An Orange County sheriff's internal-affairs investigator left the department Friday amid an investigation into allegations that he pressured a deputy to reveal her confidential testimony before a grand jury investigating the beating death of a jail inmate.
Sheriff's officials would not say whether Jose Armas left the department voluntarily or was fired. He joined the department 25 years ago.
Armas is the second sheriff's employee involved in the investigation to leave the department since April, when the district attorney's office issued a scathing report about the 2006 beating death of John Derek Chamberlain at Theo Lacy jail in Orange.
"All I can say is he separated," said Capt. Dave Nighswonger, who oversees the sheriff's Professional Standards Division, which includes internal affairs.
Armas had been accused of asking Deputy Monica Bagalayos to tell him what she told a grand jury that was investigating Chamberlain's death. Armas was also called as a witness by the grand jury, which later summoned him again to quiz him on the accuracy of his testimony.
Armas could not be reached for comment Friday.
Bagalayos and other witnesses who testified before the grand jury had been instructed by Orange County prosecutors not to discuss their testimony with anyone. Bagalayos was fired in April, after transcripts of the grand jury investigation were released.
The grand jury investigation, initiated by the Orange County District Attorney's office, found that some deputies at Theo Lacy watched television, sent cellphone text messages and napped while they were on duty. They also allowed inmate "shot-callers" to enforce jail rules and discouraged some inmates from seeking medical treatment following beatings.
One of those deputies, Kevin Taylor, was watching an episode of the television show "Cops" when inmates sodomized and beat Chamberlain on Oct. 5, 2006, according to the grand jury transcripts. Chamberlain, a Mission Viejo resident, died from the injuries.
The inmates mistakenly believed that Chamberlain was in jail on child molestation charges. He actually had been jailed on charges that he possessed child pornography.
Dissatisfied with the sheriff's investigation of Chamberlain's death, the district attorney's office initiated its own investigation, calling dozens of witnesses and issuing subpoenas for internal sheriff's documents.
