Villanueva Oversaw Jail Where Filthy Conditions Caused $53 Million Payout
Written by 991KBU on July 18, 2019
L A County’s new sheriff was a lieutenant at the woman’s county jail during the time that women were subjected to disgusting and outrageous body searches.
The county taxpayers are now going to have to pay 53 million dollars to settle lawsuits filed against the sheriff’s department.
Alex Villanueva — now L.A.’s Sheriff — served at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood for two-and-a-half years, from November 2011 to May 2014.
Court records unveiled yesterday show that Villanueva was a ranking officer … as female deputies forced as many as 60 inmates at a time to disrobe and submit to body cavity searches and verbal abuse on the filthy floor of a giant open garage.
The lawsuit claimed Alex Villanueva commanded deputies who carried out “highly invasive visual and body cavity searches under inhumane conditions.”
In a 2015 memo to plaintiff’s attorneys, the county said Villanueva knew about “strip search policies, procedures and practices” as well as the “training and supervision” of jail deputies “regarding strip searches and the manner in which they were conducted.”
Lindsay Battles, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, told laist.com that Villanueva “was responsible for what was going on … he was responsible for the oversight and training of strip searches.”
The county yesterday unveiled the secret negotiations to pay 93 thousand women plaintiffs 53 million dollars for the deputies’ actions.
No comment from sheriff Alex Villanueva.
And the Los Angeles Times reports today that a top official in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said she was ordered to carry out a “highly unethical” and “unheard of” directive from incoming Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
The order … just after the election and before he took office … was to reinstate fired deputy Caren Carl Mandoyan … who was also Villanueva’s campaign aide and chauffeur.
Alicia Ault also says she was ordered to alter Mandoyan’s disciplinary record.
Court papers retrieved by the L-A Times indicate that Villanueva ordered the reinstatement to happen immediately after the election … but before the old sheriff left office.
That was to make it look like Mandoyan was reinstated by the departing sheriff .. and not Villanueva.
New court depositions also reveal that Villanueva’s former second-in-command is now testifying that the new sheriff ignored evidence about his campaign aide … as he worked to get Mandoyan back on the county payroll.
The top aide is testifying that he was fired by the sheriff after telling him that Mandoyan indeed lied about trying to break into a building occupied by his screaming girlfriend.
Again … the sheriff tells the L A Times that “at this point in time, it would be inappropriate (for me) to comment on pending litigation.”
