Whistle-blowers say there is a shadow government in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department: a secretive group of deputies who function like a gang.
At the beginning, the investigators seemed intent on gathering information about the Banditos. In mid-November, 2018, the lead investigator questioned a deputy. Had she seen a Bandito tattoo? Were Banditos sexually harassing women? Were Munoz and Rodriguez Banditos? The deputy claimed ignorance on all counts, saying that the women at the station stayed out of it.
In response, the Board of Supervisors created the Office of the Inspector General to “promote constitutional policing and the fair and impartial administration of justice.” In late February, I met with Max Huntsman, a career public-corruption prosecutor, who has served as inspector general since the role’s inception. Huntsman is lanky, with sharp blue eyes and a pair of fierce dachshunds.
In response to Villanueva’s public complaint that Mandoyan had been treated unfairly, Huntsman produced a report analyzing the attempts to return him to the department. Before publishing it, Huntsman met with Villanueva to share a draft. “He used that meeting to say, ‘Max, you’re a political hack, you’re an attack dog for the board—if you release that report there will be consequences,’ ” Huntsman told me.
Last year, the mid-career deputy told me, Carl Mandoyan approached her as she was coming due for a promotion to explain how she could gain advancement. Though he was no longer employed there, he was lingering around the sheriff’s department, trading on his relationship with the Villanuevas. “He said I needed to call Vivian, take her to lunch, buy her a nice gift, and ask her for career advice,” she said.
In a recent civil complaint about retaliation and workplace harassment, a recruit-training officer alleges that, when she dismissed an unqualified friend of Vivian’s, Vivian verbally abused her and sullied her reputation, saying, “I will go off on that bitch.” At the recent Civilian Oversight Commission hearing, a current deputy from East L.A. testified under oath that the Banditos continue to disrupt the operations of the station. Fearing retribution, the witness called in, using voice alteration. Ten deputies, the witness said, had received Bandito tattoos eighteen months ago.
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