The previous chairman of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Fee is beneath investigation for alleged retaliation in opposition to a Sheriff’s Division sergeant who confronted scrutiny for his position in a unit accused of pursuing politically motivated instances.
Sean Kennedy, a Loyola Regulation College professor who resigned from the fee this yr, obtained notification from a regulation agency that mentioned it had “been engaged by the Workplace of the County Counsel to conduct a impartial investigation into an allegation that you just retaliated in opposition to Sergeant Max Fernandez,” in response to an e-mail reviewed by The Instances.
Kennedy and different members of the fee questioned Fernandez final yr about his connections to the Sheriff’s Division’s now-disbanded Civil Rights and Public Integrity Element, a controversial unit that operated beneath then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
Kennedy mentioned the fee’s inquiry into Fernandez seems to be what landed him within the crosshairs of the investigation he now faces. Kennedy denied any wrongdoing in a textual content message Thursday.
“I used to be simply doing my job as an oversight official tasked by the fee to conduct the questioning at an official public listening to,” he wrote.
Final week, Kennedy obtained an e-mail from Matthias H. Wagener, co-partner of Wagener Regulation, stating that the county had launched an investigation.
“The primary allegation is that you just tried to discredit Sergeant Fernandez in varied methods due to his position in investigating Commissioner Patti Giggans throughout his tenure on the previous Civil Rights & Public Corruption Element Unit,” Wagener wrote. “It has been alleged that you just retaliated for private causes regarding your relationship with Commissioner Giggans, as her buddy and her legal professional.”
The Workplace of the County Counsel confirmed in an emailed assertion that “a confidential office investigation into latest allegations of retaliation” is underway, however declined to determine who’s being investigated or who alleged retaliation, citing a must “make sure the integrity of the investigation and to guard the privateness of” the events.
“In accordance with its anti-retaliation insurance policies and procedures, LA County investigates complaints made by workers who allege they’ve been subjected to retaliation for participating in protected actions within the office,” the assertion mentioned.
On Friday, a county spokesperson mentioned through textual content message that the investigation was requested by the County Fairness Oversight Panel, an impartial physique that critiques the county’s equity-related points and makes suggestions to county officers.
“County Counsel has no position right here past facilitating entry to outdoors counsel with experience on this space,” the spokesperson added.
The Sheriff’s Division mentioned in an e-mail that it “has no investigation into Mr. Kennedy.”
Reached by telephone Thursday, Fernandez mentioned that he doesn’t “know something about” the investigation and that he has not “talked to anyone at county counsel.”
“That is the primary I’m listening to about it,” he mentioned. “Who began this investigation? They haven’t contacted me. I don’t understand how that received into their fingers.”
In a telephone interview, Kennedy described the inquiry as “extraordinary.”
“I feel that that is simply the newest in a protracted line of Sheriff’s Division workers doing actually something they’ll to thwart significant oversight,” Kennedy mentioned. “So now we’re on the level the place they’re submitting bogus retaliation complaints in opposition to commissioners for doing their jobs.”
Kennedy resigned from the Civilian Oversight Fee in February after county legal professionals tried to thwart the physique from submitting an amicus transient within the prison case in opposition to Diana Teran, who served as an advisor to then-L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón.
The general public corruption unit led a number of high-profile investigations throughout Villanueva’s time period as sheriff, together with inquiries into Giggans, the Civilian Oversight Fee, then-L.A. County Supervisor Shelia Kuehl and former Instances reporter Maya Lau.
One of many unit’s investigations concerned a whistleblower who alleged that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority unfairly awarded greater than $800,000 price of contracts to a nonprofit run by Giggans, a buddy of Kuehl’s and vocal critic of Villanueva. The investigation made headlines when sheriff’s deputies with weapons and battering rams raided Kuehl’s Santa Monica dwelling one early morning in 2022.
The investigation ended with none prison expenses final summer time, when the California Division of Justice concluded that there was a “lack of proof of wrongdoing.”
Requested Thursday in regards to the declare that Kennedy — who served as a lawyer for her whereas she was being investigated by the general public corruption unit — interrogated Fernandez as a type of retaliation, Giggans referred to as it “bogus” and mentioned Fernandez “was subpoenaed due to his actions as a rogue sheriff’s deputy.”
Lau filed a lawsuit final month alleging the prison investigation into her actions as a journalist violated her 1st Modification rights. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta in the end declined to prosecute the case in opposition to Lau.
Critics have repeatedly alleged that Villanueva used the unit to focus on his political enemies, a cost the previous sheriff has disputed.
In October, Kennedy and different members of the Civilian Oversight Fee spent 5 hours interrogating Fernandez and former murder Det. Mark Lillienfeld in regards to the public corruption unit, of which they had been members.
Kennedy questioned Fernandez’s credibility through the alternate, asking about Folks vs. Aquino, a ruling by an appellate courtroom within the mid-2000s that discovered he had offered false testimony throughout a prison trial that was “deliberate and no slip of the tongue.”
Fernandez argued that he had “by no means lied on the stand,” including that “that’s ridiculous, I’m an anti-corruption cop.”
Fernandez additionally fielded questions on whether or not he was a member of a deputy gang. Critics have accused deputy cliques of participating in brawls and different misconduct.
Fernandez mentioned he was not in a deputy gang or problematic subgroup. However he acknowledged that he drew an image of a warrior within the early 2000s that he received tattooed on his physique.
A lieutenant tattooed with that picture beforehand testified that it’s related to the Gladiators deputy subgroup, of which Fernandez has denied being a member.
Kennedy additionally requested Fernandez a few 2003 incident during which he shot and killed a 27-year-old man in Compton. Fernandez alleged the person pointed a gun at him, however sheriff’s investigators later discovered he was unarmed.
In a 2021 memo to oversight officers, Kennedy referred to as for a state or federal investigation into the Civil Rights and Public Integrity Element and its “sample of concentrating on” critics of the Sheriff’s Division.
Then-Undersheriff Tim Murakami responded in a letter, writing that the memo contained “wild accusations.”
On Could 30, Wagener questioned Kennedy about “why I examined Max Fernandez about his deadly taking pictures of a group member, his Gladiators tattoo, his perjury in Folks v. Aquino, and why he put references to folks’s sexual orientation in a search warrant software,” Kennedy wrote in a textual content message Thursday. “I informed him I used to be simply asking questions that relate to oversight.”
Robert Bonner, chair of the Civilian Oversight Fee, offered an emailed assertion that referred to as the investigation into Kennedy “extraordinarily troubling and terribly ironic.”
“The allegation itself is wealthy,” Bonner wrote. “However that [it is being] given any credence by County Counsel can solely serve to intimidate different Commissioners from asking laborious questions.”
