Lee Baca

Top Sheriff's Officials Allied With White Gang In L.A. Jails, Suit Says

A white-power gang operating inside the L.A. County jails had ties to sheriff's officials charged with running the lockups -- ties that led up as far as Undersheriff Paul Tanaka. That, at least, is one of the shocking allegations in a lawsuit filed in L.A. federal court this week. The plaintiffs ar ... More >>

Paul Tanaka, Sheriff's 2nd-In-Command & Once Head Of Troubled L.A. County Jails, Retires

Paul Tanaka, the controversial second-in-command at the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, heavily criticized for his oversight of a troubled jails system, is retiring, the department announced this afternoon. The undersheriff is also the mayor of Gardena and won a third term in yesterday's election ... More >>

Immigrant Inmates Kept in L.A. County Jail For Days For No Legal Reason, Says ACLU

Updated at the bottom with strong allegations from an ACLU attorney. For some inmates L.A. County Jail is like the "Hotel California" -- You can check-out any time you like / But you can never leave. At least that's what the ACLU of Southern California claims in a lawsuit announced today. The grou ... More >>

Teflon Sheriff Lee Baca: Go to Jail, Get Your Face Broken? PHOTOS

No surprise here. L.A. County Jail deputies sometimes stomp on, bash in, and literally break inmates' heads: That according to an ACLU report issued today, 48 hours ahead of the much-anticipated final findings of a separate Citizens' Commission on Jail Violence. The ACLU says in a summary that the ... More >>

'Southern California Fan Code of Conduct' Unveiled by L.A. Sports Council: No Cussing, Offensive Clothing

Little-known fact: Los Angeles has its very own Sports Council, a self-described "outgrowth of the success of the 1984 Olympic Games." Although its eight-member executive cabinet and dozens of directors (such as UCLA's athletic director and Tim Leiweke, president of downtown developer AEG) spend mo ... More >>

Teflon Sheriff Lee Baca Recalls Special Badges in Wake of Photo of Party Girl With Shield

You might not need any stinkin' badges, but you wanted those badges. Too bad. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department is taking back 200 special shields given to local politicians. The badges say "City Official Los Angeles County," but they look like regular law enforcement credentials. That of cours ... More >>

Cop Watcher Jailed Twice

Video destroyed by Lee Baca's deputies

Duncan Roy: Director Trapped in Men's Central Jail

Film director Duncan Roy's three-month nightmare that wouldn't end

Carmen Trutanich Announces Campaign for D.A., Highlights Lawsuit Against Deutsche Bank

​L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich made it official this morning, announcing his candidacy for district attorney. Trutanich has been raising money for the campaign for a year, and has amassed a $1 million war chest, so this is not exactly a surprise.It does, however, give Trutanich's opponents y ... More >>

L.A. Sheriff's Creepy New Facial-Recognition Software Matches Surveillance Video With Mug Shot Database

The Lancaster station of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department got a little help from Big Brother in cracking its latest robbery spree: Of three armed robberies in Lancaster over eight days, one of the incidents was caught on surveillance tape. So Sheriff's investigators entered "a clear image of th ... More >>

Conrad Murray Gets Four Years in L.A. County Jail for Involuntary Manslaughter

Could Conrad Murray wiggle out of his full four-year sentence?​Update: L.A. Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore says Murray will likely serve "a little less than two years." More dauntingly, the D.A. wants him to pay over $100 million to Michael Jackson's kids. Also: remorseless BOO ... More >>

Illegal Immigrants Beware: L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Can Now Run Your Fingerprints in the Field

The L.A. Sheriff's Department is busting with pride over its brand-new fleet of "state-of-the-art mobile data computers" -- the first of which are now installed in the patrol vehicles of a few lucky deputies. In some ways, the computers are an overdue boot into the 21st century. Turns out deputies ... More >>

Capt. Daniel Cruz, Relieved of Duty Amid Sheriff's Jail Beating Scandal, Was Present During Deputies' Night Club Brawl -- Report

​So after years of ignorance and denial, Sheriff Lee Baca only recently acknowledged that -- yes -- deputies beat people, sometimes even visitors, in his L.A. County Jail. Now comes word that Capt. Daniel Cruz has been relieved of duty as part of the department's internal investigation into ... More >>

L.A. County Probation Unions Express 'No Confidence' in Probation Chief Donald Blevins

DaR​In the wake of a rare proposal to have a sheriff's department oversee thousands of state parolees, a job that would normally go to local probation officials, union boards representing 95 percent of L.A. probation employees today announced a vote of "no confidence" in their Chief, Donald Bl ... More >>

L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Torch Own Cars, Commit Insurance Fraud -- Then Blame It on Overtime Pay Cuts

Don't try this at home, like a certain dumbass deputy.​The L.A. County Sheriff's Department has had an embarrassing 2011: After KTLA revealed that a hypocritical "3000 Boys" gang had formed between allied deputies, a front-page LA Weekly expose centered on inmates and visitors who'd been beate ... More >>

Sen. Diane Feintstein To Chair No On Prop 19

Nope. No on 19. ​Sen. Diane Feinstein, the Democratic former mayor of San Francisco, will co-chair the campaign to defeat Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization initiative on the ballot in November, according to a press release today. Her co-chair will be L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca. Th ... More >>

40th Anniversary of the National Chicano Moratorium This Weekend

​ A large crowd is expected to participate in a series of events across East Los Angeles this weekend to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the National Chicano Moratorium, a massive anti-Vietnam war protest that ended, in part, with the nearby death of a former Los Angeles Times columnist an ... More >>

Mitrice Richardson: Officials Confirm Remains Found In Malibu Belong To Her

​Remains found in an unincorporated canyon area near Malibu belong to missing woman Mitrice Richardson, county authorities announced Thursday morning. Sheriff Lee Baca and coroner's Lt. Ed Winter told reporters that tests confirm the bones found Monday afternoon in the Monte Nido area belong ... More >>

L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina Wants To Know Why Sheriff Won't Release Ruben Salazar Documents

Ruben Salazar.​Updated with Sheriff Lee Baca saying he'll go through the documents and determine which ones can be released. Originally posted at 3:29 p.m. After Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina on Tuesday asked for a report on why the sheriff's department won't release eight boxes ... More >>

Salaries Gone Wild: $787,637 A Year For City Manager Of ... Bell?

