Ex-LA sheriff to plead guilty in corruption case

LOS ANGELES Feb 10 Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca pleaded guilty on Wednesday to lying to federal investigators who were conducting a corruption and civil rights probe of the nation’s largest county jail system.

But he stepped down as sheriff in 2014, citing the “negative perception” his bid for re-election would bring to the sheriff’s office. Once he pleads guilty, the actual sentence will be determined by the federal judge presiding over the case.

Baca says he made a mistake and accepts being held accountable.

Prosecutors have agreed Baca should face no more than six months in prison when sentenced May 16.

With a brown suit and miniature sheriff’s star gleaming on his lapel, the 73-year-old answered a judge’s questions in a quiet voice.

Baca told investigators that he did not know his deputies would “approach” the lead FBI investigator in the sheriff’s department case, feds said in a statement.

“This is not a day of celebration for us”, U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker said earlier during a news conference. “It is indeed a sad day when the leader of a law enforcement agency fails to honor his oath and instead of upholding justice, decides to obstruct it”.

On Wednesday, Baca pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in April 2013 about deputies’ plans to intimidate an FBI agent and to shut down a federal investigation.

Under his plea agreement, Baca now admits he secretly directed deputies to “isolate” an inmate suspected of being an Federal Bureau of Investigation informant and “do everything but put handcuffs” on the Federal Bureau of Investigation agent sniffing around his jails.

In prosecuting the matter that became known as “Operation Pandora’s Box”, the U.S. Attorney’s Office showed tenacity, yes, but also the true meaning of justice by not stopping with the convictions of a dozen or so lower-level players or with the ongoing prosecution of former undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who is due to face trial soon.

It was not immediately clear to what degree Baca was cooperating with investigators. Baca is retiring after 48 years with Sheriff’s Department.

“I’m not afraid of reality”.

Zwieback said Baca, who returned home after Wednesday’s hearing, will be required to appear for an interview with federal probation officials in about a month.

Just a month before that, when the indictments of 18 sheriff’s officials were announced, the lawman strongly denied criticisms that abuse was rampant in his department.

“I don’t see myself as the future”, he said.

Seventeen members of the department have been convicted of federal crimes, including beating inmates, obstructing justice, bribery and conspiracy.

The visitor, Gabriel Carrillo, was restrained and assaulted in February 2011 after deputies found him and his girlfriend illegally carrying cellphones while visiting Carrillo’s brother at Men’s Central Jail.

Deputies are accused of altering records to make it seem as if the informant was released and they then re-booked him under a different name before moving him to a number of secure locations. The next day two sheriff’s sergeants threatened the agent with arrest, they said.

Tanaka retired from the department in 2013 and ran unsuccessfully to replace his former boss, losing by a wide margin to Jim McDonnell.

Tanaka is scheduled to go to trial on March 22.

“One of the measures of an organizational culture is how it handles its allegations of misconduct”, said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.