A new whistleblower lawsuit against the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department in general, and Sheriff Alex Villanueva specifically, was filed Tuesday morning in behalf of Sergeant Vanessa Chow.
“Routine retaliation against whistleblowers did not start in LASD with the current sheriff, Alex Villanueva. Former sheriff Lee Baca and former undersheriff Paul Tanaka both served prison terms. But Villanueva has picked up the torch and has taken retaliation against whistleblowers to a whole other level.
“Sheriff Villanueva has held himself out as above the law and immune to accountability, with leadership operating with the lack of transparency and audacity of a third world dictatorship and evading any oversight.”
Chow, like a list of recent whistleblowers, is bringing the lawsuit because of the retaliation she has experienced simply, it appears, for having done her job correctly and professionally.
According to Tuesday’s 54-page complaint, written by civil rights attorney Vincent Miller, the retaliation took a variety of forms, including allegedly having Chow’s test score altered downward when she took the lieutenant’s exam at the urging of one of her superiors in the department.
The alleged sabotage was reportedly done by a Villanueva accolite, Captain Yvonne O’Brien, who is also known to be quite close to the sheriff’s wife, Vivian Villanueva. O’Brien’s reported involvement with the alleged rigging of departmental promotions based on favoritism and/or retaliation, is an issue WLA has written about before.
According to WitnessLA’s sources, Chow is considered to be intelligent, professional, ethical, with expertise in handling complex tasks.
Sergeant Vanessa Chow is married to Sergeant Jefferson Chow, another department member who, by doing his job, has also become the focus of retaliation by the sheriff.
As readers may remember, it was Jefferson Chow, a 26-year veteran of the LA County Sheriff’s Department, who was the lead investigator for the department’s Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau, or ICIB, on the notorious Kennedy Hall case. This was a violent incident that involved three admitted shot callers for the deputy clique known as the Banditos, which operates out of the East LA Station.
We’ll get to more details of the reported retaliation against Vanessa Chow in a minute.
But, first it helps to know that in October 2018, a few weeks before the November election that would result in Alex Villanueva defeating incumbent sheriff Jim McDonnell, Sergeant Vanessa Chow was selected by then Sheriff Jim McDonnell to be the sheriff ‘s liaison to the Board of Supervisors, a career path that she was given to believe would allow her to be “mentored and groomed for promotion and to advance in the ranks of the LASD.”
But with the arrival of the new sheriff who defeated the incumbent McDonnell in a surprise victory, mentoring, promotions and advancement turned out not to be in the cards for Sgt. Chow, according to the new civil rights filing, despite the quality of her work.
Although Villanueva didn’t select Vanessa Chow for the board liaison position, once he became the sheriff, it was reportedly part of Chow’s job was to regularly interact with the new sheriff and his inner circle, as well as with the members of the LA County Board of Supervisors, their respective staffs, and the County CEO’s office.
The result, according to today’s legal filing, is that Sergeant Chow was witness to a variety of “acts of corruption by the sheriff,” as well as an impressive amount of incompetence at the top rungs of the nation’s largest sheriff department.
Chow’s problems with the new sheriff began when she was approached by someone in the LASD’s “budget department,” who asked her to deliver some budget related paperwork to the sheriff.
The sheriff wasn’t in his office, so Chow spoke instead to then-Chief of Staff Larry Del Mese, explaining that she’d been asked to deliver the department’s annual budget request to the county CEO and the board of supervisors.
The paperwork was also to include a list of the LASD’s budget priorities.
She needed a “wish list,” is the way Chow described the matter to Del Mese
Chow explained to the chief of staff that the paperwork she was delivering was in fact a condensed version of a far more comprehensive budget binder that had evidently been delivered to the sheriff months earlier for him to study and review, then make recommendations.
Villanueva was still new to the job. Furthermore, prior to being elected, he had never climbed higher on the LASD the food chain than the position of lieutenant, so he was presumably unfamiliar with dealing with the department’s approximately $3.5 billion budget, which obviously contained a great many complexities.
According to Chow, Del Mese pointed to a thick and dust-covered item in corner of his bookcase, which was the full budget the sheriff had been sent months before and, as Del Mese suggested, never read.
“The Sheriff and I do not know a f*** about budgets,” he reportedly told her.
Therefore, he said, one of the department’s civilian budget people should meet with-then CEO Sachi Hamai about all this budget business.
According to Chow, she attempted to explain to Del Mese that, traditionally, the sheriff is the one who meets directly with the CEO “in order to defend the department’s need for a healthy budget.”
