Sheriff Baca

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, responding to federal investigations of jailhouse abuse, for the first time offered a detailed account of an FBI undercover sting that caught one of his deputies allegedly smuggling a cellphone to an inmate. In an interview with The Times, Baca revealed that the inmate working as an FBI informant inside Men's Central Jail was using pay phones there to contact agents probing allegations of deputy misconduct. The agents tried to dissuade him from using a jailhouse line, telling him they could be monitored by sheriff's officials.

Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell announced Tuesday evening that he will not be challenging Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca in next year's election. McDonnell, a well-respected former Los Angeles police official, had been considering running for several months. If he had, he would have been the most formidable opponent to challenge Baca since Baca became sheriff about 15 years ago. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, McDonnell said he made his decision over the weekend, after considering how much time it would take to compete for campaign donations against an incumbent.

No doubt most Angelenos were as surprised as we were to learn Monday that Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca had been selected as "sheriff of the year" by the National Sheriff's Assn. After all, most of the news about the sheriff during the last 12 months has been of the sort that doesn't lend itself to awards. He has been accused, for instance, of improperly doling out favors to friends and campaign contributors. Federal officials have been probing allegations of inmate abuse in the jails he runs.

Another challenger has joined the race to unseat Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca. Patrick Gomez - a newly retired sheriff's lieutenant who has twice run for sheriff unsuccessfully - announced his candidacy this week. The three-decade department veteran joins a little-known LAPD detective, who has also said he's running. The most formidable potential challengers - Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell and Baca's outgoing top aide, Paul Tanaka - have said they're interested in running but haven't made final decisions about the 2014 race.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took a big step this week toward strong and independent civilian review of the Sheriff's Department. The move stood in sharp contrast with the Los Angeles Police Department corruption scandal, in which the city might accept increased oversight only if forced to by the federal government.

A program that Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca championed three years ago to sharply reduce the early release of jail inmates by placing as many as 2,000 additional offenders on electronic monitoring at home has failed to make a significant dent in the problem. When he first announced the initiative in 2007 and prodded the state Legislature to allow it, Baca touted it as a major step that would free jail space and allow the department to keep more-serious offenders behind bars longer.

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 Lee Baca was in talks Tuesday with court officials to determine whether reducing bail for nonviolent offenders would cut jail overcrowding, discussions that came a day after he threatened to close the Men's Central Jail if hit with steep budget cuts. Baca was examining the current bail schedule for nonviolent offenders, spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

As though they don't have enough problems, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas are promoting a statewide initiative to allow slot machines in poker rooms and racetracks. Their endorsement is indefensible, and not just because some of their biggest political donors are behind the initiative drive and stand to profit from it.

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 Times' editorial Thursday on the dysfunction at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was only half right in concluding that the recent spat between Sheriff Lee Baca and former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka "should serve as a catalyst to speed along the Board of Supervisors in hiring an independent inspector general to oversee the department," as recommended by the Citizen's Commission on Jail Violence.  What is missing is the recommendation by...

As the FBI broadened its probe into violence in the L.A. County jails, Sheriff Lee Baca this week brought in an outsider with a reform background to run the troubled lockups. Baca's decision to hire Terri McDonald to manage the nation's largest jail system marks a major milestone in his reform effort, which was sparked by the federal investigation into allegations that jailers beat inmates and visitors. McDonald, who started Monday, left her post with the state prison system to oversee Baca's jails, where her annual salary is $223,087.

Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, one of the most controversial figures in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, is stepping down. That's welcome news. Tanaka has been accused by current and retired sheriff's deputies of condoning and at times encouraging misconduct and abuse in the department. They say he created a climate that prized aggression and loyalty over good policing. A county commission looking into violence in the county jails concluded last year that Tanaka had tried to undermine the credibility of internal affairs investigators.

No doubt most Angelenos were as surprised as we were to learn Monday that Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca had been selected as "sheriff of the year" by the National Sheriff's Assn. After all, most of the news about the sheriff during the last 12 months has been of the sort that doesn't lend itself to awards. He has been accused, for instance, of improperly doling out favors to friends and campaign contributors. Federal officials have been probing allegations of inmate abuse in the jails he runs.

For Sheriff Lee Baca, the last couple years have been rough. His department is being investigated by the feds . A county commission examining abuse in Baca's jails found him to be disengaged and uninformed , saying he probably would have been fired in the private sector. Secret deputy cliques with gang-like hand signs and matching tattoos have surfaced. And Baca has been accused of using his office for the benefit of friends, relatives and donors. Despite those challenges, Baca has been awarded "Sheriff of the Year" by the National Sheriffs' Assn.

The development director for a charity run by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was fired this week after federal authorities searched her home as part of an investigation into marijuana dispensaries operated by her husband, officials said Thursday. The sheriff's spokesman called the discovery of Dawn Zamudio's ties to pot dispensaries upsetting given Baca's vocal criticism of such businesses. "This is shocking to the sheriff and the entire department because she was such an outstanding employee," the spokesman, Steve Whitmore, said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca can't seem to say no, at least to gifts. As The Times recently reported, Baca has accepted more than $120,000 worth of freebies since taking office in 1998 — including 131 free rounds of golf, tickets to 42 basketball games and concerts, and 22 bottles of wine and liquor. Nearly $45,000 worth was given to him between 2007 and 2009. That's more golf, wine and tickets than the rest of California's 57 sheriffs combined accepted during the same period.

Sheriff Lee Baca said this week that he's ready to shoulder the blame for years of unchecked deputy-on-inmate violence in Los Angeles County jails. And he promised to carry out all the reforms outlined in a scathing jail report by an investigative commission that laid the problem at the sheriff's door. But it's hard to know what to make of a leader - nationally respected and locally beloved - who ignored a decade's worth of brutality complaints and rarely visited the jails he runs, except to play sheriff-sage to the inmate-students in his Education-Based Incarceration program.

The number of homicides in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's patrol areas fell to its lowest level since 1970, with 166 killings in 2012, Sheriff Lee Baca announced Wednesday. The number of killings was four less than in 2011, a 2.3% drop. But serious crime increased 4.2% and all types of crime jumped 3%. Violent crime - rape, robbery, aggravated assaults and murder - climbed 3.5% from 2011. Property crimes across the sheriff's areas rose 4.3%. "This is really historic," Baca said, referring to the low homicide rate, during a news conference at sheriff's headquarters in Monterey Park.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on behalf of people who say they were denied bail for minor offenses after being flagged by immigration authorities. British filmmaker Duncan Roy, who says he spent nearly three months in L.A. County jails without a chance to post bail, is one of the five plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which will be filed today in U.S. District Court. Roy was arrested Nov. 15 in Malibu on an extortion charge. He was in the country legally but was identified as a suspected illegal immigrant through a federal program called Secure Communities, which sends the fingerprints of all arrestees through an immigration database.