Federal prosecutors mentioned two former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies admitted Monday that they dedicated prison acts whereas working facet hustles as personal safety for a Southern California crypto mogul who referred to himself as “the Godfather.”
David Anthony Rodriguez pleaded responsible to conspiracy in opposition to rights, in response to a Monday assertion by the workplace of the U.S. legal professional for the Central District of California. Christopher Michael Cadman agreed to plead responsible to conspiracy in opposition to rights and subscribing to a false tax return.
Rodriguez, 43, of La Verne, mentioned in a plea settlement that in 2022 he lied to a decide to improperly acquire a search warrant for a sufferer’s GPS location for a consumer who employed him for personal safety, the U.S. legal professional’s workplace assertion mentioned.
Rodriguez shared the sufferer’s location with Eric Chase Saavedra, 42, of Chino, one other deputy who operated a non-public safety enterprise and pleaded responsible in February to conspiracy in opposition to rights and subscribing to a false tax return.
The federal prosecutor’s workplace in Los Angeles mentioned deputies and others who have been in on the scheme used that location info to “harass, threaten, and intimidate the sufferer.” Rodriguez will face a most of 10 years in federal jail at his Nov. 10 sentencing listening to.
Cadman and Rodriguez are former workers of Adam Iza, 24, a Beverly Hills and Newport Seaside businessman who pleaded responsible in January to prices of conspiracy in opposition to rights, wire fraud and tax evasion. Iza has been in federal jail since September, with a sentencing listening to slated for this yr.
Cadman, 33, of Fullerton, and a deputy known as “LASD Deputy 6” in courtroom filings “intimidated and threatened a sufferer who was one in all Iza’s adversaries” in August 2021, in response to the U.S. legal professional’s assertion.
Throughout a gathering in Iza’s Bel-Air mansion, LASD Deputy 6 “held the sufferer at gunpoint,” the assertion mentioned, after which “the sufferer transferred roughly $25,000 from his checking account to Iza’s checking account in response to the risk and demand.”
The next month, Cadman and different officers “orchestrated a site visitors cease in Paramount to arrest the identical sufferer,” Cadman admitted in his plea settlement. He additionally admitted that he acquired funds in money whereas he was employed by Iza.
Cadman additionally admitted to receiving at the very least $40,500 in earnings that he knowingly did not report on his federal 2021 tax return, the U.S. legal professional’s workplace wrote. He’ll withstand 13 years in federal jail after he pleads responsible.
The Sheriff’s Division mentioned in a press release that it has cooperated with the federal investigation and that Rodriguez and Cadman have been “relieved of responsibility” in October 2023 and October 2024, respectively.
“These alleged actions, as detailed in federal courtroom paperwork,” the assertion mentioned, “are deeply disturbing and don’t mirror the values of our Division or the devoted work of the overwhelming majority of our deputies who serve with integrity.”