They could do mock meetings to prep the Sheriff, if that would help, she told the chief of staff.
Del Mese told Chow that the Sheriff couldn’t meet with the CEO because he was “doing a TV or radio interview and didn’t have time.’
Why the sheriff could meet with the CEO some other time when he wasn’t giving interviews was not clear.
Not dealing with the budget, and the avoidance of interacting with members of the Board of Supervisors, was to become a problematic pattern.
Much later, according to Chow, when the sheriff “saw that he was not getting his budget priorities met,” rather than belatedly meeting with the CEO, and the board, the sheriff instead resorted to a series of public threats.
For instance, during the period of the 2020 COVID budget cuts, Undersheriff Tim Murakami told Chow that Villanueva would be holding a press conference to announce he was going to be closing patrol stations and discontinuing critical programs due to the budget slashing by the Board of Supervisors, which in fact was affecting nearly all the county’s agencies, not just the LASD.
According to Chow, Murakami went on to describe how the sheriff and his inner circle had been brainstorming to decide what stations and programs that Villanueva would “pretend they would close.”
The idea was to threaten to discontinue programs that the Supes cared about “in order to strong arm them into increasing the budget.”
On the faux closure list was the Marina Del Rey station, Youth Programs, Special Victims, and the department’s Parks Bureau, among others, according to Chow.
As WitnessLA has previously reported, the sheriff did exactly what Chow described. In late July 2020, the sheriff put out a statement describing an array of cuts that he said the supervisors were making to programs, cuts that neither the board nor the CEO had, in fact, threatened to make at all.
Then, two days later still, on June 29, 2020, the morning of the board’s budget meeting, Villanueva held another press conference, at which he upped the emotional ante.
Within an hour of the press conference, Sgt. Chow, who was still the liaison to the Supes, received a call from the justice deputy of then board Chair Supervisor Kathryn Barger. The justice deputy requested a meeting with the LASD’s budget people in order to go over the department’s budget numbers and most critical needs.
Chow informed then chief of staff, John Burcher, of the request. Burcher told her to discuss it with the sheriff.
In Tuesday’s filing, Chow describes walking into an executive conference room where she saw Sheriff Villanueva, Assistant Sheriff Steven Gross, and others. In addition, Undersheriff Murakami was in attendance via speaker phone.
According to Chow, Steven Gross, who was sitting to the left of the Sheriff, said that the supervisors needed to call the sheriff “begging him not to close any stations” because Villanueva was going to “sit back and wait for the Supervisors to call him and throw themselves at the Sheriff’s feet and beg.”
Chow describes having witnessed as each member of the board reached out to the sheriff multiple times, inviting him to events in their districts. Yet, each time the Sheriff would resist, as he continued to bash the board and its individual members on social media.
To Sgt. Chow he opined that the board “could go F*** themselves,” for not endorsing him.
(Villanueva also expressed various versions of this same theme to WitnessLA. “They hate me because I defeated their golden boy,” he said repeatedly, both in relation to the supervisors, and the LA Times.)
As it would turn out, the weird theater in which Villanueva and company engaged around the issue of the department’s budget, and other interactions with the LA County Board of Supervisors, was to be followed by activities that, according to Chow, were far more corrupt.
Villanueva ran for sheriff on the promise to root out “cronyism and corruption,” and to move people up to leadership who were “dedicated, educated, extremely bright, and experienced,” rather than using favoritism as the main metric.
Yet, according to an earlier civil rights lawsuit filed in January of this year, favoritism and rigged promotions appeared to be back in operation in a Villanueva-led department, and those who failed to cooperate faced vicious retaliation, which reportedly included having baseless internal affairs investigations opened on anyone who blew the whistle on wrongdoing.
(In contrast, IAB investigations are reportedly made to vanish for those in the sheriff’s favor, according to multiple sources.)
In her January lawsuit, Sergeant Rosa Gonzalez reported such rigged promotions, along with favoritism not backed by merit, plus retaliation against anyone who failed to cooperate.
According to Chow, and also WLA’s sources, the people at center of this alleged system of rigged promotions were Captain Yvonne O’Brien and Lieutenant Carmen Arballo.
