More Charges Filed Against LA County Sheriff’s Department

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New misconduct charges were filed against two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies on Friday, bringing the total number of charges against current and former sheriff’s officials to 21 over a three-year investigation, according to the LA Times.

The charges, which were announced by federal prosecutors in connection with the ongoing FBI investigation into misconduct in the LASD, state that two deputies assaulted a handcuffed inmate in Los Angeles’ Men’s Central Jail in February 2009.  

“It’s simply another example of the need to be terribly concerned about what checks and balances are in place within the department,” Miriam Krinsky, executive director of Los Angeles County’s Citizens’ Jail Commission on Jail Violence, a county commission created in response to the abuse scandal, told the LA Times.

The crime was initially reported by a jail chaplain on Feb. 12, 2009, one day after the incident. The chaplain, Deacon Paulino Juarez, filed an official report on the incident days later, during which he reported that four sheriff’s deputies punched, kicked and pepper-sprayed an inmate who was handcuffed to a waist chain, despite him shouting, “Please stop!” However, the department concluded that the use of force was within policy and did not discipline the deputies. 

After the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California filed a sworn statement by Deacon Juarez, together with dozens of other declarations of deputy misconduct in LA County’s jail system, Juarez was granted a meeting with Sheriff Lee Baca.

Juarez recalled that Baca said he’d never heard about the incident. 

“This happened two years ago and I’m only finding out about it now?” Baca asked his executive staff.

He then, according to what Juarez told the LA Times, looked over the file and told the chaplain that the inmate, called BP, was determined to be schizophrenic by investigators. He also claimed that the file said that BP was punched, adding that “Punches are allowed, but kicks are not allowed in my department.” 

The two deputies being charged in the case, Joey Aguiar, 26, and Mariano Ramirez, 38, are facing charges both of violating the civil rights of an inmate and of submitting falsified reports of the incident. According to Federal prosecutors, the deputies claimed that the inmate tried to head-butt Aguiar, although this has proven to be false.