Full Coverage: L.A. County jail system under scrutiny

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca remained defiant after his sentencing Friday morning, telling reporters outside the courthouse that he was in the right for actions he took in 2011 for which he will now serve a three-year prison term.

Lee Baca, the once powerful and popular sheriff of Los Angeles County, was found guilty Wednesday of obstructing a federal investigation into abuses in county jails and lying to cover up the interference.

In their final words at the end of a bruising retrial, federal prosecutors and an attorney for former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca painted contrasting portraits of the man — as a selfish coward who used subordinates to carry out a plan to obstruct an FBI investigation and a transparent leader who acted reasonably and decisively to protect others.

The voice of former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca filled a downtown L.A. courtroom last week.

Frustration over conditions in the county’s jails spilled over Friday morning as protesters temporarily shut down part of a street leading to the main jail complex near downtown Los Angeles, prompting a brief confrontation with police.

Despite his claims of ignorance, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was deeply involved in efforts to interfere with FBI agents as they investigated abuses in county jails, a retired sheriff’s official testified Thursday.

In their second attempt to convince a jury that former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca conspired to thwart the FBI from investigating abusive deputies in his jails, federal prosecutors on Friday focused on the lawman’s relationship with his then-second in command.

The first time Lee Baca was put on trial for obstruction of an FBI investigation, lawyers for the former Los Angeles County sheriff nearly convinced a jury that the government’s case was all smoke and no fire.

With his retrial on obstruction of justice charges scheduled to begin next week, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca lost several judicial rulings Monday in a final round of pretrial legal jockeying.

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca must decide within a week whether to pay $100,000 in damages stemming from a civil lawsuit involving an inmate abuse case or face liens on his assets, an attorney for the inmate said Friday.

The inmate said he was summoned to a spot under a stairway where no jail guards or cameras would be able to see.

The team of federal prosecutors was on a roll.

Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday that they will retry former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca following a recent mistrial in which a jury nearly cleared him of obstructing an FBI investigation into the county’s jails.

A mistrial was declared Thursday in the corruption case against former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca after a jury failed to reach a verdict on charges that he tried to obstruct an FBI investigation into allegations that deputies abused jail inmates.

Lee Baca spent 15 years as sheriff of Los Angeles County building a reputation as an ethical and transparent leader with creative, progressive ideas on law enforcement.

As testimony in his federal corruption case neared an end on Friday, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca’s defense centered on something no prosecution witnesses, recordings or documents have addressed: his character.

Prosecutors rested their obstruction of justice case Thursday afternoon against ex-Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, after calling to the witness stand a former U.S. attorney who recounted Baca’s fury upon discovering that the FBI was conducting a civil rights investigation into his department.

A former Los Angeles Times reporter who uncovered a scheme by L.A.

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy whose decision to accept a bribe and smuggle a cellphone into county jail set off an abuse scandal that upended the Sheriff’s Department testified Tuesday that he took part in beatings of handcuffed inmates and helped cover up brutality by colleagues.

Two ex-Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who have been convicted of obstructing an FBI civil rights investigation into the county jails told a federal jury on Friday that they believed they were following orders from former Sheriff Lee Baca.

It’s a tried and true technique of prosecutors to go after low-level criminals and turn them against their bosses.

For 15 years, Lee Baca helmed one of the largest police forces in the nation, entrusted with the safety of a population larger than that of many states and a budget in the billions of dollars.

The question at the heart of the most significant public corruption trial to hit Los Angeles in decades is clear: Did Lee Baca, a powerful and celebrated law enforcement figure, block the FBI from investigating abuse and violence in county jails when he was sheriff?

A federal judge ruled Thursday that a former Los Angeles Times reporter who interviewed then-Sheriff Lee Baca during an unfolding scandal over abuses in the county jails must testify in the former sheriff’s corruption trial, which is scheduled to begin next week.

With his criminal trial weeks away, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was in court Tuesday, battling with prosecutors over whether a key witness can testify about his mental health.

With his criminal trial approaching, former L.A.

