SHERIFF LEE BACA DECIDES TO ROLL THE DICE

By Bob Walsh

Former L. A. County Sheriff Lee Baca (aka Pepe LePew) has withdrawn his guilty plea and is (maybe-probably) going to trial. A couple of weeks back a federal judge refused to accept a plea deal that would have given him at most six months in custody and very possibly zero actual time in lock-up. The charge he plead guilty to was lying to the feds. He could now be tried for, among other things, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Earlier this year Paul Tanaka, formerly Baca’s #2, was convicted of obstruction of justice in the same case. Tanaka was sentenced by Judge Percy Anderson to five years in the slammer.

Baca’s lawyers have already asserted that the early onset Alzheimer’s disease that Baca is apparently suffering from, in a mild form, had already kicked in at the time he made his false statements to the feds. It seems likely that they may also assert that due to his condition he is unfit to stand trial and is, or may become, unable to assist in his own defense.

Prosecutors argued in Tanaka’s trial that he, and not Baca, was the ringleader in the obstruction actions intended to keep the FBI from digging into assorted nastiness at the L A County Jail. Among other things Sheriff’s deputies allegedly went to the home of a female FBI agent and threatened her, and booked an FBI informant inmate into custody under a fake name and then shuffled him around to keep the feebs from finding him.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s hoping the roll of the dice comes up snake-eyes for Pepe LePew!