LA County Sheriff Villanueva Provides Excuses Instead Of Public Documents
Written by 991KBU on July 1, 2019
The L A County sheriffs office is one of several police agencies across California that are failing to meet a state law about releasing public records about misconduct.
A new California law requires the sheriff and other police agencies to disclose personnel records to the public.
Reports about things like cops sexually assaulting detainees in jail.
Domestic violence complaints against an officer ignored.
Knocked-out teeth followed by a cover-up.
The LA Times … KQED radio and other journalists across the state are tracking police ahd sheriff’s deputies abusing their office … incljuding cases in the L A County sheriff’s office … which serves as the contract police force for he City of Malibu.
California peace officer records must be made public under a landmark transparency law that undid decades of secrecy surrounding police internal affairs files.
Reporters from the Los Angeles times the Orange County register … the bay area newsgroup and radio stations KPCC and KQED have filed requests up and down the state.
In fact … 40 news departments and newspapers are cooperating in the joint effort.
Some police agencies have responded by destroying the records.
Others are charging tens of thousands of dollars for access to public documents.
Los Angeles County sheriff Alex Villanueva has refused to search for the public records that have been requested.
His office is instead demanding that reporters identify specific cases they are seeking … an impossibole task.
The Sheriff’s Department released records about one deputy to the Los Angeles Times, a handful of separate files to KPCC, but nothing to the Orange County Register.
The files from the Sheriff’s Department included internal affairs records for Deputy Caren Mandoyan, who was fired for dishonesty and domestic violence and later reinstated by Villanueva.
The documents also showed that Mandoyan had admitted to having a tattoo linked to a secret society of deputies … accoridng to the L A Times.
Villanueva has acknowledged earlier this year that public records requests were “stacking up.” He has said he’s asked the county Board of Supervisors for funding to hire more people to handle requests.
“People are asking for the world,” he said at a piublic meeting.
His office did not respond to requests to comment for this story.
But his office has attacked an L A Times reporter by name on the official L A sheriff Twitter account … over her use of social media to highlight his actions.
