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.

An independent monitor for the Los Angeles County sheriff has found shortcomings in the department's handling of complaints against deputies by members of the public, according to a report released Monday. Specifically, a majority of the complaints filed in 2010 were not handled in a timely manner - with major stations taking 101 days on average to forward the complaints to headquarters. Department policy requires that it be done in 60 days. One complaint lingered for 659 days.

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]

Facing an FBI investigation into brutality in his jails, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca publicly committed Tuesday to shuttering much of his most problematic lockup, Men's Central Jail, barring some unexpected hike in violent crime. In the past, Baca has tied the idea of shutting down the troubled downtown Los Angeles facility to the county agreeing to pay for an expensive new jail. The Times reported last month that Baca was now open to shutting down the old section of Men's Central Jail - the epicenter of violent clashes between deputies and inmates - even without that new jail.

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.

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.

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.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said Tuesday that he will create a task force to minimize the wrongful jailings of people mistaken for someone else. Baca's move came in response to a Times investigation that found hundreds of people have been wrongly imprisoned in recent years, with some spending weeks behind bars before authorities realized their true identities. "It's a horrible reality of what is basically the imperfect nature of the criminal justice system," Baca said in an interview.

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.

More than 100 prisoners, many shaved and tattooed, crowded into the hard pews of the Men's Central Jail chapel and craned their necks to get a good look at "The Man. " Sheriff Lee Baca, the top authority figure in Los Angeles County's troubled jail system, had summoned them for a rare town-hall-style meeting Saturday morning. The reason for the gathering? Allegations of abusive behavior on the part of jail guards and the disclosure of a federal law enforcement probe into Baca's jails.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department improperly concealed the identities of at least two reserve deputies who are political supporters of Sheriff Lee Baca and were given access to county cars. The Sheriff's Department denied a public records request last year from The Times regarding take-home county car use and gasoline consumption by four reserves who have given Baca political support or gifts. The department declined to even confirm that the men were reserves, citing "the confidential nature of some assignments.

Facing a federal investigation into allegations of brutality in his jails, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is considering a bold proposal to shutter a portion of the department's most troubled lockup that has been plagued by inmate killings, excessive force by guards and poor supervision. The plan would shift about 1,800 inmates, including many of the county's most violent criminals, from the old section of Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, a sheriff's jail commander said.

For months, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Phillip Hansen heard the grumblings: Deep-pocketed donors and other well-connected individuals working as reserve deputies were driving around in unmarked Sheriff's Department cars. One reserve, a restaurant owner who threw a fundraiser for Sheriff Lee Baca, was frequently seen parking a county-owned Ford Crown Victoria outside his La Mirada restaurant, a popular hangout for deputies. Hansen, who heads the volunteer deputy program, was troubled by the reports and asked for an accounting of which reserves had take-home cars.

It was just minutes into his workday when Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Moffett saw a gun aimed straight at his head. The man gripping the gun, he told investigators, was a fellow sergeant staring at him from a glass office inside the Compton sheriff's station. "I'm gonna kill you," Moffett said his colleague mouthed at him. "I'm gonna kill you. " Moffett said the threat was one of many that Sgt. Timothy Cooper directed at him over the years, a vendetta he alleges was motivated by Cooper's ties to a secret deputy clique.

As Los Angeles County faces an influx of state prisoners and Sheriff Lee Baca grapples with scandals in his department, Gov. Jerry Brown made a show of support for the sheriff at a gathering of clergy in South Los Angeles on Saturday. Brown, a powerful ally of Baca's, is the first sitting governor to appear at his annual multi-faith prayer breakfast, now in its 11th year. At the gathering, Baca spoke in support of the governor's prison realignment plan and touted his own education programs in the jails, while Brown made a pitch for his proposed tax increase, which will go before voters in November.

Last week provided yet another reminder of just how serious the problems are in the Los Angeles County jails. As if reports of assaults on prisoners by sheriff's deputies were not disturbing enough, a Times investigation has revealed that more than 1,400 people over the last five years were wrongfully incarcerated. Some were held for days, others for weeks. All were cases of mistaken identity, in many instances made worse because protests of innocence were disregarded. In one case, a construction worker with no prior arrests said he was assaulted by inmates and ignored by deputies.

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.

The special commission investigating allegations of abuse inside the Los Angeles County jails is discussing the possibility of allowing jail deputies to testify anonymously. Some commissioners are considering the idea as a way to combat what the sheriff's independent watchdog described as a code of silence that exists among some jail deputies that has prevented investigators in the past from getting to the bottom of some abuse allegations. One commissioner, the Rev. Cecil Murray, said in an interview that he would even consider partial criminal immunity for deputies who admit involvement in a crime.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said Tuesday that he will create a task force to minimize the wrongful jailings of people mistaken for someone else. Baca's move came in response to a Times investigation that found hundreds of people have been wrongly imprisoned in recent years, with some spending weeks behind bars before authorities realized their true identities. "It's a horrible reality of what is basically the imperfect nature of the criminal justice system," Baca said in an interview.