Court filings released today have confirmed the story that WitnessLA broke last month, that former sheriff Lee Baca is suffering from early state Alzheimer’s.
Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing-related memo just released that this diagnosis should not prevent Baca from being sentenced to prison.
More soon.
So now anything he did or said will be overshadowed by this diagnosis. Except he can’t prove he had it and the Feds can’t prove he didn’t. Perfect crime committed perfectly.
Well, I guess you can call me Dr. now, I diagnosed that man as bat shit crazy years ago. Please just ride off into the sunset and fade away.
[WitnessLA edit.]
Lets get this expedited then. Lets get him going and get em’ locked up. He did the crime, time to do the time, Berreta…Robert Blake style! Well he still knows why he’s there so he can tell all the reporters he’s doing his time his way. Maybe the Judge can give him 5 YRS 6 mos, with a clinic call clause that says if your illness goes into overdrive I’ll let you halfway house the remainder. That way its Fair to lil snivels. AKA lil Paulie. AKA TALL paul. As his Big Homie & lil Homie Century & Visiting crew clique’s call’S him eh’
EXPLETIVE!!!! Both these MF P. 0. S,’s
It’s difficult for any of us not to be angry. Baca and all his henchmen knew what they were doing and acted as if they were not going to get caught. But, they did! True that two (Stonich and Waldie) got away but maybe not?
How convenient that he has known about his diagnosis for some time and now on the heels of his sentencing he comes forward with that information. This is pure manipulation and I hope the judge see’s right through this. I wish the media would have reported this sooner – great job Celeste for exposing this information. In any case, he can take his meds and get his treatment in prison – his ass needs to be locked up and for far longer than 6 months.
And he wants sympathy??? While he is sitting in prison he can think about Mitrice Richardson and the disregard for her mental health he and his officers showed when she was locked up without regard attending to her mental health needs and then releasing her with no means of caring for herself.
6: Very good point. Baca in his mental illness would be picked up by Malibu deputies and released into the streets with out shoes or any visible means of support?
To all the Banaka supporters: Grow up and get a grip!
After a quick search, I found the following information on the Alzheimers Association website:
MILD ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE (EARLY-STAGE) – Alzheimers Association website Info
“In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, a person may function independently. He or she may still drive, work and be part of social activities. Despite this, the person may feel as if he or she is having memory lapses, such as forgetting familiar words or the location of everyday objects.
Friends, family or neighbors begin to notice difficulties. During a detailed medical interview, doctors may be able to detect problems in memory or concentration. Common difficulties include:
* Problems coming up with the right word or name
* Trouble remembering names when introduced to new people
* Having greater difficulty performing tasks in social or work settings
* Forgetting material that one has just read
* Losing or misplacing a valuable object
* Increasing trouble with planning or organizing”
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_stages_of_alzheimers.asp
I see nothing in there exculpatory, about the commission of crimes while in an elected office of public trust. He surely remembered me and the years of crimes he and his “henchmen” levied upon me.
Give him 20 years. It’s not like he’ll remember it anyways
In many occupations, when a leader is found unfit, he or she is removed from their command and command is reassigned. Guess what, the executives all knew BACA had issues and nobody did anything about it. PT let everybody know he was in charge and running the department. Any naysayer was sent to the corn field. BACA was left in place for plausible deniability. This played right into PT’s plan. Now he simply says, the boss told me to do it. Hey future federal prisoner PT. How did that work for the sentenced folks beneath you. That’s right it didn’t. Enjoy federal prison you tyrant, counting the days until sentencing.
We have plenty of folks who qualify for 5150WIC holds in custody. They got arrested and sentenced for doing crimes. You are no better. All of you jackasses knew or should have known the difference between right and wrong. First rule in law enforcement. You don’t violate the law to enforce the law.
Damage has been done. The only question is..where does LASD go from here?
On a regular basis, Santa’s helpers do a data-mine sweep of the FBI’s Data Network for any conversations that were recorded outside the confines of the Executive Offices of the LASD that may be of interest to WitnessLA readers. The following conversation was recorded in a room at the clubhouse of the San Dimas Canyon Golf Course. It appears the recording apparatus was in place as part of another investigation being conducted by the FBI that was unrelated to the LASD, but was “accidentally” recorded by an open microphone and was dutifully transcribed by the helpers to be relayed to WitLA readers:
Former Undersheriff Stonich: Glad you could make it Larry, we need to help Lee stay out of prison.
Former Undersheriff Waldie: Yeah, just like old times. Just us, trying to beat the system.
Stonich: And boy did we!
laughter
Stonich: There’s a good reason why we need to keep him out of going to jail besides just being “nice guys” trying to help a friend?
Waldie: Well we are “nice guys” but what else?
