 》If what you said were a sporting event……….it would be a home run, a touchdown, a goal, a knockout, a slam dunk.
LASD flexed with no muscle, their bark was (not so) loud, with no bite.
The message was well given by the Feds but not well received. (wah wah wah)
To the deputies that are new to “the game” just back your partner and be safe. If you see or sense anything not right, continue to march and take copious notes. You are bound to be a part of or witness to some stupid shit in your career.
@Oh Well, I am just as disgusted as the next person that the appropriate chain of command in this circus operation called Pandora’s Box have not been held accountable by the Feds. But I will differ at this point; the Feds have not made any indication that they are DA Rejecting Carey on up. If they did, I would be in a meltdown as much as everyone else. I truly feel that enough has been said in open court by the AUSA to convince me that there will be additional prosecutions in this matter as well as other criminal allegations that are being investigated. Anyone who has spent 5 minutes in DB knows the Feds work in an entirely different world than we do and we can investigate, file and prosecute 25 cases to their 1. I know factually the Feds are investigating so many different allegations against certain brass members of LASD and when they are done, they are done. I understand their reasons at this point and I truly think its coming. I can’t control their pace and perhaps if/when they do make the next step, we will all understand.
I am just as much as a gun slinger as anyone, but I will tell you I am absolutely disgusted at watching that video of the two ICIB sergeants jamming that FBI agent. Why? Why did those two sergeants threaten her by saying they were in the “process” of obtaining an arrest warrant? Do you think for one moment that is a “pissing contest?” If you do, you are delusional. The line was crossed. I will say it again, what those two sergeants did was absolutely disgusting. What did they think they were really going to accomplish with that dipshit contact? So lets cut the crap, those two sergeants were not involved on some casual contact with Marx, they were attempting to coerce her, intimidate her, rattle her cage, and they laughed about it. Why was their a surviellance team video/audio taping the “casual contact?” I don’t have an answer and if anyone does, please advise. That was a suicidal mission they were “sent” on. And that is what really pisses me off, they were “sent” on that mission. Why did they not have the stones to say, “Nope, you go boss because what you are asking me to do is a crime, its called Obstruction of Justice.” They did it with their eyes wide open, and I am truly sorry they did. Someone at the rank of captain or above approved that mission and perhaps, hatched that mission, and I want everyone of those decision makers to be held accountable. If any agency did that to my people, I would have an army of my lieutenants, sergants and detectives booting down their Chief of Police office door and I would rip out his throat and convince him he was confused. And that is the only point I am making when I say, Cut the Crap. Stupid decisions were made, stupid direction/orders were given, stupid direction/orders were followed. I don’t want to see those deputies and sergeants go to prison, I really don’t. They have suffered a nightmare’s nightmare. They have all been fired/forced to retire (big deal for those who had the time) and prosecuted. The two lieutenatns and the mangers and executives involved in this caper, I have a much different opinion. Their number one priority is to always protect their people, they didn’t, they failed. And for those who were factually involved in knowingly sending these people into the Grey Zone and eventually over the line, I want to see them fry.
Oh my the ignorance and arrogance will always get you in the end! I hope people learn from this and stop walking around like Johnny Badass around a freaking custody facility! Give me a break….
#14. I am too far removed and never worked a “basin” jail, but I had my experiences. with the Feds ( I capitalize only because it is proper grammar.. not of respect. I think your theory of there reasons is spot -on. I also know of IA and ICIB elusiveness ( I am being nice ) in the past. I don’t think, nor did you allude to the innocence of the players. Don’t think it’s over by a long shot….I knew most of you think the same.
As far as those convicted : Look for the easy route to promotion ( if you are more obsessed with promotion than doing the job ) then by all means get in the car, But standby if the car throws a rod. That , my friends is howI see it.
Another tree weeks and a new , elected Sheriff will be at the helm. I believe the change that most of you deserve, is on the way. I also think Scott has to be given credit too. How many of you could step into a role like that and make wholesale changes in 6 months . That’s a typical training period for most positions.. Let the past be the past. Learn from it and then bury it.
@ “Cut the Crap”….I just heard earlier today Tom Carey was on the list of personnel to sit on the panel for Lt. oral exams this week. A bit weird, but I don’t make the decisions regarding this matter.
I do agree Lt. Leavins should have stopped Craig/Long from going to her residence; even though he was in a meeting earlier that day and was told F.B.I. had a righteous investigation.
I sat there in court and watched Brandon Fox drill Leavins while he was on the stand regarding Leah Marx. Lt. Leavins testified he did not think it was important to stop the two Sgt’s from going to her house, regardless of the information he was just given a few hours earlier. Fox asked him if he thought this recent information might be important to relay to his Sergeants. Leavins said…”No”. Just the arrogance was overwhelming and very uncomfortable to watch.