Days after withdrawing a guilty plea for lying during an FBI investigation into widespread abuses at the county jails, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was indicted Friday on more serious charges that could bring up to 20 years in prison.

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca withdrew his guilty plea Monday to a charge of lying during an FBI investigation into the county’s jails, opting instead to take his chances at a high-stakes trial.

A federal judge on Monday threw out a plea agreement that would have given former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca a maximum of six months in prison, saying the sentence was too lenient considering Baca’s role in obstructing an FBI investigation into the county jails.

For years, allegations of inmate beatings by sheriff’s deputies in Los Angeles County jails swirled.

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, but he nonetheless should serve time in prison for lying to federal investigators during a probe into jail abuses by sheriff’s deputies, the U.S. attorney’s office has concluded.

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy at the center of the jail scandal that rocked the department and led to the conviction of 21 agency officials, including the former sheriff, was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison.

Jailers at the Los Angeles Police Department’s busiest detention facility frequently failed to properly conduct welfare checks of cells to ensure inmates were safe, according to a report released Friday by the LAPD’s watchdog.

Less than a week into his career as a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, Josh Sather was summoned by his training officer to the sixth floor of the Twin Towers jail.

The enormousness of the task facing Terri McDonald was clear.

A federal jury on Wednesday convicted former Los Angeles County Undersheriff Paul Tanaka of deliberately impeding an FBI investigation, capping a jail abuse and obstruction scandal that reached to the top echelons of the Sheriff’s Department.

Paul Tanaka, Los Angeles County’s former undersheriff, took the witness stand Monday and was grilled by a federal prosecutor who portrayed him as the main culprit in a plot to impede FBI agents investigating jail abuses.

The criminal trial of Paul Tanaka, a once-powerful figure in Los Angeles County policing, opened Thursday as the former undersheriff faces allegations that he deliberately thwarted an FBI investigation into jail abuses.

The sheriff’s lie came 25 minutes into the interview.

Retired Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca could lose his freedom for up to six months when he is sentenced in federal court in May, but there’s one thing he won’t forfeit — his county pension.

In the jail abuse scandal that has roiled the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and resulted in the convictions of more than a dozen officials, one question has remained open: How high did the corruption go?

At the center of the FBI’s investigation into allegations of obstruction of justice by Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials was a top-secret program known to a select few deputies as Operation Pandora’s Box.

For more than 15 years, Lee Baca was one of Los Angeles’ most prominent politicians and law enforcement leaders.

It is tempting to imagine disgraced former Sheriff Lee Baca — who now faces up to six months in federal prison — serving his time behind bars, itching to tell authorities of the abuse that he and other inmates routinely suffer at the hands of guards, trying to contact investigators with a phone they had managed to sneak in to him.

Retired Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca pleaded guilty Wednesday to lying to federal investigators, a stunning reversal for the longtime law enforcement leader who for years insisted he played no role in the misconduct that tarnished his agency.

At the center of the FBI’s investigation into abuses at the Los Angeles County Jail was a top-secret program known as Operation Pandora’s Box.

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies struck a deal Tuesday with federal prosecutors that spares them a second trial on charges related to their beating of a handcuffed jail inmate, but cements convictions they lied about the violent encounter.

Federal prosecutors will retry two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies after jurors deadlocked earlier this week on whether the pair used excessive force against a handcuffed jail inmate.

The trial of two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies accused of assaulting a handcuffed inmate began Tuesday with attorneys for the deputies and federal prosecutors offering starkly different accounts of what occurred.

The arraignment of three Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials accused of handcuffing a jail inmate to a wall for hours has been delayed until February.

One jail inmate, clad only in boxer shorts and socks, was handcuffed to a wall for up to 11 hours.

The widening scandal at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has at its center a top-secret operation that federal prosecutors said amounted to an outrageous case of obstruction of justice.

Federal officials have rejected a last-ditch effort by Los Angeles County to maintain control over its jails and will move forward with a consent decree to address longstanding problems with mental health care in the troubled facilities.

Los Angeles County’s long-overcrowded jail system saw a sharp decline in new inmates after California voters approved a law last year reducing penalties for a wide array of nonviolent crimes.

Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to pull back a plan to rebuild the aging Men’s Central Jail and reassess the number of beds needed in a new facility.

Shortly after going on a fishing trip with then-Undersheriff Paul Tanaka in June 2013, Capt.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department already was engulfed in a jail brutality scandal when a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office examined the beating of Gabriel Carrillo.

About 120 inmates were involved in a fight at Men’s Central Jail near downtown, prompting a lockdown of the facility, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Two former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were sentenced to federal prison Monday for their roles in the beating of a handcuffed jail visitor and a scheme to cover up the assault.

Jail inmates and their families filed a lawsuit Thursday against Los Angeles County as well as nearby counties, alleging that the fees for inmate telephone calls are “grossly unfair and excessive� and amount to a moneymaking scheme for local governments.

Prompted by the escape of an inmate from the Men’s Central Jail downtown, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials closed all three of the department’s jails to visitors Saturday to allow for a detailed security assessment.

A former deputy in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been indicted on federal charges that he helped cover up the beating of a handcuffed man by other deputies in a county jail, the U.S. attorney’s office announced Friday.

A long-running feud between Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell has hit upon a potentially feasible plan for working with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, targeting jail inmates eligible for deportation in a way that balances conflicting desires on both sides of the immigration debate.

Months after the Board of Supervisors moved to limit the practice, Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell has authorized federal agents to operate inside jails to look for deportable inmates, saying that the new procedures “appropriately balance� public safety needs and the concerns of immigrant communities.

The family of a 23-year-old man who committed suicide in Men’s Central Jail will receive $1.6 million from Los Angeles County to settle a lawsuit alleging that jail officials did not properly diagnose his mental illness.

Los Angeles County supervisors have reaffirmed their backing of a contentious $2-billion plan to build a 3,885-bed replacement for the downtown Men’s Central Jail and a new women’s jail in Lancaster.

Jesus Ysasaga had been arrested multiple times and ordered by the court to keep away from his ex-girlfriend.

The tall man with the bushy black beard gestured at his dark blue jail uniform.

Setting a future course for the troubled Los Angeles County jail system, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a plan to move at least 1,000 mentally ill offenders out of lockups and voted to build a state-of-the-art jail focused on mental health treatment.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty.

Los Angeles County supervisors reversed course Tuesday on last week’s controversial vote to proceed with design and construction of a new downtown jail, an action some legal experts said violated the state’s open meetings law.

In most parts of Men’s Central Jail, there is no natural light, only views of cell bars or scrums of inmates crowded in bunk beds pushed together end to end.

Capping years of scandal, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has agreed to federal oversight of its jail system in an effort to end abuse of inmates by sheriff’s deputies and to improve chronically poor treatment of mentally ill inmates.

A Los Angeles County jail inmate who went for 32 hours with no food, only one cup of water and no access to a toilet seemed to have been deliberately passed over during mealtime, said a high-ranking jail official who has viewed video of the inmate’s ordeal.

The foul-smelling glob splattered into Deputy Stephen Vasquez’s mouth and eyes.

The sheriff’s deputies all told the same story.

Los Angeles County is among 20 government entities -- including cities, counties and one state -- that won a grant from the John D. and Catherine T.

Los Angeles County’s overcrowded and outdated jail system is a headache for local officials; but for leaders of the small and economically distressed desert city of Adelanto, it’s a potential windfall — or so they hope.

Paul Tanaka, the mayor of Gardena, was once considered the heir apparent to his boss, Sheriff Lee Baca.

What began more than four years ago as a federal investigation into brutality and corruption by deputies in L.A.

Officials from around California announced Thursday that they will join in a national initiative seeking to reduce the number of mentally ill inmates in local jails.

Los Angeles County officials plan to spend more than $100 million over the next year to reduce abuses in the county’s crowded jails, improve treatment of mentally ill inmates and divert others with mental health issues from entering lockups.

Inmates at a downtown Los Angeles jail started a fire Sunday, forcing officials to put the jail on lockdown, authorities said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend a controversial partnership with federal immigration authorities designed to target potentially deportable immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes.