Stonich: Because that FUCKER can roll over on us in a hot second if he thinks he’s going to jail!
Waldie: Holy SHIT! I had not thought of that!
Stonich: Think of all the crap we did with contracts in the jail – all the free shit we never reported.
Waldie: Yeah, and the trips. The towing contracts…………..
Stonich: We NEED him OUT of prison!
long silence
Waldie: Lee’s always late, you’d think he was out giving another of his whack-a-mo speeches.
Stonich: Don’t dis what he did, he got YOU and ME a big fat paycheck for LIFE!
Waldie: Bill, I’ve asked you not to use those words together.
Stonich: Whaaaat?
Waldie: “Big and Fat!”
Stonich: Oh, sorry. No double entendre intended.
Waldie: What the fuck does THAT mean?
Stonich: It means: I did not mean the “Big and Fat” in two ways, just that you get a “BIG FAT” pay check thanks to Lee and what he did for us.
Waldie: Oh, right. We cleaned up didn’t we.
Stonich: Yeah, I laugh all the way to the bank!
sound of laughter
Stonich: I’ve heard that some people say “How can they look at themselves in the mirror?”
Waldie: Why would they say that?
Stonich: Because they think we should be ashamed of our role in what Lee did to the Department.
Waldie: Fuck’em if they can’t take a joke!
laughter
Stonich: You know what I say to that?
Waldie: To what? Looking at yourself in the mirror?
Stonich: Yeah, I say “I can’t look at myself in the mirror because I’ve plastered over all my mirrors with LACERA paystubs”!
laughter
Waldie: Here he is now. Is that Maxwell with him? Bringing him in in a WHEELCHAIR?
Stonich: Damn if you’re not right. Lee looks like shit wormed over. He’s all stooped over and look……he’s drooling.
Waldie: Maybe he’s REALLY sick!!!
sound of door opening
Stonich: Hello Sheriff, how are you?
Former Sheriff Baca: Para bailar la bamba (barley audible)
Waldie: What did you say boss?
Baca: Para bailar la bamba (barley audible)
Stonich: Sheriff, I don’t speak spanish, and I didn’t think you did either. What are you saying?
Baca: Se necesita una poca de gracia Una poca de gracia pa mi pa ti (much louder)
Waldie: He’s singing fuckn’ “La Bamba”!
Baca: Damn right, DIDN’T YOU KNOW I COULD SING????(much louder)
laughter
Stonich: Wow you certainly had US fooled!
Baca: Don’t you read “Santa” in WitnessLA? I was just doing as he suggested!
Waldie: Well, you did a hell of a job at it!
Stonich: I don’t read that son-of-a-bitch if I can help it – but I can’t help myself!
Baca: Funny shit – until he turns on you.
Waldie: Tell me about it! For some reason he’s always picking on ME???
Baca: It not just you. Ask Rod Kusch!
laughter
Commander Maxwell: Or Warren Asmus!
laughter
Baca: Anyway, the bastard broadcast my plan to show up at my sentencing looking like I was on death’s doorstep. I still have that as “Plan A” – that’s why I had Pat drive me here and I’ve already got the shrinks thinking I have Alzheimer’s, so I’m halfway home. But you never know when someone might see me and report to Judge Anderson that I am up, about and healthy as a horse.
Maxwell: I told The Sheriff he needs to be cautious out in public, so I’m driving him around but, unlike the good-old days, this time it is because he’s so “old and feeble”. Driving Miss Daisy stuff only I call it Driving Loony Leroy.
laughter
Baca: I don’t think that is so funny! But I’ll tell you what IS crazy. For all these years everyone thought I WAS crazy, and now I have to ACT like I’m crazy.
Waldie: So, just play yourself!
nervous laughter
Baca: Again, not funny! But it DOES suck, this morning I had to sneak out of my house before dawn and go for a 4 mile run. I prefer running when people are around to see me – I still plan on living past 100, but for now, let’s keep this between just us.
Stonich: Ah, I don’t think we’ll be telling Judge Anderson you said that.
Baca: Said what? Tell Judge Judy? I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me……L. Ron Hubbard!
laughter
Maxwell: Good one boss. Just like we were practicing – except for the little joke at the end.
Stonich: Maybe you shouldn’t have accepted that award and attended that breakfast meeting of Bais Naftoli. That certainly did not fit in to “Plan A”
Maxwell: I told the boss it might come back to bite him.
Baca: I didn’t think it would get any press coverage. I guess I just slipped in to the “good old days” and wanted everyone to know what kind of cojones The Sheriff of Los Angeles County has.
Waldie: None.
Baca: What?
Waldie: From what I hear McDonnell, doesn’t have any cojones!
