The head of the county’s lead investigative watchdog told county officials this week that the Sheriff’s Department is adopting a “bunker mentality” and warned of a “Tanaka-level crisis.”
Paul Tanaka was former Sheriff Lee Baca’s undersheriff, and both men were convicted of obstruction of justice related to their efforts to stymie an FBI probe into deputy-on-inmate jail violence. Tanaka was widely seen as fostering a culture that sanctioned that violence and protected deputies at all costs.
The comments from Inspector General Max Huntsman came during a discussion on granting subpoena power to his office in order to expand an investigation of cliques or gangs of tattooed deputies suspected of racism, sexism and violence.
“I was hired in part to tell you if we ever faced a Tanaka-level of crisis again. We face it now,” Huntsman told the Board of Supervisors. “If we don’t want to simply stand by and watch, we’ll need a stronger ordinance, one that rejects secrecy and has strong mechanisms for enforcement.”
The IG said Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who defeated incumbent Jim McDonnell in November, was not responsible for the proliferation of secret societies among deputies, because every deputy now in the force joined when the cliques were already in place.
However, like his predecessors, Villanueva has chosen to rebuff investigations and made no real effort to root out these groups, according to Huntsman.
“(Former Sheriff) Sherman Block set a code of silence in place…(and) this blueprint has been followed ever since,” Huntsman said, citing Baca’s refusal to investigate his command staff and McDonnell’s unwillingness to do anything other than discipline individual deputies.
“Instead of reforming, (Villanueva) has advocated a Fort Apache, bunker mentality,” Huntsman said, referring to a logo on the East Los Angeles Station door inspired by a 1948 movie about a U.S. Army outpost in the midst of Apache territory.
Supervisors Janice Hahn and Mark Ridley-Thomas co-authored a motion calling for expansion of the IG’s authority to investigate the deputy groups that go by names like the Banditos, Reapers, Spartans, Regulators and Vikings.
“Now we’ve heard reports that the FBI has even launched its own investigation,” Hahn said. The Los Angeles Times reported the FBI investigation earlier this month, citing multiple sources.
The board motion—which was unanimously approved—originally called for county counsel to return with recommendations about expanding the authority of the OIG within the next month, but a revised version set the time frame at 90 days.
Hahn said that would allow a RAND Corp. study commissioned by the county to gather preliminary information for the board. Pending state legislation granting subpoena power to civilian oversight commissions and inspectors general statewide might also be approved, making the motion moot, she said.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger raised concerns that the move to grant subpoena power might hamper RAND’s work.
“I’m hearing anecdotally that by doing this we’re going stifle the ability for the RAND study to move forward and that interviewees are not going to want to come forward,” Barger said.
However, Barger said she supported the motion in the interests of transparency and accountability.