At the same time that favorites of Villanueva and/or his wife, were getting promotions whether their tests warranted them or not, Chow describes how a variety of actions could trigger retaliation, such as her refusal to fire her “perfectly qualified assistant,” who is identified in the complaint only by her initials, “K.C.” According to Chow, the orders for the firing of K.C. came from the sheriff’s wife, Vivian Villanueva and her friend, the alleged score-rigging Captain Yvonne O’Brien,
The reason for firing K.C., according to the lawsuit, was solely due to the fact that Chow’s assistant was said to be supporting one of Sheriff Villanueva’s then competitors in last June’s primary election.
When Chow didn’t want to engage in what the complaint describes as unwarranted retaliation against an assistant whose work she valued, the retaliation rockets were, all at once, trained on Chow herself.
This retaliation, according to the complaint, came in the form of an alleged manipulation of Chow’s exam results after her operations lieutenant submitted Chow’s name for promotion.
According to Chow’s lawsuit, she was not promoted, specifically because her score on the 2021 Lieutenant Promotional Exam was “manually manipulated downward by O’Brien” with the approval of the sheriff’s wife.
Unsure what else to do, Chow reported the various exam cheating issues, and the lowering of her score, both to Undersheriff Murakami.
Chow also told Murakami that there were allegations that the sheriff was overheard talking to a particular sergeant (with the initials, A.H), who asked the sheriff for a promotion to lieutenant, which Sheriff Villanueva allegedly promised. The sergeant was promoted to lieutenant shortly after, although she was reportedly was not on the “eligible list” to be promoted, which Chow verified with a certified copy of that list, which she showed the undersheriff.
Chow reports that Murakami told her he would launch an investigation regarding O’Brien and the Lieutenant exam scores, and reverse Chow’s score if her allegations were founded.
However, no investigation ever occurred. “And it later became clear that Murakami knew that O’Brien and Arballo had committed fraud with the exam and LASD did nothing about it.”
Chow spoke about the issue with Carl Mandoyan, who according to the lawsuit, remained one the sheriff’s closest advisors, even after Mandoyan was forced to give up his official LASD job by court order. He asked her if she would file any complaints regarding the incidents surrounding the removal of her assistant, K.C. and about O’Brien tampering with the her lieutenant’s Exam score.
The advisor, who happened to be the now infamous Carl Mandoyan, also asked Chow if she had emails to back up her allegations.
Chow reported that she did have such proof. Then, shortly after her conversation, Chow the found herself blocked from access to her work emails.
It was not the only time that elements of her work environment, including her personal belongings, were tampered with.
In September of 2019 she noticed that things started disappearing from her desk, things like framed pictures. Another time, her computer wouldn’t boot up, and she saw that her cords were cut. Also, according to the new complaint, when Chow was working on a project that had turned controversial, her locked file cabinet was breeched, and critical files taken.
Manipulating the Kennedy Hall/Bandito investigation
As time went on, Sergeant Chow began to have her loyalty questioned not just because of her own efforts at remaining ethical. She also had her fidelity to the sheriff doubted in relation to her husband, Sgt. Jefferson Chow, who had been assigned as the investigator into the violent assault that occured at the post-training party held at Kennedy Hall in East Los Angeles.
The topic of the investigation heated up to the point that on several occasions during the period from December 2018 to January 2019, Chow was approached by close advisers to the sheriff who expressed concerns over whether her husband should be allowed to remain as the main investigator on the case.
This expression of “concern” occurred around the same time that Vanessa Chow was informed that Sheriff Villanueva had met with the leaders of the Banditos gang in December 2018, shortly after he was sworn in, while those same men were being investigated by her husband.
Some time later, Carl Mandoyan, who was, at the time, the sheriff’s driver, confided to Chow that Villanueva had assured the gang’s leaders—the so-called “shot callers” involved in the brawl—that he would make sure a “weak case” went to the DA’s office. Villanueva also reportedly informed the gang leaders that he would need to terminate them eventually through the IAB investigation “because there was just too much bad publicity”
Yet, according to Mandoya, Villanueva also told the shot callers that he would ensure a weak case also built in Internal Affairs, “so they would get their jobs back through the civil service appeal process.”
The Bandito issue and Sheriff Villanueva’s involvement with the matter, has continued to plague the lives of Vanessa and Jefferson Chow.
On August 18 and 19, 2022, Sheriff Villanueva and some of his close associates tried to dissuade Jefferson Chow from testifying at the Civilian Oversight Commission’s most recent hearing on deputy gangs.
Jefferson Chow, a hard worker who sources say preferred to keep a low profile, had not volunteered to testify, but had been served with a subpoena by the COC.
