Los Angeles County\u2019s Civilian Oversight Commission is suing the county\u2019s Sheriff\u2019s Department, asking a judge to order the release of records related to two incidents in which deputies are accused of beatings and a third involving a controversial on-duty shooting.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, is the latest effort by the oversight body to compel the department to provide access to the records. The commission issued three subpoenas in February 2025, but according to the suit, the department has repeatedly declined to fully comply.<\/p>\n
The department has maintained that it can\u2019t release the documents without redactions because they are confidential. County officials have said they are legally required to first \u201cmeet and confer\u201d with Sheriff\u2019s Department unions before handing over the records. But the Civilian Oversight Commission says those arguments, which were first made by the office of county counsel, are not valid in light of recent developments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Commission respectfully requests that the Court issue an order to show cause why the LASD should not be ordered to comply with the Subpoenas,\u201d the oversight body wrote in a court document filed Monday.<\/p>\n
The Sheriff\u2019s Department provided The Times with an unsigned statement that said the \u201cdisclosure of otherwise confidential records, and how those records are to be maintained as confidential, impacts our employees.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result,\u201d the statement added, \u201cthe better course is to complete the meet and confer process and ensure that all concerns are addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2020, county voters approved Measure R<\/a>, which granted the oversight commission subpoena powers. In fall 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law<\/a> AB 847, which amended the penal code to allow oversight commissions to receive confidential sheriff\u2019s department documents and review them in closed session. The law went into effect earlier this year.<\/p>\n In March, a state appellate court ruled that<\/a> an oversight body in Sonoma County is legally authorized to subpoena the county Sheriff\u2019s Office and directed the office to comply with the body\u2019s subpoenas for whistleblower inquiry records.<\/p>\n In L.A. County, the Civilian Oversight Commission has said the March ruling, AB 847 and Measure R combine to affirm its subpoena powers. But the Sheriff\u2019s Department has continued to deny the commission\u2019s requests, citing the advice of the office of county counsel.<\/p>\n County Counsel Dawyn Harrison claimed in an emailed statement late Tuesday that the commission\u2019s lawsuit \u201cis not legally valid\u201d because it \u201cwas neither initiated, filed through, or approved by this office, nor was it authorized by the Board of Supervisors.\u201d<\/p>\n The oversight body, \u201clike every other advisory commission created by the Board and all County departments, is not allowed to act independently of the Board,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n Denying subpoenas for records related to law enforcement actions goes against state law, court rulings and the wishes of county voters, according to Hans Johnson, chair of the Civilian Oversight Commission.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat doesn\u2019t county counsel want the people of Los Angeles County to see?\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cI am going to ask that question repeatedly, because the law is clear and the people have been clear about this issue that we deserve to know, and we\u2019ve enacted the policies that protect the public\u2019s right to know.\u201d<\/p>\n The subpoenas that the Civilian Oversight Commission is suing over concern three separate incidents.<\/p>\n In 2020, Joseph Perez was beaten<\/a> and bloodied by sheriff\u2019s deputies in the San Gabriel Valley. That same year, 18-year-old Andres Guardado was shot in the back and killed<\/a> by sheriff\u2019s deputies. In 2023, Emmett Brock, a transgender man, was beaten by a Norwalk deputy<\/a> who later pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation for use of excessive force.<\/p>\n Last year, the commission subpoenaed the Sheriff\u2019s Department for unredacted records associated with each of the cases. Perez, Brock and the loved ones of all three people are still waiting for the documents to be released.<\/p>\n Perez\u2019s mother, Vanessa, has advocated for more transparency about her son\u2019s case. On Monday, a written declaration by her was filed as part of the new suit against the Sheriff\u2019s Department. Last year, her son explained that he supports the release of all the records related to his beating.<\/p>\n \u201cThey almost killed me. They didn\u2019t really care if I was dead or not,\u201d he told The Times. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to get some evidence to come to light to show more that I was in the right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles County\u2019s Civilian Oversight Commission is suing the county\u2019s Sheriff\u2019s Department, asking a judge to order the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":873379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[138880,1582,276,27169,3059,3040,17286,355133,61473,2961,379,224,5337,1812,128831,34961,12498,46099,355132,1628],"class_list":["post-873378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-beating","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-civilian-oversight-commission","tag-county","tag-department","tag-document","tag-joseph-perez","tag-l-a-deputy","tag-la","tag-lawsuit","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-office","tag-oversight-body","tag-record","tag-sheriff","tag-subpoena","tag-unsigned-statement","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}