LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who Tuesday stands accused by Inspector General Max Huntsman of promoting a "code of silence" around secret societies within his department, contends the IG's actions are "purely politically driven and an attempt to undermine the department."
The IG's report on a deputy group identified as the "Banditos" alleges that roughly 30 members of the clique disrupt day-to-day operations at the East L.A. Sheriff's Station by creating tension between deputies who are members and those who are not.
"Substantial evidence exists to support the conclusion that the Banditos are gang-like and their influence has resulted in favoritism, sexism, racism and violence," according to the report, which calls on the LASD to thoroughly investigate all internal criminal allegations and compel statements from witness deputies.
According to the report released Monday, tensions between the Banditos and non-members led to an assault on younger deputies by veterans of the department following an East L.A. station party at Kennedy Hall in September 2018. One deputy was allegedly choked and began to lose consciousness, while another required stitches to his lip. A third told investigators that an older deputy threatened his family.
Four deputies were relieved of duty as a result, according to the inspector general. However, the IG's report alleges that internal investigators ignored evidence and neglected to ask tough questions of witnesses to the alleged assault that might have led to criminal charges.
In a statement released about 10 p.m. Monday, Villanueva said Huntsman had multiple opportunities to address the Banditos issue, but chose to do nothing, until now, two years into the sheriff's tenure.
"This is because his job as a political appointee is to do whatever the Board (of Supervisors) instructs him to do," Villanueva said. "Mr. Huntsman now claims the past is the present, while willfully omitting all of the progress which has been made."
The sheriff disputed the part of the IG's report that said investigators did not conduct a thorough investigation into the Kennedy Hall fight.
"Both criminal and administrative investigations were conducted where investigators interviewed over 70 involved parties and witnesses in the case," he said. "In addition, this case was submitted to the District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division for their review and their office concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt."
Villanueva said that immediately after he took office, he relieved the East Los Angeles Station captain of his command and overhauled the command structure at the station.
"On August 13, 2020, at the conclusion of the Kennedy Hall fight between deputies investigation, I held a press conference to publish the results of the investigation for the public," Villanueva said. "Twenty-six deputies involved in that early morning fight were either suspended or terminated. As has become his pattern, Mr. Huntsman seems to have once again intentionally omitted facts which do not further his political agenda."
The LASD has already opened a criminal investigation into the inspector general's office for potential theft of confidential files and conspiracy. The two parties, with the Board of Supervisors lining up with the IG, have been clashing for months.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey also took a hit in Huntsman's report.
"Having received what appears to be a purposefully perfunctory investigation by (the Internal Criminal Investigation Bureau) ... the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office did not request statements be taken from the uncooperative witnesses or empanel a grand jury to compel statements," according to the inspector general's report.
The D.A.'s office declined to file charges for battery or criminal threats against the four deputies allegedly involved in the Kennedy Hall incident, citing insufficient evidence of a crime.
"The LADA's rationale for declining to file a case against the four suspects was as follows: alcohol was involved, the area in question was dark and thus the video did not sufficiently capture the incident, contradictory statements were made by witnesses and parties involved, and all of the suspects and victims were all potentially biased," the report stated.
The IG countered that such inconsistencies were minor and typical of cases with multiple witnesses.
The report also cited a footnote to the D.A. memorandum that reads: "Although there was some mention of a subculture "Banditos" existing at the ELA station, the Banditos were not a focus of this investigation nor were the suspects identified as being part of this subculture. Furthermore, whenever mentioned, the Banditos were simply associated with a group of older, more senior deputies that simply ostracized younger deputies they felt were lazy. At no point in this investigation did any witnesses indicate that the Banditos were equivalent to a gang or any type of criminal enterprise.
The footnote raised concerns for the IG's office, which said the issue went to motive and that witness statements in total made clear that a gang culture did exist at the station.
Huntsman was a prosecutor working in Lacey's office before he was appointed inspector general. As of Tuesday morning, Lacey's office had not responded to a request for comment.
Deputy cliques or gangs are not new. The IG report acknowledges that they date back to at least 1970, and quoted from a 2012 report by the Citizens Commission for Jail Violence, established under Lee Baca's tenure as sheriff.
"For years, management has known about and condoned deputy cliques and their destructive subcultures that have undermined the core values (articulated) by the sheriff," the CCJV report stated. "These factors have contributed to force problems in the jails as well as numerous off-duty force incidents involving deputies."
Some younger deputies now allege that the older deputies at the East L.A. Station have ties to the Banditos, who allegedly "used their influence, and sometimes force and violence, to push deputies out of the station for failing to live up to the Banditos' work ethic," according to the report.
A civil complaint filed by the deputies who were assaulted says the Banditos are about 90 deputies strong, though some are retired, and all are tattooed with a mustachioed skeleton wearing a sombrero and carrying a pistol and bandolier. About one-third of the group work at the East L.A. station and control it "like inmates running a prison yard," according to the civil complaint.
Huntsman took the unusual step of including some transcripts of witness interviews in his report, which also pointed to a "pattern and practice" of older deputies imposing their will on younger colleagues, a legal term often used to support claims of discrimination.
Villanueva said in August he had adopted a "zero tolerance" policy toward all deputy cliques.
"If you form a group and you mistreat people, yes, we will seek to make sure you are no longer a member of the department," he told reporters then.
However, the sheriff, who has previously pushed back against the idea that everyone who joins with other deputies and gets a tattoo is up to no good, said he wouldn't be seeking to draw up membership lists.
"... we're not gonna go on an inquisition and go through the entire 18,000 employees of the department to see if they have a tattoo or they're a member of a group" Villanueva said when announcing the new policy. "That would be inappropriate and wildly speculative. We're trying to run an organization, not engage in a witch hunt."
The FBI has reportedly opened its own probe into the Banditos, according to the IG report.