'The sheriff who went rogue': Alex Villanueva's scandal-plagued tenure ends in LA

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/16/alex-villanueva-la-county-sheriff-loses-robert-luna

‘The sheriff who went rogue’: Alex Villanueva’s scandal-plagued tenure ends in LA

Excerpt:

Villanueva has been accused of engaging in the same kind of cover-ups as his predecessors; while the county’s inspector general has recently identified dozens of current deputies believed to be members of officer “cliques” and gangs, which are known for encouraging brutality, Villanueva has defied subpoenas to testify on the issue and issued legal threats aiming to prevent officials from using the term “deputy gang”. He told the Guardian this year that the gangs were “a problem of perception, not reality”, and that he didn’t want to comply with “political subpoenas”.

A whistleblower also claimed Villanueva had personally directed a cover-up of an incident in which jail guards knelt on the head of a handcuffed man. The sheriff dismissed the allegations in the lawsuit and described former staffers suing him and the department as “disgruntled employees”.

In September, armed sheriff’s deputies raided the home of the county supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who serves on a sheriff’s oversight committee and has been a vocal critic. LASD said it was investigating a county contract and potential bribery, and seized Kuehl’s phone and personal computer, but the LA district attorney’s office said it was not involved in the search and had also investigated the claims last year and found no cause for charges.

The LA Times editorial board called the incident an indication of “just how unhinged” Villanueva had become, saying he was “LA’s loosest cannon and pettiest cop” and that his deputies “must choose whether to follow his crazy directives or defy him and sacrifice their jobs”. Villanueva said he had recused himself from the case but then gave a TV interview (while sitting in a bar) defending the investigation and further attacking Kuehl.

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More background

The Murderous Police Gangs of Los Angeles

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