OC Sheriff's Department fires deputy who revealed grand jury testimony
An Orange County sheriff's deputy who admitted to revealing her grand jury testimony to an internal affairs investigator from the department -- even though she had been ordered not to talk to anyone about the secret probe surrounding the beating death of a jail inmate -- has been fired.
Monica Bagalayos was dismissed last week, Sheriff's Department spokesman John McDonald confirmed today. He would not say whether the termination was related to the findings of the grand jury, but the move came a day after the department placed five other employees on administrative leave last week.
Bagalayos was on probation, and "probationary employees can be terminated for any reason," McDonald said.
Bagalayos declined to comment on the matter.
She was one of several members of the department who were called back more than once to testify before the grand jury reviewing the October 2006 death of John Derek Chamberlain at Theo Lacy jail.
During her second appearance, she admitted that she spoke with Jose Armas, an investigator in the internal affairs unit, at least twice on her first day of testimony. Phone records showed they spoke for 16 minutes before she took the witness stand, and for 29 minutes later that evening.
Bagalayos had been romantically involved with Armas years earlier, she told prosecutors, and Armas told her to use his cellphone because his office phone "had a tendency to record things." Bagalayos said she felt pressured by Armas to disclose her testimony, and ultimately told him that they had asked her about the 22 text messages that Theo Lacy jailer Kevin Taylor exchanged with her and others the night that Chamberlain died.
Armas and Taylor were among those suspended with pay last week pending the outcome of the department's own investigation of Chamberlain's death. Also suspended were special officer Phillip Le and deputy Jason Chapluk, who were on duty with Taylor when Chamberlain was attacked, and deputy Sonja Moreno, a women's jail guard who admitted to lying to the grand jury.
christine.hanley@latimes.com
