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Former Sheriff’s Deputy Convicted for Lying About Beating of LA Jail Visitor & Why It’s a Big Deal

Taylor Walker
Written by Taylor Walker

By Taylor Walker and Celeste Fremon

On Friday, January 18, a jury found Byron Dredd, a former LA County sheriff’s deputy, guilty of lying to the FBI as part of a conspiracy to cover up a brutal beating of a handcuffed visitor to Men’s Central Jail.

The incident that Dredd, 36, falsely described to the FBI began on the morning of February 26, 2011, when Gabriel Carrillo, his mother, and his then-girlfriend (now wife) went to Men’s Central Jail’s visiting center to see Carrillo’s brother, who had been roughed up during his arrest, reportedly causing family members to worry about his safety in the jail.

Both Carrillo and his girlfriend had cell phones in their possession when they entered the visiting center, which jail rules prohibit. After another visitor told a deputy that a young woman was using a cell phone in the bathroom,  the deputy led the girlfriend into a nearby employee break room.  When the girlfriend admitted that Carrillo also had a phone, he too was ushered into the break room, but in handcuffs, after he mouthed off to the deputy.  In the break room, the same deputy, Pantamitr Zunggeemoge, slammed Carrillo into a refrigerator, then yanked his hands, which were cuffed behind his back, up to a painful angle, at which point jail visitor Carrillo mouthed off again.

Deputies in the break room escorted Carrillo’s girlfriend out, then began beat the handcuffed man, repeatedly punching him, and spraying his face with OC spray as he writhed on the floor. Carrillo did not resist the beatdown, but made sort of swimming motions with his legs as he was being pummeled, trying to escape blows, according to Deputy Zunggeemoge, who took a plea deal in exchange for his testimony in the trial of three of the others involved.

Carrillo’s injuries were severe enough that he was later hospitalized.

Dredd was standing in an adjacent room watching the fight through a window.

After the beating, former LASD sergeant Eric Gonzalez, who was in the break room, came up with a detailed story for the official written reports of the incident. Gonzalez instructed the deputies involved to describe how they took off one of Carrillo’s handcuffs to fingerprint him, at which point Carrillo swung the handcuff chain dangerously as a weapon, and hurt then deputy Zunggeemoge.

During a July 2012 interview, Dredd perpetuated the false accusations when he told FBI investigators that he saw Carrillo hurt Zunggeemoge, punch deputy Fernando Luviano, and manhandle deputy Sussie Ayala, then attempt to escape the room—all actions, save the nonexistent room escape, that were impossible because Carrillo’s wrists were shackled behind his back.

As a result of false statements and reports made by Dredd and the others, Carrillo was charged with several felonies, including resisting an officer and battery. If convicted, he could have faced fourteen years in prison.

(Just before Carrillo was to go to trial, his attorney, Ron Kaye, discovered the existence of cell phone photos showing injuries to both of Carrillo’s wrists, corroborating his insistence that he was handcuffed during the beating by deputies.  This, along with a neutral civilian witness who also corroborated Carrillo’s story, finally persuaded the DA to drop the case.)


Three trials, three outcomes

In June 2015, three of the department members involved in the Carrillo beating and subsequent falsification of reports of the incident—former sergeant Gonzalez, and former deputies Ayala and Luviano—went to trial, and were convicted on all counts. Zunggeemoge and another deputy, Noel Womack, took plea deals and became witnesses for the prosecution in the 2015 trial.

In September 2016, Byron Dredd became the last of six to be tried on the visitor center beating and cover-up case. A  jury acquitted him on two counts—one of writing a false report, and one of conspiring to violate Carrillo’s civil rights. Jurors deadlocked on the third count of making false statements to the FBI.

Federal prosecutors decided to retry Dredd on count number three, but the deputy’s lawyers attempted to have the remaining charge dismissed.  Their effort was denied by U.S. District Judge George King.

Dredd appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed King’s ruling and cleared the way for last week’s trial before U.S District Judge Dale Fischer.

Now that Dredd has been re-tried and convicted of that final charge, he faces a maximum sentence of five years.

“All law enforcement officers will be held accountable for abusing their positions – whether that includes the illegal use of force or lying to cover up a civil rights violation,” said United States Attorney Nick Hanna after Dredd’s conviction. “This former deputy actively tried to conceal the illegal actions of his fellow deputies, and today a jury held him accountable for his role in the cover-up of an unjustified beating.”


“Beyond the pale”

Looked at from a distance, convicting a sheriff’s deputy of lying to FBI agents, after not one, but two federal trials, plus an earlier appeal, may not seem hugely significant.  But as U.S. Attorney Hanna suggested, Dredd’s conviction is an important piece of a larger puzzle.

According to the original federal grand jury indictment of the five main members of the jail beating group, the Carrillo beating was far from the only incident in which deputies abused jail visitors.

