Lee Baca

Marijuana Shops In WeHo Raided As Gang-Related, Criminal Enterprises, Cops Say

Zen Healing, a marijuana dispensary in West Hollywood, announced on its website today that "we will be closed until further notice." Maybe that's because cops on Tuesday raided the place as part of what authorities claim is a gang-related "criminal enterprise" that uses "violence and intimidation t ... More >>

Lucky to Be Alive

A couple's devastating encounter with Lee Baca's COPS HIT deputies

Nitrous Oxide Bust Announced By L.A. Sheriff's Department

Updated at the bottom with three arrests and details about how, authorities allege, the nitrous was distributed. First posted at 4:29 p.m. Nitrous oxide is in your dentists office, and sometimes it makes you feel good. But authorities say the gas is being abused in the rave and party scene. Today ... More >>

Emanuel Pleitez Maybe Isn't So Amazing, Readers Claim

Don't Shoot On New Years Eve; L.A. Cops Can Hunt You Down With New Tech

Firing guns into the air to celebrate the new year is probably as old as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles itself. After all, we're about as wild and west as it gets. And still, you would think that in contemporary Los Angeles, home of the world's best university, Hollywood and the supers ... More >>

Los Angeles' War on Street Artists

The art world sees a vibrant movement. Metro's cops see jail fodder.

VIDEO: L.A. Sheriff's Deputy Brutally Detains 'Mentally Ill' Suspect by Smashing, Stomping His Head Into Pavement

While investigating another story, Telemundo's video team says it caught a brutal L.A. County Sheriff's arrest on tape -- adding to the leaning stack of "excessive force" allegations on some neglected desk at the sheriff's Internal Affairs Bureau. The video (embedded below) shows a young Latino man ... More >>

The 5 Biggest Losers From Carmen Trutanich's D.A. Debacle (Other Than Trutanich)

The county updated its vote tally this afternoon, and it confirmed what we already knew: Carmen Trutanich crashed and burned on Tuesday night. With 59,000 extra ballots counted, Trutanich's margin of defeat is unchanged. He's still in third by 8,000 votes, and only 117,000 votes remain to be counted ... More >>

Supreme Court: L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca Can Be Held Responsible for Jail Violence on His Watch

Like the "Teflon Sheriff" he is, Lee Baca has been doing his darndest to slip his good name off an inmate-stabbing lawsuit that names Baca as a defendant. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals turned him down last summer, but the sheriff didn't stop there. He marched his don't-blame-Baca paperwork all t ... More >>

Supreme Court: L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca Can Be Held Responsible for Jail Violence on His Watch

Like the "Teflon Sheriff" he is, Lee Baca has been doing his darndest to slip his good name off an inmate-stabbing lawsuit that names Baca as a defendant. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals turned him down last summer, but the sheriff didn't stop there. He marched his don't-blame-Baca paperwork all t ... More >>

L.A. Sheriff's Gang 'Jump Out Boys' Reportedly Prides Itself on Officer-Involved Shootings

What happens when the very badges chosen to dismantle and disempower the gangs of Los Angeles County form a gang of their own? It's no secret that the L.A. County Sheriff's Department -- whose reputation with the public has completely disintegrated under Sheriff Lee Baca, in a swirl of scandals inc ... More >>

Remington Orr, Sheriff's Custody Assistant, Arrested After Allegedly Trying to Smuggle, Sell Cocaine Behind Bars

Update on Wednesday: He pleaded not guilty. As if embattled Sheriff Lee Baca needed another headline about an employee gone-bad, department officials today said they arrested one of their own trying to enter the Men's Central Jail with cocaine. Remington Orr was arrested at 7:30 last night -- get ... More >>

ACLU Sues Sheriff Lee Baca & Undersheriff Paul Tanaka Over Long-Standing Deputy Violence Against Inmates

On July 22, LA County jail inmate Jonathan Goodwin says he witnessed several deputies beat and kick a fellow inmate whose hands were bound in shackles. Nearly three long weeks later, says Goodwin, one of the deputies involved in the beating walked into Goodwin's cell to show him who was boss -- t ... More >>

Deputy Elbows Woman on Bus: Teflon Sheriff Lee Baca Starts Campaign Against Her (911 Audio)

When is an elbow to the face an appropriate use of force by a cop? That seems to be the big question surrounding the caught-on-tape confrontation between a "special needs" woman, 42-year-old Julie Nelson, and an L.A. County sheriff's deputy on-board a Metro bus Monday night. Embattled "Teflon Sher ... More >>

Steve Cooley, L.A.'s District Attorney, Vows to Prosecute Criminals Back to Prison Despite Inmate Reduction Plan

Lee Baca's Jail Beating Problem Gets Watchdog With Teeth: Fellow Top Cop Jim McDonnell

Jim McDonnell from his LAPD days.​Sheriff Lee Baca has the FBI and the ACLU breathing down his neck over the alleged beatings of inmates (and even visitors) at his L.A. County jails. Now the omnipotent if not low-profile County Supervisors seem to be in a pissing contest to see who can appoin ... More >>

