Los Angeles County Sheriff

A former Los Angeles County employee launched a campaign Monday to recall Sheriff Lee Baca, citing last week's early release of Paris Hilton as an example of gross mismanagement of the nation's largest Sheriff's Department. Andrew Ahlering conceded that recalling Baca would be costly and time-consuming but said the public frenzy about Hilton's release could generate the necessary interest.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is expected today to ask Sheriff Lee Baca to prepare a report on Paris Hilton's release from jail in Lynwood -- just three days into her mandated 23-day stay -- to determine whether she was afforded special treatment. Baca had cited an undisclosed medical condition for allowing Hilton to leave the Century Regional Detention Facility and serve the remainder of her sentence under home confinement. But a judge disagreed, sending her back to jail Friday.

Before he made the decision to release Paris Hilton early from jail, Sheriff Lee Baca consulted top advisors throughout the day. He heard psychologists describe Hilton's condition as deteriorating and potentially life-threatening. Baca talked to senior media advisor Steve Whitmore about how the media would handle the story if he sent Hilton home. "It will be a firestorm, and it will be worldwide," Whitmore told him.

Hours after heiress Paris Hilton left jail Tuesday, having served 23 days, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca appeared before county supervisors to defend his widely criticized attempt to release her earlier. Hilton left the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood shortly after midnight on a catwalk of paparazzi. Baca sent her home June 7, after five days of her 45-day sentence, with orders to wear an electronic monitor. But Judge Michael T.

An effort to collect signatures that could lead to a recall of Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has so far failed to gather momentum. More than two months after announcing the recall effort, the former county employee leading the drive said he had gathered just 40 of the nearly 400,000 signatures needed by December to get a recall measure on the ballot.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said Sunday that he is negotiating with county officials for a dramatic increase in funding for the troubled jail system, beginning with a $300-million infusion to reopen the shuttered Sybil Brand facility and to make other improvements aimed at reducing violence.

On paper, Gary Nalbandian would appear to be an influential figure in Southern California law enforcement. He has served as director of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homeland Security Support Unit, the Riverside County Sheriff's Executive Council and the Bureau of Justice for the San Bernardino County district attorney's office. But Nalbandian is not a professional cop.

With gang violence soaring and homicides on a near-record pace in Compton last year, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca sent deputies door-to-door in the community. They were not there to make arrests. They were delivering letters inviting gang members and their parents to meet with the sheriff to discuss the "ramifications" of their "decision-making process." On the day of the meeting, Baca waited patiently at the Compton courthouse.

Four candidates hoping to unseat Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca are taking a united approach in the final days of the campaign, hammering the two-term incumbent for the early release of more than 150,000 inmates from county jails in the last four years.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shot and killed two men this weekend in separate incidents, including one in which a man was slain when he pulled a gun on deputies who were trying to disperse partygoers Friday night at a Lynwood house. In a separate incident, deputies shot a man behind a condominium complex Saturday in Carson. A preliminary investigation into the first shooting indicates that Guillermo Saucedo, 23, of Cudahy died of multiple gunshot wounds, said county coroner's spokesman Lt. Joe Bale.