My heart sank to my stomach right at that moment along with other sworn personnel seated in front of me. I will never forget the look the other sworn personnel gave me that day. A look of complete utter betrayal and devastation.
@Cut the crap,
Fair enough. We agree on most points.
Time will tell re: the indictments going above the Lt. level. Here’s where we differ.
Is there really ANY question remaining of whether or not Baca or Tanaka, or both, we’re not only aware of, but were directing this clusterfuck?
The feds obtained all the evidence against the seven already. It stands to reason that their investigation revealed whether or not orders were given above the Lt. level. Shit man, you have Baca and Tanaka snitching each other off during news interviews. You have the testimony in court. You have Thompson walking out of the courtroom saying: “I was just following orders”. You have Sexton’s testimony at the Grand Jury.
What else is there to investigate? What further evidence is there to be obtained by continuing the investigation? Do they not have enough already to indict anyone else?
From what we KNOW right NOW, and that is what I base my opinion(s) on, it appears the feds are happy with the indictment/convictions of the seven.
There isn’t one swinging dick among the LASD or the feds. who doesn’t know with absolute certainty that this went way above the Lt. level. Still there are no indictments. Why?
Oh Well, we are all on the same page. I want every single ass at the rank of captain and above who had knowledge and participated in hatching this scheme and instructing all of these folks to engage in this operation, I want them nailed to sheets of plywood and bolted to the wall adjacent to the front door of SHQ. I want every one of these pricks to fry like bacon. I want every single one of them exposed and chained to the village square like Quasimodo for all to see, so I can piss on each and every one of them. These cowards sat in meetings, took phone calls, email, gave direction, approved direction, listened to ideas, bought into plans and were briefed on actions taken or about to be taken. Anyone of those cowards need to be held accountable by IAB and when applicable, by the AUSA. I am as angry as anyone else behind ALL of the drama LASD has endured at the hands of Baca, Tanaka and the coin holders. For the life of me, I do not understand why Scott has not taken a bulldozer to the 4th floor (and 8th floor of Custody Division).
Having been around a little while, I know the Feds wait until they complete everything, before they indict. In the big picture, Pandora’s Box is of a lesser offense regarding certain current/retired executives that are currently under investigation. So my informed guess, is when they are done, what they can prove, is going to be rolled out all at once and not piece meal. Remember, the AUSA has to “prove” that Baca and Tanaka et. al. actively participated in this stupid operation, actually gave the orders to “obstruct justice.” It is my understanding (I did not attend any of the trial dates) that Tanaka admitted to “giving the orders” to “keep the inmate safe” bla bla bla, but absolutely denied giving orders or have any knowledge of actions that amounted to Obstruction of Justice. So, the government is going to have to “prove” he and others were active participants. Without that corpus-copout, they are going to have to connect the dots via email, recordings and direct testimony to the grand jury. They may already have that, someone may have already flipped, we are not privy to that, yet. If they have it, then this is all going to come to a head. And I hope they lasso everyone involved. And for those who are not held criminally, as appropriate, then there should be an IA investigation that exposes everyone, compelled statements, evidence, full bore.
If there is an okey-doke and it ends here, then there is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative media story just ripe for the picking. Because the real injustice, the real insult, the real scandal, is if anyone at the rank of captain and above skate, for their direct involvement OR their knowledge of what was going on, and said nothing. I refuse to engage in a witch hunt, screw that. I want the truth, all of it and accountability. No justice, no peace.
#22. Well said. Bravo! And no worries. Christmas is coming early this year.
@Cut the crap
First off I want to say you are dead on accurate. But we can only fantasize about the idea of there actually being an indictment on the puppet masters. I’ll give you a perfect example of how twisted the Sheriff’s department is.
I recall reading a news article where there was a judgement rendered against some grunt custody deps in civil court for some excessive force allegation on an inmate. Right away, Baca and the department tried to create as much separation from those deputies as possible via Steve Whitmore. I don’t recall the exact quote, but it was something like this. “The Sheriffs department trains its deputies to treat inmates with the utmost respect. The actions of those deputies does not reflect on the department as a whole”.
About a year later Sheriff Baca was named as a defendant along with a Captain and some custody deputies in a federal lawsuit for violation of civil rights on an inmate (The exact same thing as the deputies mentioned above). When there was a judgement rendered against those deputies Steve Whitmore said something to the effect of, “The Sheriffs department respects jury decisions. But in this case they were wrong and we plan to file an ammediate appeal”.
The ONLY difference in those two lawsuits is that in one of them a Captain and the Sheriff were defendants. The deps who didn’t have the luck of having the Sheriff and the Captain involved in their lawsuit were hanged out to dry.
