
6 February 2020
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has reported to prison to begin serving a three-year prison sentence for a corruption conviction, according to federal records.
Baca, 77, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, had been free on bail since appealing his obstruction of justice conviction three years ago. The U.S. Supreme Court declined his final appeal last month and Baca was ordered to begin serving his term by Wednesday.
Baca was behind bars at the Federal Correctional Institution La Tuna, near El Paso, Texas, according to a federal Bureau of Prisons online database.
Baca, who resigned amid the corruption scandal in 2014, was convicted of lying to the FBI and trying to thwart the agency’s investigation into corruption in the nation’s largest jail system.
Agents had been secretly looking into allegations of bribery and inmate beatings by jail guards in 2011, when Baca and his top lieutenants learned that an inmate was acting as an FBI informant.
Baca and top brass hatched an elaborate plot to hide the informant in the jail system by booking him under false names and moving him to different locations. They also tried to intimidate an FBI agent by threatening to arrest her. […]
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies sentenced to federal prison for blocking probe
By Lisa Bartley | 23 September 2014
ABC NEWS — An angry federal judge handed down prison terms Tuesday to six current and former members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for obstructing a federal investigation into civil rights abuse and corruption inside L.A. County jails.
Judge Percy Anderson told the defendants their “blind obedience to a corrupt culture has serious consequences.” Anderson berated the defendants for their “lack of courage to do what’s right” and for refusing to show “even the slightest remorse.”
The defendants will surrender to federal prison on Jan. 2nd to serve prison terms ranging from 21 to 41 months. The five men and one woman will each have to submit DNA samples as they prepare to enter the federal prison system.
“The defendants were supposed to keep the jails safe or root out corruption and abuse in the jails,” prosecutor Brandon Fox told Eyewitness News. “Instead of doing any of that, what they decided to do was obstruct a grand jury investigation into abuse and corruption.”
All six defendants were convicted in July of conspiracy and obstruction of justice for their roles in a plan to hide inmate-turned-informant Anthony Brown from the FBI and a federal grand jury in 2011. […]
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