Lee Baca's Jail-Beating Problems to Get New Oversight From Judge Carlos R. Moreno

Judge Carlos R. Moreno.​The county's top cop is about to get a new boss -- Judge Carlos R. Moreno, who was appointed to the Citizen's Commission on Jail Violence. County Supervisor Gloria Molina today announced the appointment to the body that was formed "in response to allegations that Sheri ... More >>

L.A. County Emergency Response System, $700 Million and 3 Years in the Making, Implodes at Final Hour

L.A. County CEO William Fujioka makes almost $340,000 per year.​Updated after the jump with appalled response from the L.A. County Board of Supes. Also, for clarity: The CEO only chaired the oversight board for this project. There is a giant roomful of folks -- especially county attorneys -- r ... More >>

California Prison Parolees in L.A. Might End up Under Sheriff's Supervision Because County Probation Department is so Troubled

Sheriff Lee Baca, left, with county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.​How bad is the L.A. County Probation Department? So bad that the county's leaders are actually looking at giving state parolee supervision duties, which would normally be taken over by local probation officials, to the departm ... More >>

Men's County Jail Visitor Viciously Beaten by Guards

Sheriff Lee Baca says jail is unsupervisable and should be shut down

Arcadia Highlands' Oak Protesters Face Trial

As DA Cooley prosecutes four activists, a war to save SoCal old growth gets nasty

John Quigley and Julia Posin Trial: Los Angeles DA Steve Cooley Pushing Jail Time for Enviros Who Tried to Save 249 Oak Trees

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley apparently is committed to jailing enviros John Quigley and Julia Posin, who sat in trees in the Arcadia woodlands north of Los Angeles to stop the county Department of Public Works from bulldozing 249 oaks and sycamores so the county can fill the g ... More >>

L.A. County: Bell, Compton Should Not Have Own Police Departments

Those were the days​Two of L.A. County's most lawless little cities -- Bell for its politicians, Compton for its gangs -- want to deal with their criminals them gosh-darn selves. But that doesn't look likely -- not if county officials have anything to say about it. Compton has already been un ... More >>

A Betrayal in Proud Pomona

Century-old police department fears the end of its own thin, blue line

County Parking Tickets to Jump

Taxes may not be going up during the rest of 2009, but those reliable tax surrogates, parking fines, are. At least in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, whose Board of Supervisors voted to up the ante on drivers who lose the foot race to their cars' expired meters to parking enforcement ... More >>

City Council Members Not Done With Ed Boks

On Wednesday Ed Boks announced that L.A.'s Department of Animal Services would resume its distribution of $30 coupons and $70 full-fee vouchers for the department's spay-neuter program. Two days before, members of the City Council's Public Safety Committee had raked the general manager over the coal ... More >>

DNA Deep Freeze

Why Los Angeles crime-fighters fell years behind on rape testing, and may never catch up

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Sheriff to Close Jails? Going far beyond the early release of county inmates, Sheriff Lee Baca may also close a jail or two to cope with a massive budget shortfall that his department faces. L.A. TimesCandidate Boycotts Own Press Conference L.A. City Councilman and City Attorney candidate Jack Weiss ... More >>

Sympathy for the Devil: Crime Stats Say L.A.'s Streets Are Safer Than Ever, So Why Are Gang Hoods Still So Bloody?

Top dogs Da Brat, Zen Baca and Tony V weigh in, along with street players D-Black, Marky-D and Mauricio

Hector Marroquin's Revenge

Feds arrest “No Guns” activist for selling guns, while L.A. politicians duck

Lighting Up

Cutting through the haze of WeHo’s marijuana vote

Wake Up and Vote

L.A. Weekly endorsements for next Tuesday’s primary

Jailhouse Hope

Community leaders and the sheriff talk peace and the riots’ cause

Supermax Explodes

An inmate’s wife and a sheriff come to terms with a riot

Power Grabs Antonio Villaraigosa Should Make Once He’s Done with the Schools

LA’s Underground Power Broker

The name Vignali receded into L.A. history after the “Pardongate” scandal of 2001, but questions remain about drug-dealing son Carlos and his real estate magnate father, Horacio, who just might be pulling the strings in the remaking of downtown L.A.

Loco Control

It’s hard not to feel like a sucker on these budget measures

Pulling the Plug

The long, sad road to King-Drew

The Swinging Door

A new council, rich lobbyists and a sheriff who doesn’t want to leave

Take Heed, Chief

Bill Bratton needs to spend time with council members from high-crime districts

Leadership, Leadership, Leadership

A new LAPD chief must bring a new approach

Working for Themselves

Day laborers gather in Northridge

Leisure Copworld

LAPD officers dream of a three-day week

Vows of Peace

Messing with those who want to leave gang life

Letters

The Guns of Autumn

Getting the county out of the arms trade

Sick and Mired

For mentally ill, any jail is hard time

The Last Roll Call

The cop funeral as civic pageant

Our selections in Tuesday's General Election (cont.)

Sheriff's Tariff

What's the key issue in the sheriff's race?