According to Vanessa Chow, prior to the day he was to testify, the sheriff repeatedly tried to get her husband to accept representation from one of Carl Mandoyan’s attorneys, who could aid Chow in not complying with the subpoena.
When Mr. Chow declined the representation by Mandoyan’s attorney, and also declined to be contempt of the subpoena, Villanueva persisted.
The next day, Friday, August 19, 2022, the day of the COC’s hearing, and 18 minutes before Mr. Chow was scheduled to testify under oath, Villanueva reportedly made another attempted at stopping Chow from appearing. This time the sheriff’s surrogate was Chris Kusayanagi, the lieutenant aide to Undersheriff Murakam1. Kusayanagi reportedly called Mr. Chow from Murakami’s office, intending to tell him that the sheriff had given an order for him to not testify.
Chow did not pick up the phone. But, later, after his testimony, he returned Lt. Kusayanagi’s call.
Unaware that Chow had already spoken in front of the COC, and that his testimony had been broadcast for anyone who cared to watch, Kusayanagi told Jefferson Chow falsely that the department’s two main labor unions, ALADS and PPOA, supported Mr. Chow putting himself in contempt of the subpoena and not appearing for the COC.
Then Kusayanagi delivered his main message to Chow, namely that Villaneuva ordered him to not testify, clearly not realizing that the message was too late.
That same Friday, after Mr. Chow left Loyola Law School, where the COC hearing had taken place, he noticed that he was being tailed by some undercover surveillance units on the drive home.
When Jefferson Chow got to his house where his wife was waiting to discuss the day’s experience, according to her new lawsuit, a lone surveillance unit with tinted windows pulled up in front of their home.
The car idled in front of the Chows’ home in the manner that suggested a waiting predator. Finally, Vanessa walked outside with a video camera to record the incident, at which point the surveillance unit vanished.
“The Sheriff and his wife, Vivian, run LASD like their own personal fiefdom and business by placing individuals whom they consider as allies in key positions within the department, despite these individuals’ lack of qualifications and ethics,” the new lawsuit states. At the same time, Alex and Vivian Villanueva “weed out individuals with integrity, without regard for their accomplishments or contributions.”
And so it is that Sgt. Vanessa Chow has reportedly developed severe medical conditions, including temporary lower body paralysis, due to the ongoing stress of her employment conditions. At present, she is unable to go to work.
Filed Complaint by LASD Sgt… by Celeste Fremon
Alex and Timmy!! RESiGN!!!!! You and all your takers should follow!!
If you see a buffoon it’s a buffoon… a buffoon wearing a cowboy hat is still a buffoon!!
I just spoke about audit and accountability unit this morning dear God help us all!
@Celeste can you post a link to the full lawsuit.
Can anyone confirm that yet another whistleblower/retaliation lawsuit has been filed by the former Commander of PSD?
Check again. I put in some links and embedded the full complaint at the end of the story. All appears to work at my end. Fingers crossed that it works at your end.
Yet another lawsuit naming the infamous Yvonne O’Brien.
Rosa Gonzalez v COLA Robin Limon v COLA Vanessa Chow v COLA
Word on the line is she’s not done putting in work. She has her sights on Luna.
Just joking, she likes them young Geesh!
Villanada is still working the cross walk! https://twitter.com/lasdhq/status/1564689282815512576?s=21&t=mCV9PXwP9WjB3gZBkMJMhg
Keep them safe from https://www.dailybreeze.com/2021/12/16/deputy-to-stand-trial-on-murder-reckless-driving-in-torrance-crash-that-killed-passenger/
Watch the cross walk Alex !!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2-young-brothers-killed-when-los-angeles-sheriffs-patrol-car-runs-off-road/
The “Women” of So Cal sure seem to be kicking that Alejandro misogynistic @$$ if you ask me. Let’s recap:
Vanessa Bryant whupped dat @$$ for $15 Million CEO Sachi Hamai whupped dat @ss for $1.5 Million Lt. Seetoo filed a valid retaliation lawsuit and is now a captain with some spare change coming her way. Skipper A/S Robin Limon is about to ring that register by spanking Alex with a parting whistleblower suit. Skipper Chief Hasselrig is doing the same Captain Walton is hoping to say Cha Cha Ching$$! Supervisor Sheila Kuehl warned Lil Alex to put on his Big Boy Pants several times. Now she is pulling her powerful behind the scenes strings to kick him in those little boy bowlegged pants. Supervisor Hilda Solis is punishing Idiot Alex for his La Malinche’ slur by pulling her considerable district influence strings to back the next sheriff, Robert Luna Supervisor Holly Mitchell has the ear of the DOJ Supervisors Hahn and Barger are smiling in Alex’s face but everyone knows they can’t wait to dump him. And none other than LA Times (Suspect) Journalist Alene Tchekmedyian has literally “Blown Up” Alex at ever turn since taking office. Her exposing his corruption may ultimately land his indicted @$$ behind bars once it is all over this November.