In another of the cases detailed in the original indictment, a jail visitor was allegedly slammed around by deputies to the point that his arm was fractured, all reportedly because he asked to see a supervisor when his combat veteran brother couldn’t be located in the jail.

The same longer indictment stated that former sergeant Gonzalez actively fostered a culture of abuse, reprimanding “deputy sheriffs he supervised for not using force on visitors to the MCJ if the visitors had supposedly ‘disrespected’ these deputy sheriffs through the visitors’ words or conduct.”

And in late 2015, U.S. District Judge George H. King made it clear that he wanted to send a message with the sentencing of Sussie Ayala, Fernando Luviano, and Gonzalez, whom King sentenced to six, seven, and eight years, respectively.

At Gonzalez’ sentencing, King told the sergeant he had “abused his authority and corrupted the very system he was sworn to uphold.”

Gonzalez’ conduct “went beyond the pale” added Judge King.

When it was time to sentence Ayala and Luviano, King told the deputies they were part of a pattern, and that there was “evidence of prior violent behavior toward inmates” at Men’s Central Jail by Luviano specifically.

The ACLU’s historic class action suit against the department, Rosas v. Baca, suggested that Judge King’s perception about Luviano, in particular, was correct.

The Rosas complaint featured 70 signed declarations by victims of—and witnesses to—jail beatings.  Of those, WLA identified declarations by eight former jail inmates who described beatings, pepper spraying, threats of retaliation, and other troubling actions in which Luviano allegedly took part. In several of those eight accounts, two of them brutal enough to have resulted in high ticket civil settlements, the now-convicted Luviano was the main player.

But, until he was convicted for assaulting Gabriel Carrillo, Luviano was a department member in good standing.

Ayala, too, had a history of alleged misconduct and aggressive behavior, some of which was detailed in the original indictment.

Dredd’s conviction represents the last in a series of cases resulting from an investigation into corruption and civil rights abuses in the downtown LA County jails by members of the LASD. As a result of the investigation, 22 members of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department have now been convicted of federal charges, including former sheriff Lee Baca, and former undersheriff Paul Tanaka.

“The FBI will continue to hold accountable those who cover up crimes involving civil rights abuses and malfeasance by public officials inside and outside prison walls,” said Paul Delacourt, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, after the jury announced their verdict on Friday.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva also issued a statement about the Dredd conviction.

“It is unfortunate that so many lives had to be negatively affected by previous decisions,” he said. “As a Department, we have to move forward, learn from our past, and provide the best possible public safety protection for the residents of this county. Working together, we will close this chapter in our Department’s history.”

Villanueva also stated that he had “complete trust” in the justice system, and he was “putting leaders in place who will continue our commitment to being one of the best law enforcement agencies in the world.”

U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer is scheduled to sentence Dredd on May 20.

The February 2011 assault on jail visitor Gabriel Carrillo resulted in a federal civil lawsuit that Los Angeles County settled in 2014 for $1.2 million.

25 Comments

  • All lasd lies, how is this news? They just add “exigent circumstances” to the reason or say, “I was in fear of my life” to make the reason for beating the crap out of someone and it just became justified. To them it’s “the way you say it” in the report. The corrupt supervisor’s then sign off on it as long as it sounds legit. Nothing is gonna change in that pos agency until someone comes in and guts it front the inside. Starting as low as the most corrupted dePITY (i say pity bc its a pitiful individual) to the Sr. dep to the sergeant that tells them to enformally figure out a lie that’ll sound justifiable/believable to the watch commander and captain and on up.

  • Good luck in “closing this chapter in our Department’s history” as the scars and repercussions will always remind the public and those (including deputies) who were negatively affected.

  • “Gonzalez fostered a culture of abuse…….” That culture was actually incubated by one Federal Inmate named Paul Tanaka. Gonzalez followed his orders from Tanaka, and he (Gonzalez) is responsible for his people going to prison, proclaiming at sentencing in breathtaking fashion, he did nothing wrong. He was a total zero at Century Station and was no different at MCJ.

    But what I find more troubling are some of the individuals our Sheriff has promoted and now surrounds himself with; validated Tanaka coin holders and patio cigar smokers. I worked with and around those guys, they will eventually take the Sheriff down the wrong road and over a cliff. The word is already out, they are “the car.” They are doing everything for their own power base, but then, they learned from the master, PT himself. Glad to be retiring in a couple of months.

  • Before you guys start destroying people’s names and laying people out, just remember they have families and loved ones that are still connected to them and should not suffer the redicule their parents, brothers or sister caused them. All I ask is let’s be considered of people because none of us would ever want to be in their shoes and go through the gauntlet by our own. It’s bad enough the media does it. Remember, karma doesn’t forget names and addresses. How would you like to be treated if you were in their shoes. All I ask is let’s be civil and considered of their families. God bless you all. Instead of kicking people while they’re down, we need to pray for them and their families.

