Sheriff’s Campaign Aide Was Tattooed Member Of In-House Gang, Critics Say
Written by 991KBU on March 29, 2019
A key campaign aide to sheriff Alex Villanueva was a member of a secret clique … a gang of rogue L A County sheriff’s deputies.
That’s the latest revelation that has outraged the L A County Board of Supervisors … who have a very public war going on with the newly elected sheriff … Alex Villanueva.
The sheriff is the de facto police chief for Malibu … which hires the sheriff’s department to be the local police force.
The problem … is that Villanueva is seen as undoing a series of reforms instituted by the former sheriff.
400 deputies described as bad cops were fired by the former sheriff.
The new sheriff says those were railroad jobs … he wants to reexamine the cases.
Deputy Caren Carl Mandoyan has become the lightning rod of criticism.
The LA Times reports today that Mandoyan has a tattoo from a notorious sheriff’s clique … an in-house gang … blamed for terrorizing civilians in the color of the law.
A former domestic partner … a woman … has accused Mandoyan of abuse.
She has told investigators that she saw the group’s tattoo on Mandoyan’s inner left ankle.
It is a Grim Reaper holding a scythe next to the name of his Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station, branded with the number 98.
Mandoyan’s attorney tells the LA Times claims his client was involved in violence are “absolute rubbish” and that the deputy hasn’t been a member of the Reapers for years.
Watchdogs and members of the county’s governing board are furious.
They accuse Villanueva of reinstating renstating Mandoyan … at the same time that they are calling on an end to the agency’s subculture of tattooed deputy cliques.
These gangs in uniform have been accused of severe hazing, fights and violence against the communities they serve.
We have a link to the L A Times article about the Grim reaper tattoo … posted at the KBUU Newswire:
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-sheriff-mandoyan-tattoo-20190328-story.html
