Los Angeles (CNN)Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca pleaded guilty Wednesday to lying to federal investigators conducting a corruption and civil rights probe into the county jail system he once ran.
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It is tempting to imagine disgraced former Sheriff Lee Baca – who now faces up to six months in federal prison – serving his time behind bars, itching to tell authorities of the abuse that he and other inmates routinely suffer at the hands of guards, trying to contact investigators with a phone they had managed to sneak in to him.
Baca signed a plea agreement that said he ordered deputies to intimidate an Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and “do everything but put handcuffs on her”.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to seek a sentence of more than six months for the 73-year-old.
Baca’s decision to plead guilty to willfully making false statements was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Federal prosecutors say Baca agreed to plead guilty Wednesday to lying to investigators in the probe that tainted his career.
Eight former sheriff’s department officials – including a captain, two lieutenants and two sergeants – were convicted for their roles in the cover- up.
Deputies are accused of altering records to make it seem as if the informant was released and they then re-booked him under a different name before moving him to a number of secure locations. The convictions stem from a grand jury investigation that began in 2010 into allegations of abuse and corruption at the downtown Men’s Central Jail.
Prosecutors on Tuesday entered into an agreement ending a pending case against sheriff’s Deputies Joey Aguiar and Mariano Ramirez. Baca hired his own criminal defense attorney should he be called to the stand in Tanaka’s trial, which is scheduled for March 22.
Former Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca, middle, is escorted out of U.S. Court House building in Los Ang … Baca’s guilty plea is important. The Board of Supervisors last month approved a process for selecting members of the panel.
“Former Sheriff Lee Baca deserves punishment”, George Hofstetter President of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS), said in a statement Wednesday.
“The plea agreement sends a strong message that no one is above the law”, he said.
The American Civil Liberties Union had earlier accused Baca of condoning “savage beatings” of jail inmates, and a blue-ribbon Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence concurred there had been a “failure of leadership” over the jails. “This by no means undermines the dedication and hard work of the more than 9,000 deputy sheriffs who put their lives on the line protecting L.A. County residents”, the group said in a statement.
In a plea agreement filed this morning in United States District Court, Baca admitted that he lied to the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office when he falsely stated that he did not know that LASD officials were going to approach the FBI’s lead agent on the investigation in 2011.
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David Bowdich, the FBI’s top agent in Los Angeles, said Baca missed an opportunity to lead when he first became aware of problems within the jails. “We are heartened to see that those charged with enforcing the law are also expected to obey it, including the former sheriff and his deputies”.