Google Maps​We here at the Weekly have enjoyed roasting Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ($223,000 a year) and L.A. City Council members ($178,789) for giving themselves some of the highest salaries of any elected city officials in the nation. We turned up the fire even more as the cit ... More >>

Sheriff Will Monitor Parolees That State Won't

​The union representing Los Angeles Police Department officers made a rare move this week in praising the Sheriff's Department for stating it would essentially do the job of the state and monitor those convicts set free under state parole reform. " ... We thank Sheriff Lee Baca," reads a stat ... More >>

You're Never Too Old to Volunteer (Just Ask Kirk Douglas)

Just because he's 92 (93 in less than two weeks, but who's counting?), doesn't mean the veteran actor can slack off. For the fifth year in a row, Kirk and his wife Anne (not exactly a spring chicken herself) will be donating their time by helping to dish up a Thanksgiving feast to the homeless at th ... More >>

Herbie Gonzalez Gets Rich Over Bad Rap

L.A. County officials award $1 million to immigrant wrongly jailed for murder

Bratton's Endorsement of Ridley-Thomas Gets Weird

Yesterday, we mentioned how political endorsements have a funny way of coming back to haunt the people who do the endorsing. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Bill Bratton is now learning that lesson in spades.Ridley-Thomas campaign mailer​Even though critics, police experts and even the Los An ... More >>

Swine Flu Outbreak at Pitchess Jail

The L.A. County Sheriff's Department has confirmed there are 20 cases of swine flu among prisoners at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic. According to Associated Press, LASD spokesman Steve Whitmore said Wednesday that the first flu case was confirmed two weeks ago at the Men's Central Jail ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

May Day Cops Dodge Bullet No LAPD officers involved in the 2007 May Day melee in MacArthur Park will be fired, although Chief Bill Bratton had called for four terminations. L.A. TimesCut the Comedy Birmingham High School administrators will be disciplined for allowing Sacha Baron Cohen to use the sc ... More >>

Black Coalition Begins Grim Sleeper Information Campaign Despite Michael Jackson

Last Thursday a small group of South L.A. family members and activists held a press conference on the corner of 98th Street and Western Avenue, across from Jesse Owens Park. The topic was bleak. It was also the day Michael Jackson died and nearly every newspaper and television station in town was a ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

He-e-e-r-re's Eddie! Ed McMahon, the sidekick's sidekick, who for 30 years suffered and shone as Johnny Carson's foil, straight man and MC, has died of undisclosed causes at the age of 86. L.A. TimesSheriff Stops DNA Search Blaming budget woes, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca has halted his department' ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Eyesore or Landmark? The Century Plaza Hotel and its fate are a bone of contention between city preservationists enamored with its curving, Jet Age architecture, and the hotel's owner, who wants to raze it and raise a mixed-use development in its stead. L.A. TimesNo YouthTube for L.A. Times The city ... More >>

Hard Cell: Central Jail Stacks 'Em High

In her Witness L.A. blog, Celeste Fremon talks to a prisoner stuck in the crowded county lockup. "Al," as she calls him, is nursing a bum knee created by a mishap that occurred when he was sliding down from a three-tiered bunk bed. That's how sardine-can-like the Men's Central Jail has become. The p ... More >>

Third Suspect Arrested in Deputy Slaying

The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested a third suspect in the shooting death of an L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy. A fourth man remains at large. "We will bring all those responsible for the murders to justice," said Police Chief William Bratton at a 1 p.m. press conference at Parker Center, ... More >>

Rocky II: Will Delgadillo's Sequel Be Any Better?

The Los Angeles Times reports that L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is making moves to run again for California Attorney General, now that Jerry Brown, the current A.G., is showing signs of wanting to reoccupy the governor's mansion. Brown obliterated Delgadillo in the 2006 Democratic primary, bu ... More >>

Hundreds Attend Funeral for Slain Sheriff's Deputy

Family and friends along with hundreds of law enforcement officers attended a funeral today at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown L.A. for a sheriff’s deputy who was gunned down outside his home in Cypress Park. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Juan Escalante, 27, was shot to ... More >>

California Prisons' Big Group Hug

Under court order, races must co-exist

Rocky Delgadillo's Flameout

Once a rising star, the city attorney muffs it with endless screwups

North Hollywood Bizarro

Shootout memorial turns surreal

An American Muslim

Maher Hathout and his philosophy of radical openness

The Passion of Lee Baca

Power Grabs Antonio Villaraigosa Should Make Once He's Done With the Schools

Shut Up, Already!

The City Council loses it on the police tax

Huggy Hertzberg

Smart and out to break up L.A. Unified, this Valley guy wants to touch every voter in L.A.

Dawn in L.A.

What were 12,000 people doing at the Convention Center?

L.A.-Boston: A Lesson for Convention Cops

County Supervisors, 1; Sheriff’s Deputies, 0

Morale is not good at the Sheriff’s Department

This Rocky Can Handle a Punch

Tributes

Voting Guide

Endorsements

The Weekly’s recommendations in the March primary

The Other War

One Toke Over the Line

Cannabis vs. the courts