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Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has agreed to plead guilty to lying to federal investigators who were investigating corruption and civil rights violations in the nation's largest jail system, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Details on the federal charge were expected to be released at a news conference in downtown Los Angeles. Baca's attorney did not immediately return calls to BuzzFeed News.
Baca announced his retirement in 2014 after his 48-year record was tarnished by back-to-back scandals involving abuse by deputies inside the county's jail system. The former sheriff has denied any wrongdoing.
In August 2011, deputies determined that an inmate at Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail was an informant for the FBI after they recovered a cell phone that was linked to federal agents.
Deputies, allegedly guided by two top sheriff officials, tried to hide the inmate from the FBI and U.S. marshals who were seeking to bring him in to testify before a federal grand jury.
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. At the same time, investigators say the informant was told he had been abandoned by the FBI.
Reed Saxon / AP
Last year, Paul Tanaka, the former second-in-command of the embattled Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, surrendered to the FBI after a federal grand jury indicted him on obstruction of justice charges.
William "Tom" Carey, a captain who headed the department’s internal criminal investigations bureau, was also indicted and turned himself in to federal authorities.
Informant Anthony Brown, who was serving time for bank robbery, was giving information to the FBI which was investigating corruption and civil rights abuses inside the L.A. County jail system.
The two retired deputies are accused of overseeing attempts to thwart the FBI investigation into the department, which resulted in charges against 21 sheriff's department employees.
Damian Dovarganes / AP
In another instance, five deputies were convicted, and another has charges pending, over the 2011 beating and coverup of a handcuffed man inside Men’s Central Jail. In October Byron Dredd was named in a three-count indictment charging him with conspiracy to violate Gabriel Carrillo’s civil rights and two counts of making false reports.
The U.S. attorney’s office said that on Feb. 26, 2011 Carrillo and his girlfriend were visiting his brother in jail. The pair were carrying cell phones, which are prohibited in the prison. When they were discovered, Carrillo was allegedly taken into a break room, beaten, and sprayed with a burning agent similar to pepper spray, investigators said.
As a result of false statements made by the deputies, prosecutors said, Carrillo was charged with several crimes including resisting an officer and battery. Dredd is accused of writing an incident report falsely claiming Carrillo attacked one of the deputies and tried to escape.
LINK: Former L.A. Sheriff Officials Accused Of Obstructing Corruption Investigation
LINK: Embattled Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca Expected To Retire, Reports Say
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