The report, commissioned by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and written by attorney Merrick Bobb, who has investigated the Sheriff's Department before, found that the Sheriff's department has made many improvements in how it handles misconduct investigations since the early 1990s, but also found that discipline for deputies is often reduced or eliminated. Bobb looked at hundreds of misconduct investigations from 2005 at the six sheriff's stations, which included the Century, Compton, Lakewood, Palmdale, Pico Rivera, and Santa Clarita stations. There are 25 Sheriff's stations in Los Angeles County. Bobb was most critical of the way complaints and misconduct investigations were handled at the Santa Clarita office, saying that the SCV station lacks "high quality investigations." The report focuses on how the department investigates citizen complaints. Unlike the Los Angeles Police Department, when someone complains to the Sheriffs about a deputy, the complaint is investigated locally at the station, rather than by an Internal Affairs Division. Bobb found that in Santa Clarita, when a citizen's complaint conflicts with a deputy's report -even when a third party witness is available- that the officer gets the benefit of the doubt. "At Santa Clarita, when everything is deemed equal, the officer gets the benefit of the doubt, with his or her behavior determined to be reasonable." The report also says that investigators charged with reviewing complaints filed at the Santa Clarita station often wrote biased reviews. "At the Santa Clarita station in particular, the tone of investigative summaries did not always reflect appropriate impartiality and balance," the report states. Bobb cites several examples from the complaint reports and even quotes Santa Clarita investigators' responses to the complaints. In one instance, a woman driving in Santa Clarita was stopped by a deputy after she drove the wrong way in a lane to get around a tree that had fallen on the road. The woman said that the deputy was discourteous to her, and "told her she needed glasses" and that she was keeping him from his real job. The woman filed a complaint with the Sheriff's office, and after review, the investigator responded to her complaint. According to the report, the investigator wrote:
"The problem appears to be that [the woman] is a poor driver. She didn't know what to do when her path was blocked. Based on my 45 minute conversation with [the woman], I felt that she should be re-evaluated for her driver's license. I also felt that [her] actions during this incident showed signs of impaired judgment although I cannot determine the cause of the impairment."Bobb writes, in reaction to the investigator's comments, "Rather than investigating the merits of the discourtesy claim, the investigator attacked the complainant's judgment and driving skills. In another case, a father complained about a deputy's treatment of his daughter when the deputy performed a traffic stop on the teenage driver. The father says the deputy was extremely rude to the daughter, but the investigation does not address that claim, instead it only mentions the appropriateness of the traffic stop. The investigator wrote in response to the father's complaint that the teenager, "exaggerated the negative aspects of the traffic stop in an attempt to draw her father's attention away from the fact that she is a poor driver and probably a danger to herself and others." It continued, "She is not yet responsible enough to drive." The report says that the allegation that the deputy was rude was never investigated, and questions the investigator's editorial comments. Bobb's report also said that Santa Clarita complaints were often misclassified as service complaints, when they should have been personnel complaints. Also in the report were details on how deputies county-wide are able to "game the system" when facing disciplinary action due to complaints. In some instances, deputies were able to reduce or eliminate suspensions ordered by their superiors by simply appealing their case. The reductions of suspensions were often done without explanation. But the report also acknowledged that the Department has made great strides in addressing misconduct investigations since the early 1990s, when Merrick Bobb last investigated the department for claims that it used excessive force and did not address citizen's complaints. In 2005, the Santa Clarita Sheriff's station was under the leadership of Captain Patti Minutello. In January of 2007, Captain Anthony LaBerge took command of the station. The Santa Clarita Sheriff's station was contacted for this report, but had not responded by the time it was posted. The story will be updated with any comments the station has, once they come in. Sources: Los Angeles Times Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Merrick Bob Report (PDF) Report finds SCV Sheriff's office improperly handles complaints
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