Examples like this are why im so pessimistic of IAB actually conducting an investigation on those responsible for this huge cluster F%#$.
Nice, cut the crap. Finally, somebody on this blog gets it. Let all the pissing and moaning stop. They’re the Feds. Let them do their work. At one point, the Baca bums knew they were in so deep, they were hoping they’d get a pass after the 2012 election. It didn’t happen. Yep, the USA is gone and they’re still on the hook. The box is still open and appointments at LACERA are booked past December. The rats are trying to jump from ship to ship, but the whole fleet’s on fire…just watch and wait.
In a few weeks, hopefully Jim McDonnell will start the real house clean house process. Whether you agree with the recent verdicts or not, at the end of the day everyone is responsible for the choices they make in life. A clerk refused to be intimidate to change the name in the system and some of us refused to donate to Tanaka’s Gardena fund to be in the car. You know where we are today? We have our careers and are able to sleep at night and support our families. Maybe someday these seven and others will realize losing a career for Mr. T wasn’t worth it. Let the rehabilitation of LASD began.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stHSw7-5Ll4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
EDITOR’S NOTE:
To the commentor who, in the last few days, has continued to write extremely adolescent and offensive prison-related “jokes,” regarding the LASD six who have been sentenced, (comments that I continue to trash), cease and desist or I will block you from this site altogether. This is your one and only warning. I don’t have the time or inclination to act as a playground supervisor.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Celeste
For all of the fools who continue to support the convicted LASD personnel, you need to get over it. You are all suffering from some sort of Tanaka brainwash tonic, or some other such thing.
What should have happened was this……..when the cat came out of the bag with regard to the cell phone being discovered, Baca should have called a meeting with the Feds. And at that meeting, he should have asked one simple question…..How can we help in the investigation. And with that one question, all of this drama could have been avoided.
If you can’t accept that as the absolute truth, then you are part of the problem.
#28….I agree
#28, spot on. I have made that statement many times to my circle. That is what Sherm Block would have done because he had nothing to hide (None of this B&T nightmare would have been allowed in Sherm’s day.)
The truth be known, Tanaka went into an absolute panic and then meltdown when he found out Feds were inside of MCJ. And the reason is Paul’s fingerprints are all over the use of force issues and corruption cliques like the 3000 Boyz. Tanaka immediately realized and appropriately feared, the Feds were going to connect all the dots from the Boyz, to the “hand selected” sergeants and lieutenants to Captain Cruz to himself. Paul knew he has been smoking cigars a bit too often at MCJ ’cause he envisioned turning that facility into the Region 2 of Custody Division. Tanaka was in full panic mode and jacked up Baca claiming the Feds were disrespecting Leroy in his own backyard. “Daddy, you can’t let the Feds get away with this, everyone is waiting for you to show them whose the boss.” Leroy, busy picking out bathroom tiles for HOJ, took the bait and the rest is history.
Hey Antuna, Debits and Hayhurst, I understand you are putting together a campaign victory party but are discovering all the phone booths are booked. Try Gardena, you have some juice there.
Backinthaday; Baca did in fact go to the feds and ask them about the investigation “twice.” He even called the head of the LA Office and got the same answer, “We have no idea what you are talking about!” The sad start of the demise was when he and Tanaka got pissed off and let their ego overrun their common sense. I do feel sorry for the six because they were part of our family. They were not smuggling cigarettes, or bringing in heroin in their back-packs. They got too involved and made irreversible mistakes! Just following orders; not buying it, but trying to please a little tyrant, yup, I will put money on that one. No excuse, going to prison, but ya, I still feel sorry for my brothers!!!!
BACKINTHEDAY. Precisely. There were also all lot of Leaders who never have things spin out of control.
#31. In my opinion , only. All these defendants knew they were covering up unnecessary/ unreasonable force. Pandora’s Box was really just a side affect. What they did was wrong and now they are paying. They hitched their wagons to the wrong star , for the wrong reasons. Step back and read very carefully what you just wrote. Do you really agree with what you wrote ? Please do not respond. Just think about it.
