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| 25 deputies may face discipline over inmate deaths |
| By Los Angeles Times |
| Published: 08/06/2004 |
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The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is seeking to discipline 25 of its deputies for policy violations that contributed to a series of inmate killings in Los Angeles County jails, the chief attorney for the Office of Independent Review said Thursday. Michael Gennaco said a preliminary report by his office found that sheriff's jailers "fell down on the job" in five jailhouse killings from October to April, citing lapses including a failure to discipline, monitor, properly classify and, ultimately, protect inmates. "Things weren't done that needed to be done," Gennaco said. "It was the failure to challenge inmates, the failure to identify inmates who are supposed to go to court from the inmates who are not, the failure to conduct hourly safety checks, write up inmates who are in violation of discipline." Gennaco cautioned that the investigation by his agency, created by the Board of Supervisors to oversee sheriff's operations, found no evidence of "willful misconduct" by deputies and cited an increased level of vigilance in the jails. The hourly checks, or the lack of them, became an issue in all the killings because deputies lost track of killers and victims only to discover crimes hours after they were committed. Gennaco said killings may have resulted, in part, from not enough jailers to watch an increasingly violent jail population. Ultimately, he said, there were no excuses for the policy lapses that led to killings. |
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