  • Go back to sleep Junior. These idiots helped ruin the reputation of a great department. The election of AV may be popular with the line folks but will crash and burn. God help us.

  • Max, stay retired and stop stressing out over things you can’t control. If you’re so inclined, then show your face to those that matter and state your case, instead of hiding behind several fake names casting stones. No one outside of PPOA retired members reads this blog anyway. It’s real easy to narrow you guys down at every retiree round up.

    God Bless!

  • Every time I see that booking photo, that disgusting and vile booking photo, I think how representative it is of the Tanaka years. How he would come to the station and smoke cigars with everyone, telling all if they ever needed anything to email him. “Don’t like your sergeant, let me know.” It wasn’t until I became a sergeant that I realized how dangerous he was. People were afraid to supervise because of him. Yet, folks were falling over themselves to get in the car. And now it’s happening all over again, just a little differently. Cogstinator, your right to a point. Same circus, but some of the same clowns, new ringmaster. This just isn’t right.

  • Adam 12, the guy in the booking photo also has family. The people the officers on this site arrest, occasionally on trump up charges, also have families. The people arrested and whose mug shots end up in the morning paper or evening news also have families. These officers should be treated the same way LAPD and LASD treats anyone they suspect of having committed a crime, any one arrested. They should not get a pass because they had a badge. Quite the contrary, given that they have the weight of the state behind that badge and gun, they should be held to a higher standard.

  • @CF…good point. I’m not disputing your point. I agree to unilaterally treat everyone the same. Like I said, it’s bad enough the media does it. I tend to internalize what others go through and would not want the constant torment people dish out here.

    On the other hand, my comment was focused on this blog where interdeparmental folks frequent and slander their partners behind hidden names just because of a personal vendetta. I’m all for a good discussion, but people should not be kicked when they’re down. I’m a firm believer of Karma…

    God Bless

  • Oh, OK.

    God Bless you and your family… I pray that you don’t ever become a focal point on a blog or a news media. Regardless of how you chose to treat others or speak ill of those on this blog, I would still never wish anything bad for you or your loved once to go through.

  • As evil as Tanaka was/is, always remember that he was absolutely enabled by Leroy D Baca to do everything that he did to destroy any ethical LASD employee.

    Why that hateful criminal (Baca) is not in Federal prison now, is a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals travesty.

  • The force reporting and investigations have changed dramatically for the better. With that, the amount of force has gone up. If you hit an inmate with a pillow, it would be reportable force. Please realize that the Sheriff personnel are dealing with inmates with mental problems and many other issues. Additional mental health facilities are needed outside the county jail…

  • We close a chapter, but who knows what lies ahead with Alex. Reinstating someone with a question background and was fired. He helped on your campaign and gets his job back. Not a move to far from Paul’s playbook of campaign contributing coin holders. People complained about Jim’s firing of deputies. Some were pretty bad apples with history. I predict more mismanagement and more federal investigation and indictments await us.

  • So unfortunate for a visitor at a jail to be roughed up like this. Blacks and Hispanics are always considered a threat by law enforcement and white American just because of their skin color or the countless number of negative images shown on our TV’’s, movies and music videos. (Not to mention the 700+ gangs) with that said, innocent, hard working, tax paying, Educated, business owners and law abiding minorities are systematically looked upon as a threat because we are historically looked upon as second class citizens in the eyes of privilege American. When the Constitution was written, Blacks and Hispanics were not part of the equation. Therefore, SOME (not all) in law enforcement may have a belief (possibly passed down through family history) that They have a green light to treat some people a certain way. It’s become a societal norm. When blacks were openly assaulted by whites at PT Presidential campaign rallies on national TV, people cheered with acceptance and no investigation was done on those perpetrators or any arrest ever made. When that Hispanics man was arrested and accused of beating up a white fireman after a Dodgers baseball game, he was pointed out because he had neck tattoos and perceived to be a gang member (falsely accused and acquitted on all counts). Our society has a fear of these groups and it just filters over into law enforcement. What about the white lady who was ask by a black man to put her dog on a leash, her response ( I’m a white woman, I feel threatened for my life). If there was no video, the cops would have shown up and probably shot the black guy because a white woman was involved. Thank God he also had his video camera that showed an example of how our America feels about minorities. Because she was privileged, she felt she was right even though she was the one breaking the law. But this is the America we live in. Cops do the same thing, all in the name of “I feel threatened that my life was in danger” and some CO signs off on the police report to protect the deputy. I love my community police officers and thank them at every opportunity, but their are those bad apples that don’t need to be on the force. Look at the police officer that killed George Floyd in Minnesota. He was already restrained in hand cuffs, seated in a patrol car, but for some reason these officers decided to exercise a little more insult by dragging him out of the car, onto the ground, which lead to a public execution on national TV. With fear of public safety; the privilege America will always look for justification for their negative behavior, just like the deputies who beat up this Hispanic man who was just a visitor at a jail, not a detainee. Over a CELL PHONE.

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