I keep reading blogs, news sites and anything I can trying to find that “Aha!” moment when the case against the seven sheriff’s deputies becomes compelling. That moment is further away than ever. Reading endless and comments, no one can explain how this case is just. No one can come up with an explanation as to how the public is served when the foot soldiers are prosecuted and the decision makers are not. And the convictions so far are pointless. Everyone forgets the whole point of the FBI investigation was supposed to be about protecting the civil rights of inmates, yet the prosecution leads off with throwaway obstruction charges. If the FBI could prove inmate abuse, wouldn’t it be in the public interest to prosecute those cases first? The truth is that the FBI botched this from the start by foolishly sneaking a cell phone into the jail without thinking through what would happen when the phone was inevitably found and traced to them, thereby blowing their cover and their best shot at finding and proving inmate abuse. The lead off with the piddly obstruction stuff was no accident. What is amazing is how many cop haters and the media eat this up like its the case of the century. ABC7 breathlessly showcases the “confrontation” between Sgts. Scott Craig and Maricela Long and Agent Marx, but the actual footage shows a brief businesslike exchange. Sgt. Craig may have been convicted based on this video, but he in no way was pompous or aggressive. So far, it is apparent that the FBI could prove neither management’s involvement nor actual inmate abuse, so they led with their “C” material, hoping the public doesn’t notice that they didn’t actually accomplish their mission yet. After all the FBI and Department of Justice smoke and mirrors, we have seven useless convictions that did nothing to protect inmates or benefit the public, and the ones who actually had control over jail conditions are not held to account.
@ 34. You’re in denial…….Have you tried counseling? No matter how you try to “WHITEWASH” Ex Sgt Craig……He lied!
What would LASD do if they were lied to? Get over it! Granted, it was a “pissing contest” Que Sara.
And, here’s a trivia question. How is Pandora’s Box like Iraq?
Iraq: “We have to go in there because there are weapons of mass destruction. We KNOW they are there.”
Pandora’s Box:”We have to go in the jail because of inmate abuse. We KNOW it’s going on.”
Iraq: “Mission accomplished! We destroyed the country and ruined lives, because of freedom!”
Pandora’s Box: “Mission accomplished! We destroyed the department and ruined lives, because of obstruction of justice and conspiracy!
Public: “OK, but what about the weapons of mass destruction? ”
Public: “OK, but what about the inmate abuse convictions, shouldn’t those be prosecuted first, and holding the decision makers responsible?”
Iraq: “Um, we’re getting to it.”
Pandora’s Box: “Um, we’re getting to it.”
We’re waiting.
We can only hope and pray the feds are not done. If they are, then Houston, we have a problem.
@Istandwiththesix: you’re basically preaching to the choir, but let me tell you why I (and a lot of others) don’t stand with them, because no matter what a sham this whole trial and charges are these people are adults with badges and guns. They made a decision based on the fact that they wanted to stay in or get in, the good graces of Tanaka. Anyone with a little common sense and not trying to pave their career by being “in the car” would have said they didn’t want any part of this operation.
Just because you want to pretend you don’t see it doesn’t mean the rest of us have to pretend.
There are lots of derailed careers on this department simply because people made adult decisions, but those of us who have stood up know we have made the right decisions, especially when you compare a derailed career to no career and possible jail time.
The Feds are not done….they will fry Tanaka.
IStandwiththeSix……..You are stuck in lala land. Good luck in making it to 30yrs. You are likely to step in doodoo way before that ……
To ISTANDWITHTHESIX…….Didn’t the Six start out with Seven? That alone, speak volumes..
I can speak all day (only my opinion) However the outcome spoke for itself. It’s a done deal.
Don’t worry about Tanaka & Baca……They will get theirs.
#33, I am glad you are retired; your opinion is based on what, rumor? Did you in fact know that these individuals were acting to cover up unreasonable force or as you call it unnecessary force. I factually knew what these individuals were doing and why they were doing it. Stay home, read your L.A. Times and keep thinking you’re uncorroborated thoughts. Oh and by the way, if I didn’t believe what I wrote, I would not have taken the time to comment. No need to respond. Just stay retired!
I appreciate the comments, kind and snarky, as everyone writes to be read. I agree Mr. Sexton should be included, but I started with the sentencing of the six so with the handle I go.
The reason there’s no “getting over” Pandora’s Empty Box is 1) It’s still in the news and the seven deputies are still getting trashed and 2) It’s still a pointless exercise.
The seven deputies were convicted of obstruction of justice and conspiracy, to which I say, so far – so what ?
An investigation has to have a point, or it’s just catching people at something and throwing them in prison.
This case was supposed to be about protecting the civil rights of inmates, but the FBI and the Department of Justice didn’t lead off with those cases. Proof of jail abuse, if they have it, is way more important than obstruction/conspiracy.
Not leading off with abuse cases says the FBI and Department of Justice’s case for proving poor jail conditions must be pretty weak. It didn’t help that the FBI blew their cover with the poorly handled cell phone. Good luck proving your case after the subject of investigation knows they are being investigated.
If those who are actually responsible for the jail conditions the FBI was supposed to investigate were going to be charged, it should have happened by now. No, they are retired and even running for office. They hardly seem to be quaking in fear.
So, we have seven convictions but the jail abuse is still unproven, and the decision makers are so far free. Pointless. Failure. And those of us who know one of the seven deputies are supposed to get over that ? You don’t get over injustice.
At 42………Thanks for putting “Grandpa” in check……..”Old Retiree”needs a hobby.