Jails under scrutiny

Dec. 9, 2013  By Robert Faturechi and Jack Leonard

Sev­en Los Angeles County sher­iff’s of­fi­cials have been in­dicted on charges of con­spir­acy, ob­struc­tion and giv­ing false state­ments as part of the FBI’s long-run­ning in­vest­ig­a­tion in­to mis­con­duct in the county’s jails.

Feb. 7, 2014

The Los Angeles County dis­trict at­tor­ney’s of­fice re­jec­ted charges against Sher­iff’s Depu­ties Joey Aguiar and Mari­ano Ramirez, who were ac­cused of beat­ing an in­mate on Feb. 11, 2009, in Men’s Cent­ral Jail. A county pro­sec­utor said sher­iff’s of­fi­cials sub­mit­ted their in­vest­ig­a­tion of the in­cid­ent too late for crim­in­al fil­ing in state court. A fed­er­al grand jury handed up an in­dict­ment this week al­leging that Aguiar and Ramirez as­saul­ted the in­mate ...

Feb. 7, 2014  By Jack Leonard, Richard Winton and Robert Fauterechi

Chap­lain Paulino Juarez, a Cath­ol­ic dea­con, de­scribed wit­ness­ing a beat­ing at the Men’s Cent­ral Jail in Feb­ru­ary 2009. In a sworn state­ment for the Amer­ic­an Civil Liber­ties Uni­on of South­ern Cali­for­nia, Juarez said he saw Los Angeles County sher­iff’s depu­ties pound­ing an in­mate pressed against the wall. Juarez said he be­lieved the in­mate was hand­cuffed be­cause he nev­er raised his hands to pro­tect his face from the depu­ties’ fists, in­stead ...

Feb. 7, 2014  By Richard Winton

Fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies in­dicted two Los Angeles County Sher­iff’s depu­ties who al­legedly beat a chained jail in­mate, then falsely ac­cused him of at­tack­ing them.

Dec. 9, 2013  By Robert Faturechi and Jack Leonard

The in­dict­ments de­tails three sep­ar­ate in­cid­ents in which pro­sec­utors al­leged that a sher­iff’s ser­geant en­cour­aged depu­ties he su­per­vised at the vis­it­ing area of Men’s Cent­ral Jail to use ex­cess­ive force and un­law­ful ar­rests of vis­it­ors.

Dec. 9, 2013  By Robert Faturechi and Jack Leonard

Los Angeles County Sher­iff’s deputy Richard Pi­quette was in­dicted on charges that he built and pos­sessed an il­leg­al fire­arm.

Dec. 9, 2013  By Robert Faturechi and Jack Leonard

Three Los Angeles County sher­iff’s depu­ties, all of whom are broth­ers as­signed to county jail fa­cil­it­ies, were charged with con­spir­acy to make false state­ments to two banks in con­nec­tion with a “buy-and-bail” mort­gage fraud scheme.