The Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission held its ninth special meeting at Loyola Marymount University Friday where former Sheriff Alex Villanueva testified under oath about deputy gangs in the department.
Attorney Bert Deixler and the Civilian Oversight Commission, which was assembled in 2016 to provide oversight and analysis of the Sheriff’s Department policies and practices, cross examined Villanueva for over four hours, and asked about gang tattoos, referenced past testimony, and inquired about investigations into the deputy gangs themselves.
Villanueva historically had not honored past subpoenas issued by the Civilian Oversight Commission. This time, Commission Chair Sean Kennedy said in an earlier interview Villanueva may have felt he was backed into a legal corner.
“We were seeking to have him held in contempt,” Kennedy said. “And I believe that finding him in contempt was imminent and so maybe that was part of his decision making process.”
Deputy gang tattoos were a big talking point during the testimony, but Villanueva claimed as long as the tattoos weren’t street gang related, he didn’t have a problem with them and was more focused on deputy misconduct while he led the department.
“What [deputies] chose to adorn their body with, what type of ink, I could care less,” Villanueva said. “As long as they followed policy and treated everyone with dignity and respect. Both employees and the public.”
The former Sheriff also suggested that if all deputies with tattoos were eliminated without evidence of misconduct, Los Angeles County would be left with a “gargantuan public safety crisis.”
Villanueva further insisted that social subgroups within Sheriff stations did indeed exist, but as he has done in the past, denied any knowledge of gangs or cliques within them.
According to Kennedy, investigations by independent commissions like the Kolts Commission, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Citizens Commission on Jail Violence, the Rand Corporation, and from sworn testimonies from Sheriff deputies, evidence of the gangs like the Banditos, Executioners, Cavemen, and Vikings remains overwhelming.
After the fourth hour of questioning, commission chair Sean Kennedy asked if the meeting should continue on a different date, to which Villanueva agreed on a few conditions: if it came after the county’s primary election, and if his predecessor and successor were subpoenaed as well.
The commissioners agreed, but commissioner Robert Bonner noted that if Villanueva were to be legally summoned once more, he’d have to be present whether or not Robert Luna or Jim McDonnell made an appearance.
Outside of the meeting place, Stephanie Luna, 33, talked with family and friends. She was at the hearing to show that she was still fighting for accountability after her nephew, Anthony Vargas, was killed by two Banditos prospects in East LA in 2018. But with being vocal about the killing of her nephew by two LASD deputies, came harassment from Villanueva’s team, she said.
“We’ve been here at the Civilian Oversight Commission meetings since my nephew was killed, raising the issue of it and talking about it just because we needed to put something publicly on record and kind of make our own carbon footprint of what was going on with us because there was a genuine fear that what happened to my nephew can quite possibly happen to us, and the deputies can get away with it,” Luna said.
She wasn’t satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and felt that it was a clear indication of the failed leadership that represented Villanueva’s term.
“Having him run the station or the department for so many years, I can see why things spiraled out the way they did. He was being asked very direct questions that didn’t require much of an explanation. You know, very simple, yes or no [questions]. And instead [he] kind of tippy toed around. There were clear excuses,” Luna said. “He had a lot to say about nothing. He had a lot of nothing to say.”
The next special meeting hosted by the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission is tentatively scheduled for early March.
This story was updated on Jan. 14 to correctly spell the last name of Attorney Bert Deixler, to correct the name Villanueva in a photo caption and to correctly identify the Kolts Commission.
