![]() ![]() Murakami indicated Wednesday he wouldn't attend Thursday's meeting because he has an unspecified "health issue and is busy," said Brian Williams, the commission's executive director. Murakami, the department's second highest ranking official, was subpoenaed to testify about the Civil Rights and Public Integrity Detail, a unit he oversees that critics have accused of targeting the sheriff's most vocal critics. The commission refused to allow Villanueva's chief of staff to read a prepared statement on behalf of the sheriff. He complained in a social media post after the meeting about the wait time even though he showed up an hour early. Villanueva briefly attended the remote meeting, but left before he was called on to speak. The study found 16% of the 1,608 deputies and supervisors who anonymously answered survey questions had been invited to join a group, with some invitations having come in the last five years. County officials commissioned the Rand Corp. Villanueva was subpoenaed to testify about ganglike groups of deputies following the release of a study L.A. The latest subpoenas called for Villanueva and Undersheriff Tim Murakami to appear at the commission's meeting Thursday. ![]() ![]() When Villanueva relented and agreed to answer the commission's questions voluntarily, lawyers for the county dropped the case, sparing the sheriff from a court hearing over whether he should be found in contempt.Įach time Villanueva or one of his staff refuses to honor a subpoena, attorneys for the county must go back to court if they want to try to compel the sheriff to comply. A judge could also throw out a subpoena.Ī Superior Court judge ruled last year that the commission was was well within its power when it authorized a subpoena for the sheriff's testimony about his response to COVID-19 inside the jails. Gavin Newsom then gave subpoena power to oversight bodies statewide when he signed Assembly Bill 1185 into law.ĭespite those laws, the sheriff has remained defiant, while so far avoiding a showdown in court, where a judge could order him to comply and testify before the commission or face punishment that could include a fine or imprisonment. The county's Board of Supervisors granted the commission subpoena authority last year, and soon after, voters overwhelmingly reaffirmed that right by approving Measure R. "I have freely answered questions in the past, so why now do they want to interrogate me under oath in an adversarial setting?" he said.Ĭommission Chair Priscilla Ocen said Thursday that when the sheriff does voluntarily appear, he "often engages in long-winded nonresponses" to the panel's queries. ![]() Villanueva said in a statement Wednesday night that the commission exists "to offer advice, not interrogate." "He should proudly come to answer our questions and testify under oath." County have a problem complying with a lawful subpoena to give testimony about the presence of deputy gangs within the department and allegations that he has secret police who are intimidating oversight officials?" said Sean Kennedy, a Loyola Law School professor who sits on the commission. "Why on earth would the top law enforcement officer of L.A. Villanueva has called the commission's demand for him to do so an "abuse of power." Members of the commission, meanwhile, have said his recalcitrance is an attempt to flout the body's oversight powers. ![]()
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