Maxwell: OUCH!
laughter
Stonich: Ah, well….anyway Pat’s right though – about this being just like the old days when we used to play golf right here at this golf course.
Maxwell: AND plot the overthrow of Old Sherm Block. Man did THAT turn our lives around!!!!
Waldie: A lot of water AND A LOT OF GREENBACKS have gone under the bridge since then!
laughter
Stonich: Yeah, and it is time to pull another rabbit our of our asses!
laughter
Baca: Well, I’ve got “Plan A” going well, what with the Alzheimer’s diagnosis, but we need to cover all the bases and get to work on “Plan B” – “Operation Jack-in-the-box”
Stonich: Yeah, as in “spring” the boss from jail!
laughter
Maxwell: So we’re going to “write” letters to Judge Anderson on behalf of The Sheriff?
Stonich: Right, no one will ever check to see if they were actually sent from the person whose name is on the letter. We just need to come up with a plausible list of names, a reason they would be writing, some bogus stationary that would look realistic and bingo – we’ve got us testimony on behalf of The Sheriff’s from a prominent citizen.
Waldie: Great idea! I know some massage parlor owners who would write letters, I could……….
Stonich: Ah,…uh,.. Larry that’s not the kind of people we are looking for. I think we need names of people who would catch the attention of Judge Anderson. Someone like…ah..
Baca: How about Tom Cruise? I met him at a Scientology seminar once. Nice guy! You can’t believe what a little shit he is – hell he’s about Tanaka’s size! I asked him if he really flew those planes in Top…….
Stonich: Right, Sheriff! That is exactly the kind of names we need. We write a letter from Tom Cruise saying he’s a long-time friend of Sheriff Lee Baca. He says he knows him to be an upstanding citizen who believes in helping his fellow man, blah, blah, blah.
Baca: Yeah, we can say I love animals, love the environment, I love the galaxy in which we exist and I believe in future space exploration so that we can find out why we were put on this planet in the first……..
Stonich: Ah,….. yes sir, we could include all that stuff in different letters but maybe not all in the Cruise letter. But that is the essence of what we are doing.
Waldie: My buddies who run massage parlors are prominent citizens.
Stonich: Larry, we need BIG names. Sorry, they may be big names in your circles, but I don’t know if Judge Anderson frequents the same ah,… establishments you do.
Waldie: Well, ok…….. So you are talking about people like….. maybe…..how about………Paris Hilton? Remember how fast we sprung her out of jail? She was in and out so fast the paparazzi could hardly keep up with us.
laughter
Waldie: Or Mel Gibson, hell we DROVE him home after that little Jew-deputy busted him in Malibu.
Baca: Yeah, I got an invite to his wife’s 50th birthday party for that one. Boy was that an “A” lister! Jack Nicholson, Kobe Bryant, Tina Turner…….
Stonich: Ok, we’ll writer one from Gibson. Who else?
Baca: How about Horacio Vignali? I wrote a letter for him to President Clinton urging a pardon for Horacio’s son, Carlos – a big-time drug dealer from Minneapolis.
Waldie: Minneapolis?
Baca: Yeah, Carlos’ dad’s a big time developer here in LA and he got me and my amigos, Tony Villaraigosa and a few others to write letters for his kid. Got the kid’s sentence commuted and his dad made one hell of a campaign contribution to my PAC. Hell, Hillary Clinton’s brother made a bundle on that caper! Win-win for everyone!
Maxwell: I guess you’re having a good “Alzheimer’s Day” because your memory is alive and well on that one boss!
laughter
Baca: I NEVER forget pocketing $10,000!
laughter
Maxwell: Ok, I’ve got Vignali – I’m sure his son is now an “upstanding citizen” and you share part of the credit for “his success turn-around in life.”
laughter
Stonich: How about Mike Yamaki, we gave him that $171,000 a year job so he could sit in the clubhouse at Rivera and drink mai tais all day. Time to pay the piper. Besides, it shows your diversity side!
Waldie: Yeah! And how about Bishop Turner?
Stonich: Ah…..maybe not such a good idea right now. If it hadn’t been for the media rehashing all that old news, he would have been good, but maybe not right now…..
Baca: Damn, it! We need a black! That’s why I had Turner on my payroll!
Waldie: I’ve got it boss!
Baca: Who?
Waldie: How about Bill Cosby……..
Where does LASD go from here….. Were going already….. to LAPD….
@ 11, LASD will not be able to move forward for years to come. Unfortunately Mc D does not seem to care much about the rank and file. As long as he continues to allow the non-sense to continue, it can’t and will not change. Mc D, cant you see who it is destroying this great Department? How many more execs is it going to take to come tumbling down. You were told about the non-sense during the debates. You saw for yourself during the hearings who was close to Paul, why won’t you do something? The line folks have no respect for your excecs especially those Chiefs. They can’t even earn respect because everybody sees their little games.