After nearly 4 years of watching and experiencing this “Train Wreck” Villanueva Administration, it is pleasing to see him implode. Unfortunately, at the expense of our once professional and ethical organizational reputation.
Everyone, take solace in knowing how miserable that Villanueva household will be like once “trolling” will be the only action Alex gets to endure in 2023 and beyond.
Villanada tweets! Please drive like your child is walking to school!
You should have told Carrie Plascencia Robles that Alejandro!!
Just in case the link didn’t work
https://mynewsla.com/crime/2021/05/26/sheriffs-deputy-charged-in-deadly-off-duty-crash-in-torrance/
And Sergio Mancilla in the background it seems. Sellout at BOLRAC. Made Commander keeping the retaliation on the down low. And still sell put strong as the Santa Ana School Police Chief. I wonder if they know what he’s truly about. Shameful.
I admit I did not do an in-depth line by line read of the lawsuit Chow vs COLA but did a skim of the 54 pages. In my experience, there are two types of people who ascend within the higher ranks of any organization. Those who keep their head down, take on various positions and responsibilities to build their skills, network, make contacts, build alliances, do the organizations bidding whatever it may be and sell a portion of their soul to the regime in power in the hopes for advancement. The other type of person quickly realizes the cliques, politics and corruption at the top and runs away as fast as their feet will take them. In any case, it’s always a gamble you will have a seat when the music stops playing and the winds of change suddenly deflate your sails. The old saying, “it’s time for you to find a new home” comes to mind. I’m sure there is some objective truth, subjective personal truth and inescapable realities in this lawsuit whenever you have people, eagos, diverse personalties, money and power involved.
In my opinion, nothing “new, shocking or surprising” even considering I did not do a line by line read of this lawsuit but rather boiler plate attorney “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks”. Lawsuits naming people in power, the COLA are nothing new and will endure for perpetuity to keep members of the legal profession gainfully employed and wealthy. These lawsuits just help to bolster any anti-Sheriff Villanueva sentiments which clearly run high based on the content of this site and those who post to it.
WLA, I heard numerous deputies in the DA’s Office have filed lawsuits against their boss George Gascon. Can we have more coverage about such these to?
Assisting Antonio with another timely link:
LA Times: “Sheriff’s officials tried to block testimony of key witness at ‘deputy gang’ hearing, lawsuit says” https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-30/coc-deputy-gang-hearing-witness
Hey Alex, this is what a “Full Court Press” feels like. Better call for a time out and the Cut Man. Maybe Mike Beltran can throw you a mustache ride lifeline.
Truth be told, I read every line of Mrs. Chow’s lawsuit. My first thought was, “Mr. Mandoyan has some explaining to do.” You mean to tell me he was talking to Mrs. Chow and telling her such “inner circle” secrets? I mean people, does Mr. Mandoyan realize he will most likely be deposed (though I am just guessing and in no way an attorney)? Mrs. Chow will almost certainly have saved emails, phone records, etc, to prove their correspondences. Just based on several of these public lawsuits, seems Mr. Mandoyan will be involved in several upcoming depositions. Mr. DelMese seems to be popping up a lot too.
“But Villanueva has stated many times that one of his first acts in office was to remove the captain of the East L.A. station, where Banditos ran roughshod and dictated where deputies would be assigned”
Alejandro! You promoted your boy to Commander!! Stop the bullshit !!
https://www.zoominfo.com/p/Ernest-Chavez/-1114030751
https://twitter.com/alenetchek/status/1564805456073175041?s=21&t=mCV9PXwP9WjB3gZBkMJMhg
https://twitter.com/picodegallos/status/1564806519958302720?s=21&t=mCV9PXwP9WjB3gZBkMJMhg
Lt. Chris K., apparently the illustrious Commander Dr. Satterfield has reported to the LA Times that the allegation the Sheriff ordered you to call Sgt. J. Chow to dissuade him from testifying at the COC is 100% false. Of course he would say that, why would Alex take responsibility and admit to the crime. Tag, you are it Chris, the new fall guy. Apparently you did not learn from your old PRV partners Sergeant Scott Craig and Sergeant Maricela Long who went to prison for following Tanaka’s unlawful orders. Chris, it’s okay to say no if you know it’s an unlawful order (Ethics 101). You may have been rolled up for not kissing the ring, but at least you would have kept your honor. You are now on the list as a DNP (do not promote) once Luna takes office. Same if Sleepy Tim gave you this order. Don’t chase the carrot bud, it may lead you to a jail cell with this administration.
