A noxious clique of deputies within LASO emulated aspects of the Banditos outlaw motorcycle gang
Trey Rusk notes: “If the Sheriff's upper echelon knew about these thugs and nothing was done to curtail their behavior, it should be recognized as implied consent. Especially if it is proven that deputies join in an effort to fast track their careers. This is not the same as joining to a special unit such as SWAT. These deputies are members of a rogue gang within the Sheriff's Office and are distinguished by their tattoos. How original. They named themselves after a criminal motorcycle gang based in Texas. They should call themselves the douche bags!”
It’s shenanigans like this that marked the tenure of former LA Sheriff Lee ‘Pepe LePew’ Baca. Several dubious cliques within LASO boasted of their existence. Baca and his top lackeys either tolerated rogue cliques of deputies or they were totally ignorant of what was going on in his department. In either case, I say good riddance to Pepe LePew Baca. His departure from LASO was long overdue!
Unfortunately, rogue cliques of cops can be found in many of the nation’s larger police agencies.
Pepe LePew Baca leaves a legacy of LASO as a mismanaged and scandalized law enforcement agency that catered and showed favoritism to the Hollywood stars.
SHERIFF’S DEPUTY ALLEGES HARASSMENT BY ROGUE DEPARTMENT CLIQUE
By Joseph Serna
Los Angeles Times
March 28, 2014
After seven years of guarding inmates in Los Angeles County jails, Deputy Guadalupe Lopez was transferred to the East L.A. Station to continue her career working in patrol. It was there, she says in a lawsuit filed this week, that she encountered a rogue group of deputies called the “Banditos.”
The Banditos, she alleges, sport matching tattoos and try to coerce female deputy patrol trainees like her into performing sexual favors.
In a 19-page lawsuit, Lopez contends that she was assigned a training officer who was known as the “Godfather” and was a leader of the group. When she refused to comply with the clique’s “traditions and initiation rituals” she was ostracized, threatened and harassed.
Interim Sheriff John L. Scott said in a statement released Friday that elements of Lopez’s complaint had been investigated by the department two years ago and resulted in “appropriate administrative action for several employees.” He said Lopez’s suit contains new allegations that she had not previously reported to department officials.
“In fairness to all parties involved, the Sheriff Department will reserve any formal comment of this case while we conduct a thorough investigation for the new claims alleged,” Scott said without elaborating. “As sheriff, I am concerned about the negative perception of monikers, tattoos or any form of hazing.”
The department has had trouble with unsanctioned deputy cliques in the past. Last year, as part of an ongoing probe into jail abuse, federal prosecutors requested the department turn over information it had regarding deputy cliques, including the Banditos.
According to Lopez’s lawsuit, which was first reported by NBC News, the group consists of about 80 deputies. Its members wear tattoos of a skeleton with a sombrero, bullet sash and pistol. Deputies who want to get into the group are called “prospects” or “puppies.”
The group is known for wanting to “exert control over the East L.A. station, its deputies and operations,” Lopez’s suit alleges. Members of the group are supposed to have an easier career ladder to climb, the suit contends.
Lopez, a 10-year veteran who started working at the Boyle Heights station in 2011, alleges a Bandito associate body-checked her into a wall while she was carrying a loaded shotgun. Two months later, another deputy ran her patrol car off the road and later that year, her car’s tires were slashed. In April 2013, the suit alleges, a dead rat was left under her car’s driver’s-side door.
The harassment was so bad that Lopez took a stress-leave, the suit states. She’s been working at the Century Station since last summer.
“She was treated like cattle, like property,” said Lopez’s attorney, Gregory Smith. “The only way to characterize it is as a gang or clique.”
No comments:
Post a Comment