California officials appear poised to deny Los Angeles County’s request for $80 million to go toward a facility for female inmates at a proposed women’s jail in Lancaster.

The deputy described beating inmates unprovoked, slapping them, shooting them with a Taser gun and aggressively searching them to pick a fight — something he learned “on the job.�

The baby-faced deputy told a federal grand jury that his hiding of an inmate in August 2011 amounted to “kidnapping,� “smoke and mirrors,� and technically speaking, breaking laws.

Citing a dramatic increase in jail suicides, the U.S.

Sheriff’s officials convicted of obstructing a federal investigation into the Los Angeles County jails have been testifying before a grand jury as prosecutors set their sights on the highest echelons of the department, according to sources familiar with the probe.

Decision comes after criminal charges were filed against 18 current and former deputies. He won office in 1998.

When Justin Bravo applied to be a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, background investigators noted the young man had some brushes with the law that raised red flags about his past.

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeants accused of lying to federal investigators about threatening to arrest an FBI agent secretly recorded the confrontation outside the agent’s home, a federal prosecutor said in court Monday.

The sheriff says a commission would strengthen transparency and accountability. One of his rivals for reelection, Cmdr. Bob Olmsted, also supports the plan.

An Austrian consulate official was improperly arrested and searched by L.A.

Prosecutors say they found a ‘wide scope of illegal conduct’ by deputies and supervisors that went beyond mistreating inmates.

More than a dozen current and former “sworn officers� from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are expected to be arrested as part of a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of abuse and misconduct inside the county’s jails, according to sources familiar with the arrests.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said the charges against 18 current and former sworn officers on allegations of jail misconduct mark a “sad day� for the department, but he denied suggestions that it represents a larger, institutional problem.

FBI agents began arresting Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials Monday as part of a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of abuse and misconduct inside the county’s jails, according to sources familiar with the arrests.

The finding means Baca could be required to pay $100,000 out of pocket. Sheriff’s officials call the verdict a ‘huge mistake.’

A federal jury has found Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca personally liable in a case involving abuse of an inmate in the Men’s Central Jail, meaning the sheriff could be required to pay $100,000 out of pocket.

A federal jury made a mistake this week when it found Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca liable in a case involving abuse of an inmate, a department official said.

Two Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors wants to create an oversight commission to provide more outside scrutiny of the Sheriff’s Department.

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s jailer was convicted Friday on charges related to taking a $700 bribe and smuggling cocaine behind bars, prosecutors said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to pay out $200,000 to a jail inmate who claimed he was beaten by two sheriff’s deputies even as he lay on the floor motionless.

Sheriff’s Deputy Gilbert Michel, caught by the FBI smuggling a cellphone, alleged inmate abuse in a county jail. But his stories could not be verified, district attorney records show.

A sergeant sent a photo of the bloodied face of an L.A. County Jail visitor after receiving a similar image of the face of the man’s brother from an anti-gang deputy.

‘I couldn’t have written them better myself,’ sheriff says of panel’s suggestions to revamp his agency.

Commission cites a ‘failure of leadership’ by Sheriff Lee Baca, proposes long list of fixes to halt abuse in L.A. County lockups.

Investigators for a panel looking into L.A. County jail abuse find that watchdogs don’t regularly study data on violent encounters between deputies and inmates and how inmate complaints are handled.

Pilot program has L.A. County sheriff’s deputies taking photos of arrestees to help prevent cases of mistaken identity -- and the jailings of innocent people -- later.

The L.A. County sheriff’s leadership is being questioned, and he is under pressure to revamp his senior management team.

Anthony Brown, the FBI informant who reported on abuse within L.A. County jails, is serving 423 years to life for armed robbery and has a history of making unfounded allegations about police.

A deputy may have been told about an informant’s allegations that he was working with skinheads.

‘We screwed up,’ Baca tells a review panel, but he says he wants to look ahead for answers, not back.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Sheriff’s Department is institutionally unable — or worse, unwilling — to track and discipline deputies who engage in misconduct.

A former lieutenant says Capt. Daniel Cruz, head of the Men’s Central Jail, created an atmosphere of violence that encouraged misconduct and did not tolerate complaints.