Pink EE manipulated his timesheets for years and was never reprimanded. He even worked the SAO team by doing some “under the table” favors (catch my drift?) . He was even invited to O’Donells cigar smoking event. Joke was on him because the cigars were leather!!! He did t mind it though.
Sergeant Rosa Gonzalez told you so in January 2022.
CASA GREYBAR & CAFETERIA (NO COVER)
Yet, ALADS & now PPOA continue to put blinders on while covering up their ears after wasting ridiculous amount of dinero.
Question for PPOA, why did you do an about face to back Villanueva as he is attempting to destroy your members?
But morale is higher than ever, while McDonnell is looking and laughing while shaking his head.
You think it’s bad now, wait till Old Man Ratner drops the bomb. As soon as Luna takes over, Ratner will release his own investigation on deputy misconduct. He already got one guy fired over 2 decades ago. Supposedly he’s been keeping tabs on various station activities wherever he gets rolled up to. He even uncovered a secret clique at Cerritos Station…The Nightswappers. Unfortunately he had to get Lisa involved. Once she started to get in “too deep” and liked it a little too much, he pulled the plug. Now he’s out to make their lives miserable.
Sgt Ratviles would not approve of this whisblower nonsense. He’s probably making a log entry right now. Back in the Luke-warm years when we work the Valinda area, then Deputy Ratviles was making log entries left and right. He even got Scooter wrapped into his nonsense. It’s too bad he cost the county all that money. Sheriff McDonald made sure he made the Brady list after that fiasco successfully ending his bailiff career.
Be it noted paragraph #8 in the Introduction to Sgt. Vanessa Chow’s complaint:
“Vivian Villanueva is an Associate of the deputy gang, the Banditos, and has acted as the gang’s protector during Alex Villanueva’s reign as Sheriff.”
The link to the full text of Sgt. Chow’s complaint can be found in red lettering at the end of the story.
Lights have been turned on.
You might want to question the lone female on ALADS Board of Directors about her association with the East Los Bandito’s. Not saying she’s a part of them, however it would be great to hear her story.
Line 59. Mandoyan told Plaintiff that Vivian said that she did not like to drive herself anywhere, not even to the grocery store and said that people would recognize her everywhere and that she doesn’t need to drive herself because she is a celebrity.
Line 90. The Lieutenant’s Exam as headed by O’Brien was scheduled in July 2021. Before the date of the exam, Villanueva’s top advisor, Mandoyan, told Plaintiff to call Vivian Villanueva, ask her to lunch, buy her a nice expensive gift, and pretend that Plaintiff wants career advice from Vivian. Mandoyan told Plaintiff she needed to do this to get promoted, and this is how others did it.
Line 70. Delreal and Robles filed a sex harassment complaint against Burcher, taking issue with him staring at his female subordinates and co-workers’ breasts. Burcher received no discipline and told Robles that he does not have to listen to a “child killer.”
108. Plaintiff told Murakami that there were allegations that the Sheriff was overheard talking to a Sergeant, initials, A.H, who asked the Sheriff for a promotion to Lieutenant. Sheriff Villanueva promised A.H a promotion and she was promoted to Lieutenant shortly after. Plaintiff reported to Murakami that A.H was not on the eligible list to be promoted to Lieutenant. Plaintiff presented Murakami a certified copy of the list from Personnel where it reflected that A.H was not on the eligible list. Murakami admitted O’Brien had facilitated the promotion of A.H.
Show some respect and honor her with full name and title, Lieutenant Araceli Hernandez.
I can keep going. Who would of thought Carl would be the least of Alex worries.
Just say the name Xochitl Rosas, the same person who works POE intake. She gets the complaint then notifies the homies ha! They are everywhere like coachroaches the whole department is infested.
Bibi would not approve of this visit. I heard Sheriff gave her an application and requested her hiring process be expedited
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgh7AxPP7RD/?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=
No kidding! So now one has to wonder, who does Creepy Carl work for and who is writing the Mandoyan paychecks and for how much?
