Sheriff Lee Baca

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca told The Times on Monday that he will allow the media to review eight boxes of documents related to the slaying of journalist Ruben Salazar, a case that has been clouded by controversy and speculation for 40 years. Baca said the records, long kept from public view, will be available after the Office of Independent Review formally releases its report on Salazar's slaying Tuesday. A draft copy of that report was obtained by The Times and made public over the weekend.

Federal prosecutors examining jail abuse and other problems in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are expected to interview Sheriff Lee Baca on Friday. Part of the inquiry centers on whether Sheriff's Department officials obstructed an FBI investigation by holding inmate Anthony Brown under aliases and moving him. In an interview this week with The Times' editorial board, Baca said he's been assured that he's not a target of the investigation. Federal officials have declined to discuss details of the case.

Thousands of felons who would be sentenced to state prison are about to be funneled into county jails — a money-saving measure for cash-starved California, and a headache for local law enforcement agencies. But not here in Los Angeles County, where Sheriff Lee Baca plans to greet arrivals with a menu of classes and counseling programs aimed at helping miscreants go straight. If I were one of those inmates, I'd rather take my chances at Folsom than serve a term at the county lockup, where deputies just might jump me on my way to citizenship class.

They called it Operation Pandora's Box. Los Angeles County sheriff's officials learned in the summer of 2011 that the FBI had enlisted an inmate in the Men's Central Jail to collect information on allegedly abusive and corrupt deputies. In an unusual move, sheriff's officials responded by moving the inmate, a convicted bank robber, to a different jail under fake names, including Robin Banks. They assigned at least 13 deputies to watch him around the clock, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department agreed Friday to pay almost $1 million to a sergeant who claimed the department retaliated against him after he ran against Sheriff Lee Baca in the 2002 elections and criticized Baca's management of healthcare in county jails, a sheriff's spokesman said. The settlement was reached shortly after a federal jury found the department liable for retaliation in a lawsuit brought by Sgt. Patrick Gomez, 51. Gomez said he was passed up for promotions and targeted for an internal inquiry because he was critical of Baca in the run-up to the election, in which he and another sergeant waged campaigns against the incumbent sheriff.

What can the Board of Supervisors do to address reports of inmate abuse by sheriff's deputies in L.A. County jails? Not much, wrote editor-at-large Jim Newton in his Nov. 7 column, because the sheriff is elected by voters and cannot be fired or disciplined. The column prompted USC public administration professor David Lopez-Lee to write the following letter, which was published Nov. 9: "Jim Newton writes about L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca: 'Unlike the [Los Angeles Police Department]

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was hospitalized Sunday in Las Vegas with apparent dehydration symptoms after running a leg of the grueling Baker-to-Vegas Challenge Cup Relay race, the Sheriff's Department said. Baca, 59, received intravenous fluids and was in good condition, but remained hospitalized at an undisclosed Las Vegas facility, said Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Sonia Parra. The race, run in 20 segments of about 6.

A former sheriff's deputy at the center of an FBI probe inside the L.A. County jail system implicated himself and other jail employees in four cases of improper force against inmates, according to a letter written by Sheriff Lee Baca. Baca said the admission prompted him to create a 35-person task force of seasoned investigators and other experts to examine a growing number of allegations of deputy misconduct in the jails. The former deputy, Gilbert Michel, alleged criminal misconduct by other deputies, and investigators could forward their findings to the district attorney's office for possible prosecution, a sheriff's official said.

A Los Angeles County Jail inmate who says he was stabbed 23 times during an outbreak of racial violence five years ago can sue Sheriff Lee Baca for "deliberate indifference" to the dangerous conditions in the jail, a divided federal appeals court panel ruled Friday. Baca knew or should have known about the unconstitutional conditions prevailing in the jail and cited by investigators in previous incidents of death or injury to inmates, former prisoner Dion Starr alleged in his complaint against the sheriff.

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.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials launched an investigation Friday into a "stupid joke" a deputy from the agency's jailhouse intelligence unit allegedly played on two black colleagues, a department spokesman said. The deputy sent an email to the rest of his unit - including his boss - singling out the two black deputies, the spokesman confirmed. "Due to the recent tension between the black and Hispanics, I implemented a new unit," Deputy Mickey Manzo, who is not black, allegedly wrote.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to implement a new tracking system for Sheriff's Department patrols in unincorporated areas and also gave $22 million to the department in hopes of improving service in those communities. Under the new system, money spent on patrols in unincorporated areas will be tracked separately from that spent on patrols in the 42 cities that contract for Sheriff's Department services. Earlier this year, Supervisor Gloria Molina accused Sheriff Lee Baca of "stealing" police resources from residents in unincorporated neighborhoods.

Despite publicly defending his second-in-command for months amid an abuse scandal in the Los Angeles County jail system, Sheriff Lee Baca pressured Undersheriff Paul Tanaka into stepping down, several sources said. The Sheriff's Department has repeatedly portrayed Tanaka's decision to retire earlier this month as a move Tanaka initiated. But sources said Baca met with Tanaka and told him he should retire. The conversation, they said, stunned his once-trusted confidant. One source close to Tanaka said the undersheriff believes Baca views him as a political liability and is trying to use him as a scapegoat for the jail's problems as the sheriff seeks reelection to a fifth term.

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.

When Justin Bravo applied to be a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, background investigators noted the young man had some brushes with the law that raised red flags about his past. Nonetheless, the department hired Bravo as a deputy through a little-known program called "Friends of the Sheriff" - a screening process for applicants with connections to department officials. Bravo's link was his uncle: Sheriff Lee Baca. Now, the jail deputy is the subject of a Sheriff's Department criminal probe into whether he abused an inmate.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca personally met with Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley to discuss how to appeal a prosecutor's decision to reject forgery charges sought by a well-connected businessman who had given Baca expensive gifts and donations. Cooley confirmed Tuesday that he and Baca talked about the case, but said it was in the "vaguest sense" and that the sheriff did not ask him to overturn the prosecutor's decision. Instead, Cooley said, the sheriff wanted to know the proper procedures by which he could initiate such an appeal.

Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday said Sheriff Lee Baca's suspension of deputy overtime has dramatically reduced patrol operations and jeopardized public safety. In a contentious meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Baca was attacked for ignoring the needs of unincorporated parts of the county in favor of cities that contract with his department for police services. They said his overtime cuts were disproportionately affecting unincorporated neighborhoods. Supervisor Gloria Molina went so far as to accuse Baca of "stealing" police resources from residents in those areas.

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.