LOS ANGELES
The former second-in-command of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and a former Sheriff’s Captain were indicted for allegedly obstructing an FBI investigation into jail corruption, beatings and abuse of inmates at the two downtown jail complexes, officials said Thursday at a press conference.
Undersheriff Paul Tanaka along with former Capt. William Thomas “Tom” Carey, who oversaw internal criminal investigations at the Sheriff’s Department, were charged with allegedly trying to quash a federal investigation into corruption and civil rights violations by sheriff’s deputies.
A federal grand jury on Wednesday returned a five-count indictment against high-ranking Sheriff’s deputies against Tanaka and Carey, who allegedly participated in a broad conspiracy to obstruct the investigation.
When the Sheriff’s Department learned that an inmate at Men’s Central Jail was an FBI informant, Tanaka and Carey allegedly ordered the inmate transferred throughout the jail system so federal investigators couldn’t find him to bring him before a grand jury to testify about jail corruption and the use of excessive force.
In September, six deputies who were working in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department each were sentenced to federal prison terms for interfering with a federal civil rights investigation into misconduct at the Men’s Central Jail, American Justice Notebook Report
The case against Tanaka and Carey, both 56, was outlined at a press conference by Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura and FBI Assistant Director in Charge David Bowdich.
Tanaka was the undersheriff – the number 2 in the LASD – until 2013. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for sheriff last year. Carey left the LASD after reaching the rank of captain and heading the Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau, officials said.
The two defendants are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The FBI investigation resulted in 21 defendants, who held various ranks at the Sheriff’s Department, being charged, including the deputy who took the bribe to smuggle the phone and seven co-conspirators in the scheme to obstruct justice
According to the indictment that was unsealed this morning, the two defendants were well aware of “problem deputies” at the jails, “allegations of rampant abuse of inmates,” and “insufficient internal investigations” into deputy misconduct.
But against this backdrop, Tanaka allegedly told deputies assigned to the jails to work in a “gray area” and that he thought that the LASD Internal Affairs Bureau should be reduced from 45 investigators to just one.
The two defendants are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, and each is named in one count of obstruction of justice. Carey is charged with two counts of making false statements, committing perjury last year during the trials of co-conspirators, officials.
Tanaka and Carey surrendered to the FBI early this morning. The two men are expected to be arraigned on the indictment later today in U.S. District Court.
“As the allegations demonstrate, Tanaka had a large role in institutionalizing certain illegal behavior within the Sheriff’s Department,” said Acting United States Attorney Stephanie Yonekura. “This case also illustrates how leaders who foster and then try to hide a corrupt culture, will be held accountable, just like their subordinates.”
These are the allegations outlines in the indictment that was unsealed this morning:
- The two defendants were well aware of “problem deputies” at the jails, “allegations of rampant abuse of inmates,” and “insufficient internal investigations” into deputy misconduct.
- But against this backdrop, Tanaka allegedly told deputies assigned to the jails to work in a “gray area” and that he thought that the LASD Internal Affairs Bureau should be reduced from 45 investigators to just one.
- The scheme to thwart the federal investigation allegedly started when deputies in August 2011 recovered a mobile phone from an inmate at the Central Jail, linked the phone to the FBI.
- Deputies determined that the inmate was an informant for the FBI and was cooperating in a federal corruption civil rights investigation.
- The phone was given to the inmate by a corrupt deputy, who subsequently pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges.
- Alarmed by the federal investigation, members of the conspiracy, guided by Tanaka and Carey, took steps to hide the informant from FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service agents.
- The FBI and Marshals Service were trying to bring the inmate before a federal grand jury to testify and were armed with a judge’s court order to do so.
- The deputies altered records to make it appear that the inmate had been released.
- The deputies then re-booked the inmate under a different name, moved him to secure locations, prohibited FBI access to the informant, and then told the inmate that he had been abandoned by the FBI.
- Over the course of several weeks, members of the conspiracy allegedly sought an order from a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that would have compelled the FBI to turn over information about its investigation to the LASD.
- After the judge refused to issue the order because he had no jurisdiction over the federal agents, Tanaka and Carey met to discuss having two sergeants approach the lead FBI case agent.
- The sergeants then confronted the agent at her residence in an attempt to intimidate her.
- The sergeants threatened the agent with arrest and later reiterated this threat to her supervisor, stating that the agent’s arrest was imminent.
- Tanaka and Carey oversaw co-conspirators who told fellow deputies not to cooperate in the federal investigation.
Officials allege that members of the conspiracy allegedly engaged in witness tampering by telling fellow deputies that the FBI would lie, threaten, manipulate and blackmail them to obtain information about the Sheriff’s Department.
“The allegations in the indictment include cover-ups, diversionary tactics, retribution and a culture generally reserved for Hollywood scripts,” said David Bowdich, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The public held the defendants to the highest standard, but, instead, they spent their time and energy setting a tone which minimized the value of their oath and dishonored the badge they wore.”
If convicted of all the charges, Tanaka faces up to 15 years in prison. Carey is also facing up to 15 years in prison. He can also be sentenced to as much as 10 years behind bars for the false declaration counts, according to authorities.
The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.