Ummmm, I’m asking for a friend?
DOJ, OIG, AG, Board of Supervisors, Soon to be Sheriff Elect Luna, take a deep look into the on going’s of Cyber Crimes.
Alex placed his loyalist there for a reason. I hear Vivian has them on speed dial and they’re more than willing to do whatever it takes. I’m talking about you INFANTE, FLORES, HISH.
Comedy is not complete without Ron Hernandez (Former ALADS Big Mouth Piece) with excuses for ALADS and their questionable Directors.
Ron has an excuse for everything…….
Sherman block building and HOJJ needs a major fumigation before Incoming Sheriff Luna takes over. But unfortunately that might not be enough.
The Department’s official response to Vanessa Chow’s lawsuit –
https://kfiam640.iheart.com/featured/la-local-news/content/2022-08-31-lasd-disputes-sergeants-retaliation-allegations/
“ The complaint was strategically designed to drum up publicity for numerous other failing lawsuits, while also assisting the county in attempting to influence the outcome of the upcoming election, 15 frivolous lawsuits have been filed against the department, all which have the common thread of a lack of accountability for poor performance by the plaintiffs, the department further contends, adding, We look forward to vigorously challenging these lawsuits in court.”
GTHFOH! All the plaintiffs have conspired with the Board of Supervisors to rig the election. All the plaintiffs have poor performance.
Sheriff Bandito YOU gave loyalist who can’t speak proper English promotions to coveted assignments. You promoted Yvonne and bird brain Carmen to head Personnel, for goodness sake you promoted Foo! You promoted Araceli to lieutenant PICO patrol, You breaking bread with Banditos, you gave La Bibi keys to the Department but you allege all the plaintiffs have poor performance. What’s the standard? COME ON!
And the Wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round…
Women in the LASD get treated like second-class citizens and they promote more men as a whole. It’s a sexist organization. Look at the promotion lists. The numbers are rigged for sure. Many are victims of the Villanueva promotion system.
I believe that everyone who has brought a lawsuit against Villanueva are telling the truth to include the skippers …they know they screwed a lot of people over who were more deserving of those promotions.
You hear the world’s smallest Violin? what a damn shame and disgrace. I have no sympathy for any of them. KARMA
I am sure Marisela Long is writing a search warrant for the Chow residence as we speak. That’s how the department did Deputy Mee with the Mel Gibson fiasco. Made his life a living hell.
You see..the DUI Deputy story is old news…We want more Dirty Laundry!
In other stories involving the cesspool that is the corrupt LA Criminal Justice System, will you be covering this recent story covered in the LA Times, A judge’s affair with Tom Girardi, a beachfront condo and a $300,000 wire from his firm? Surely the highly educated judicial aristocracy of the criminal justice machine can’t be unethical, immoral and corrupt? Where there’s smoke there’s fire and hopefully additional investigative reporting will be forthcoming in the name of justice.
Vera did say during his campaign there’s so much more going on that people need to know about. I’m sure this is 1 more of many more.
LASD did not learn from Pandora’s Box as history repeats itself. Only the names have changed but the play book remains the same.
So, the Department’s response to Chow’s lawsuit as quoted above is interesting.
“The complaint was strategically designed to drum up publicity for numerous other failing lawsuits, while also assisting the county in attempting to influence the outcome of the upcoming election, 15 frivolous lawsuits have been filed against the department, all which have the common thread of a lack of accountability for poor performance by the plaintiffs”.
Whatever happened to not commenting about pending litigation? That same article shows the County taking the usual “no comment” line, but here, the Department, presumably at AV’s direction (and if some SIB staffer took it upon themselves to comment on pending litigation without approval, well, shame on ’em… but this response has AV written all over it) basically slanders the plaintiffs of these collective lawsuits. I mean, if the Department can prove it spoke the truth that plaintiff’s were “poor performers” then it’s all good. The problem for the Department is, the vast majority of these plaintiffs are executives who almost certainly have a string of “outstanding” evals, and their very rank (most if not all placed there by AV) speaks to them being the opposite of poor performers. Hell, even Chow, although “only” a sergeant, was in one of the most high profile positions on the Department and presumably was there because she earned it and performed well.
