Excessive Force

A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department captain accused of protecting brutal and dishonest jail deputies has spoken out publicly for the first time, saying the allegations are untrue. "I'm just shaking my head at some of these statements," said Daniel Cruz, who was placed on leave last year as allegations of abuse inside Men's Central Jail mounted. "I'm just sitting here waiting for my turn. " During Cruz's tenure, sheriff's brass expressed concern in internal audits about inexperienced jailers and excessive force against inmates.

The Los Angeles County sheriff's captain who ran the Men's Central Jail fostered a culture of brutality by protecting dishonest deputies and permitting his underlings to use excessive force on inmates, his former lieutenant alleged in testimony Friday. Capt. Daniel Cruz even joked at the department's annual Christmas party about hitting inmates, according to Michael Bornman, who is now a department captain. While toasting deputies at the party, Cruz allegedly asked a banquet hall-full of jailers: "What do I always tell you guys?"

In 2007, the Bush administration set out to double the size of the U.S. Border Patrol. It was a tall order and called for some creativity, with the Border Patrol even sponsoring its own racing vehicle at NASCAR events as a recruitment tool. Because recruits were hard to find, Border Patrol - part of the Department of Homeland Security - also lowered its standards and training regimens were relaxed. Individuals without a high school diploma could already join the force, but background checks were also deferred.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday rejected a proposed $4.5-million payout to a man shot by police as he fled a drive-by shooting. The payment would have settled a lawsuit Robert Contreras brought against the city over the 2005 shooting, which left him paralyzed. After a jury found that the officers had used excessive force in shooting Contreras and fearing that the city could be ordered to pay more than $10 million, lawyers for the city urged the council to accept the settlement deal.

A retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department commander who publicly accused department brass last year of ignoring his warnings about jail abuse is now at the center of an internal investigation. According to the Sheriff's Department, the investigation was launched to determine if anyone had stopped Cmdr. Robert Olmsted from correcting the problems he had seen with excessive force and jailer cliques. But Olmsted is accusing sheriff's officials of rigging the probe to scapegoat him and insulate high-ranking officials from culpability, saying he has seen them protect people in the past.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday, accusing Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department brass of failing to root out deputy brutality inside the county's jails. The lawsuit details multiple allegations of inmate abuse and alleges Sheriff Lee Baca and his top executives are "aware of the culture of deputy violence that pervades the Jails but have failed to take reasonable measures to remedy the problem. " The ACLU is a court-appointed monitor of jailhouse conditions.

The Seattle Police Department has broken its trust with the community by using excessive force, charged federal investigators who called for more training and better supervision. The conclusions were reached after more than eight months of investigation into the department's use of force, Assistant Atty. Gen. Thomas E. Perez of the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division told reporters Friday at a Seattle news conference. "We found that the systems of accountability are broken.

Even as a sergeant shouted, "Stop hitting him! Stop hitting him!," Deputy Marcos Stout continued punching an inmate in the head. Then, with the inmate on the concrete floor, Stout landed his knee on the man's skull. Lawyers for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department described the deputy's actions as "callous and brutal behavior toward a helpless and unresisting person. " Though Stout's excessive force was egregious enough to get him fired, prosecutors did not charge him with a crime — but not because they concluded that the violence wasn't criminal, according to interviews.

A top commander in Los Angeles County's jail system said he warned Sheriff Lee Baca and other senior officials last year about deputies using excessive force against inmates but was ignored until the problems grew into a public scandal. In an interview with The Times, Robert Olmsted said he tried to raise red flags about shoddy investigations that allowed deputies to escape scrutiny for using force. He also voiced concern about deputies forming aggressive cliques. He alleged that two top officials rebuffed him, telling him it was impossible to change the deputy culture in the downtown L.A. lockup, an antiquated facility that houses some of the county's most dangerous inmates.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials have launched an investigation into the performance of a captain who until recently supervised the troubled Men's Central Jail, a source confirmed Wednesday. The probe into Capt. Daniel Cruz represents the first significant action against a high-ranking sheriff's official since public scrutiny of the department's jails intensified in recent weeks. In an interview Wednesday, Sheriff Lee Baca declined to detail why Cruz was put on leave.