Captain of Avalon sheriff’s station took pro golfer turned thief to course for pointers, a deputy says.

Records reveal how an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department task force used a lunchtime sting to target smuggling of drugs behind bars.

Wrongful incarcerations totaled 1,480 in the last five years, a Times inquiry finds.

Two rookies assigned to the most dangerous floor at Los Angeles County’s Men’s Central Jail racked up some of the highest numbers of use-of-force incidents in the whole facility, documents show.

Volatile mix at men’s lockup leads to high use-of-force incidents. Full coverage

Gabriel Carrillo, visiting his brother at Men’s Central Jail, suffered bruises and cuts in an altercation with sheriff’s deputies. Carrillo says he was attacked; deputies say he was resisting.

They will appoint an outside panel to investigate allegations that inmates are abused and that a code of silence protects deputies.

The Los Angeles County sheriff said he failed to implement important reforms that could have minimized brutality. He also said his command staff has at times left him in the dark about jail conditions.

Deputies who report wrongdoing are sometimes subjected to retaliation by colleagues, according to the Office of Independent Review. The findings echo allegations made by civilians.

Sheriff’s Department seeks to curtail the extent of subpoenas, which seek data on workers since 2009.

Sheriff’s Department watchdog releases study on inmate abuse. Sheriff Baca plans to install more video cameras in jail to document misconduct.

It needs a change in culture. Supervisors should establish an independent panel to do just that.

The department will reopen an examination of a top rookie who was allegedly ordered to beat a mentally ill inmate. The sheriff’s move comes amid an FBI inquiry into abuse and other deputy misconduct.

Sheriff Lee Baca says in a letter that the information led him to create a task force to examine a growing number of allegations of deputy misconduct in the jails.

Man died two days after being struck in the head by a deputy, but it’s unclear whether use of force was a factor.

The L.A. County sheriff strikes a more conciliatory tone as criticism of his jail oversight mounts.

The rookie, top recruit in his class, resigned after the incident, which he said was covered up. The deputy’s supervisor was allegedly threatened by the young man’s uncle, a sheriff’s detective.

Inmates pay to get narcotics and other contraband through deputies. Baca says guards’ financial hardships are usually involved.

The session, which was opened up to The Times and a local TV station, offered a candid glimpse into the living conditions of jail inmates. The move also seemed to be an effort to show that the Sheriff’s Department is transparent, can fix its own problems and hears out its inmates.

Amid allegations of misconduct by his deputies, Sheriff Lee Baca has chosen to blame the messengers.

Sheriff Baca says agents paid a deputy $1,500 to smuggle a cellphone to a jail inmate.

Three volunteers at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles say in sworn declarations that sheriff’s deputies abused inmates and that supervisors failed to take reports of the beatings seriously.

The officer allegedly accepted about $1,500 to smuggle a cellphone to an inmate who was an FBI informant, sources say. Sheriff asks whether the FBI is capable of investigating alleged jail abuses.

Federal agents sneaked a cellphone into Men’s Central Jail as part of their investigation of misconduct, sources say.

Watchdog agency says the financial crimes may be linked to steep cuts in their overtime.

The FBI is investigating allegations that two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies knocked an inmate unconscious, beat him for two minutes and then tried to cover up their conduct, authorities confirmed Monday.

In a budget oddity, an L.A. County lockup houses just two inmates.

But sheriff’s officials have no record of his request to review the inmate’s safety.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has begun termination proceedings against six deputies who were part of what officials are describing as an aggressive group that may have used gang-like hand signs to identify themselves before allegedly assaulting two fellow deputies at a Christmas party last year.

A civilian jail monitor said she witnessed two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies treat an inmate like “a punching bag,� unjustifiably beating him as he lay unconscious for at least two minutes, according to a court declaration filed Monday by the ACLU.

Sheriff’s Department is investigating a fight that broke out during a Christmas party.

Internal investigations will no longer wait until D.A.’s office has looked into cases.

With contraband seizures on the rise, L.A. County targets big smuggling rings.