Soooooo…. what does the Department’s slanderous statements about “poor performance” do, exactly? It allows these plaintiffs to amend their complaints to add additional actions. And…if the Department is throwing this rhetoric out there without consulting County Counsel (because if they had done so, they would have been told no way, no how, start making public negative comments about these plaintiffs) then the discovery process about exactly who made these statements is going to be intense and specific. And finally, if that individual(s) is/are identified, and the jury decides the statements were defamatory and damaging (“I couldn’t sleep at night, all my friends knew I was suing the Department, my name was in the papers, and then…to add insult to the injury the Department had already done to me, they slandered me and said I was ONLY suing because I was a poor performer… the stress that caused me…not to mention damaged my professional reputation and chances at getting a job as the chief of police at ___ agency [don’t forget most of these plaintiffs are captains or higher]) well – slander is one of those things a jury might decide punitive damages are necessary and hey, why would the BoS pick up the tab for those damages when the folks making the statements were doing so outside of consultation with County Counsel? Hell, they accused the county itself of being in league with those very plaintiffs! No, we (BoS) think this defendant should handle paying those damages themselves…
Things could get very interesting. Hey Department, got any other statements about any other plaintiffs you want to throw out for public consumption? Might want to just check with County Counsel real quick first though…
Appears to be the “New Normal” in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, be it Lost Hill Sheriff’s Station or Compton Sheriff’s Station.
http://lawzilla.com/blog/armando-loureiro-v-los-angeles-county-civil-service-commission/
You know who is lurking in the shadows and praying no one mentions her name, Chief Lecrevein. She is killing careers and pushing knives on some good folks backs, kissing BIbi’s ring any chance she gets. Heck Chief Lecrevein was even seen kissing O’Brien’s a$$ who was only a Lieutenant in an effort to look good in front of potato cowboy who O’Brien claims to have “personal” access to. Luna transition team take note of the real snakes, don’t be fooled.
@Still Laughing, your obsession with me is unhealthy, as is your nervous laughter. You should speak to someone about that, other than the Witness LA crowd.
I suspect my “big mouth” must have contradicted your BS, in person, so now you want to throw rocks at me while hiding in the bushes.
Keep tossing those rocks. I’ve nothing to hide.
@ SOS: Many Deps get caught up in the poor judgement or retaliatory mindset of their partner (s). I am sure he did his days off and has moved on…
The breaking of policies, performance to standards “the catch all”. Having a patrol partner in the car is a 2-edged sword. But the double standards and hypocrisy is at an all-time high at the LASD and apparently the Justice system too.
Vanessa Chow has balls of steel for standing up to the Sheriff. That alone should earn her an outstanding eval and Captain bars. I hope that she wins. I really don’t care about the skippers they got what they deserved. Too bad for LA COUNTY taxpayers, you’re going to suck up the costs of every lawsuit because you voted that clown into office. VOTE FOR LUNA VOTE FOR LUNA
Yes that’s another slithering ass kissing snake.
Keep it going there is more.
i was just watching Schindler’s List and the real bad ppl in that movie remind me of la deputies
And people going to prison to cover up Villanueva’s corruption has started. Who else is next, you know what you did for Villanueva, he is about to throw you under the bus and run you over twice.
This is crazy. How many of you have forgotten what it is you stand for? You’re adding credence to already diminishing level of respect for our profession. Maybe the department has hired so many of the wrong people in the name of fairness that there is no hope but to bring in the feds and start over. There are a number of heroes turning over in their graves. If you are not fighting against corruption, YOU ARE CORRUPT!
“Hired so many wrong people in the name of fairness…”
What does that mean, just curious?
Since the beginning of time there has always been corrupt or bad apples in any group or association. Why is it that we think it would be different now? You can use any algorithm you want, evaluation, test, etc., you would still not be able to stop humans from making mistakes. Luna is gonna come in and in time you will see him so similar. Surround himself with his team and do things to his liking.
I think society in its totality is collapsing. Generations past are all rolling over in the graves with what they are witnessing today, if you believe in that!
One of the sad ironies about this is the fact that even after AV is voted out of office this November, these very credible lawsuits will still be hanging over the Department’s head. The turmoil will continue even after Villanueva is gone. Soon-to-be Sheriff Luna will have his hands full for a while as the lawsuits navigate their way through the system. I hope and pray that he fills the executive ranks with competent, knowledgeable, honest people.
Word on the tier is that two female deps really close to AV hit the Relived Of Duty train. Something to do with the CCW unit according to Nixle that went out yesterday by SIB. Anyone have intel on this next saga of corruption? Pay to play comes into mind as a guess.
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