@Investments…not only did they know about issues he was having, they relied on those issues to take full advantage of certain situations and now some of those who knew full well what was going on are in high ranking positions. McDonnell needs to get his head out of the sand. As I told Lee Baca a few years ago – either your head is in the sand or your eyes are wide open, either way your empire is going to fall…..
Santa: The massage parlors were in Juarez, Mexico. Isn’t that right?
Looking at this objectively and in an adult mindset, here is my two cents. Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease and in time, it is a fatal neurological death sentence. Baca’s absolute lunacy and delusional life is in no way, associated with his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. He convinced himself that he was the smartest guy in the room, his beleaguered belief that he is the Zenmaster of Zenmasters was rammed down everyone’s throat while his self serving supporters and inner circle boot licks clapped and cheered simply for personal gain. Earl Hutchinson spoke of mercy for Baca because he and other activists were invited to the table, that Baca provided educational opportunities to inmates (misguided in a County Jail environment, but I won’t take the concept away from Baca) and listen to concerns of the Black community. Earl, let me give a dose of reality; Lee Baca “used” you, he manipulated you for political gain, make no mistake. He has done what most politicians do, use people. If Baca was really concerned about inmate welfare he would not have blown off the ACLU and all of their legitimate reports of the disgusting spike in force and I mean beat downs for sport, inside MCJ. Baca could not be bothered so he gave the keys to Tanaka, we all know what happened. Baca ruined morale and the reputation of LASD. He was the Sheriff, he was told time and time again what was going on right under his nose, he did not care, he had other interests.
So back to the point at hand. As much blood as we would all love to drain from Baca, figuratively speaking, for his miserable failures as Sheriff, his upcoming sentence in Federal court really has to be handed down with judicial objectivity. Hear me out, please. He was charged and plead guilty to Lying to the FBI, not for being an active principle of Pandora’s Box. I have read every single document that WLA graciously provided us, I have read transcripts of testimony, I have looked at the evidence introduced, I have done so with complete objectivity. The evidence is clear, Tanaka was in fact, the architect and quarterback of Pandora’s Box, not Baca. Baca “should have known” about the day by day, decision by decision of that stupid operation. But the evidence clearly shows he did not, because he didn’t want to know. Typical Baca, absolutely. Baca should have shut that thing down the second it became clear what Tanaka hatched, but he didn’t. But that is not what Baca was charged with. And I have NO DOUBT if the Feds had the evidence, they would have prosecuted Baca along with everyone else.
Baca’s defense attorneys are doing what attorneys do, smoke and mirrors. Baca’s Alzheimer’s is/was irrelevant to his crime, lying to the FBI. What is that worth? Because he was a sitting Sheriff, because he lied about ICIB going to Agent Marx home, threatening her with arrest, now THAT is worth prison time, but how much? I ain’t buying the sympathy card Baca is trying to play, not for a minute. He shoved “accountability” down our throats since day one. If I were the judge, I’d tell Baca that 6 months ain’t gonna happen. I’d tell him 18 months or start picking a jury.
Dearest Dr. Ronda, if you haven’t already, please consider writing Judge Anderson with your observations in your post at #6.
YOU are a Clinical Psychologist and I think YOUR comment particularly would offer a thoughtful comparison between Baca’s present diagnosis and pending(?)incarceration, with others who were suffering mental health conditions while incarcerated – many of whom were far worse off than he appears to be at this point.
Query: If Leroy were picked up today by deputies and was exhibiting manifestations of cognitive issues, would anyone bother to do the paperwork and 5150 him, or would they just turn him out in the middle of the night like a dog?
M.R., RIP.
Deja vu all over again. Many may not recall but when Forgetful Leroy first ran for Sheriff in 1998 the LA Times – who had been campaigning for years to get rid of Sherman Block – declined to endrose anyone in the race. Why? Because they did not like Block – claimed he was seriously ailing – true at that point he was propped up like “Weekend at Bernie’s”(they wouldn’t have endorsed him anyway because they did not like his political clout in LA County) and because they determined their otherwise preferred candidate one Leroy D. Baca was ………wait for it ……..loony and a LIAR. Here it is folks: http://articles.latimes.com/1998/oct/25/opinion/op-35908
So, they had it right. Loony and a liar and 18 years later and Judge Anderson is having to deal with these issues that was evident so very long ago!
As Waldie told Stonich in Santa’s latest post: A LOT of water has gone under the bridge.
That 1998 LA Times blurb was insanely on point and a rather amazing foretelling of Baca’s tenure. Nice job finding that, thank you.
Santa, You never let us down. I believe!