The captain tasked with overseeing the troubled East Los Angeles sheriff’s station has been reassigned amid a probe into accusations of racial bias and whistleblower retaliation.
Final weekend, The Occasions reported on a memo claiming that Capt. Pilar Chavez allegedly schemed to provide valued detective bureau positions to Latino sergeants to keep away from selling an “offended black” sergeant who had testified concerning the presence of deputy gangs on the station.
This week, an inside message despatched to L.A. County Sheriff’s Division workers confirmed Chavez is now slated for switch to the Courtroom Providers West Bureau beginning Sunday. The reassignment is a lateral transfer, albeit to a less-coveted put up. Chavez didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Officers confirmed she can be changed on the East L.A. station by Capt. Brandon Dean, who’s at the moment a captain within the detective division of the Narcotics Bureau.
“Captain Dean has demonstrated expertise and management which is able to profit the cities of Commerce, Cudahy, Maywood, together with the unincorporated communities of East Los Angeles,” mentioned division spokeswoman Lorena Rodriguez.
In taking up the East L.A. station, Dean faces a frightening process. The station has turn out to be a magnet for scandal, partially as a result of it’s residence to a bunch of deputies often called the Banditos, whose members sport matching skeleton tattoos and have been implicated in lawsuits, shootings and one notorious brawl at an off-duty station social gathering in 2018
Among the key allegations raised within the memo about Chavez that was reviewed by The Occasions stem from Sgt. Reginald Hoffman’s efforts to convey to gentle gang exercise on the station, each by testifying as a whistleblower and by later submitting swimsuit.
On Jan. 24, based on the memo header, Lt. Shawn O’Donnell, who labored beneath Chavez in East L.A., despatched the eight-page message to Cmdr. Richard Mejia, who oversees a number of stations.
“In late August 2022, I acquired a telephone name from Captain Chavez on my private cellular telephone,” the memo begins. “Captain Chavez requested me if I heard concerning the drama happening on the station.”
When O’Donnell mentioned he hadn’t, Chavez went on to inform him that higher-ups had ordered her to interview sergeants for a place within the detective bureau. However Chavez allegedly mentioned she needed to choose her personal sergeants, based on the memo, and that she already had two candidates in thoughts — neither of whom was Hoffman.
“Captain Chavez additionally advised me Sergeant Reginald Hoffman was the nameless caller who gave testimony on the Civilian Oversight Committee listening to on Might 24, 2022,” the memo continues, referencing one of many seven public hearings the oversight physique held final yr as a part of a probe into into the affect of deputy gangs inside the division.
Based on the January memo, Chavez allegedly went on to say that Hoffman had “nothing coming to him at East Los Angeles station” and that she’d already given an edge to her most well-liked detective sergeant candidates by telling them which questions she deliberate to ask throughout their interviews.
“Captain Chavez acknowledged they have been Hispanic and so they have been those she may belief out of the sergeants who needed the place,” the memo says. “She additionally advised me there was no method she was going to permit Sergeant Hoffman to get the place as a result of he was an offended black man who filed a declare and for being the nameless caller on the COC listening to.”
In the long run, Hoffman didn’t get the job. However just a few weeks later, based on the memo, Chavez reached out to O’Donnell once more, this time to speak about getting Hoffman despatched to a different station.
“I requested her why she needed him faraway from the station,” the memo reads. “Captain Chavez advised me he’s a ache in her ass and he was appearing like an offended black.”
In the end Hoffman was by no means moved, however just a few weeks later he sued.
The lawsuit alleged that Hoffman had been denied promotions and subjected to racial discrimination and whistleblower retaliation by Latino gang members and their allies on the East L.A. station.
When legal professionals for the county filed a response to the swimsuit in January, they mentioned that the issues Hoffman described have been rumour or “unrelated to his protected standing as an African American.” The case continues to be pending.,
In the meantime Robert Glassman, the lawyer representing O’Donnell, mentioned final week that his shopper could have penned the memo after he was denied a promotion himself and that he’s now making ready to sue the county over claims of political retaliation.
Information of Chavez’s switch follows a collection of different developments stemming from previous issues on the East L.A. station.
In January, one other lawsuit alleged {that a} new “gang” had begun forming within the station.
Final month, the Civilian Oversight Fee hosted a city corridor the place grieving households of individuals killed by East L.A. deputies gathered to air their criticisms of the division and demanded change. Days later, a federal decide declared a mistrial in a lawsuit filed by a type of households after jurors couldn’t agree on a verdict. An lawyer for the household of Anthony Vargas mentioned they hope to proceed pursuing the case in state courtroom.
Then Wednesday, L.A. County Superior Courtroom Decide Rolf Treu denied the county’s request to throw out an $80-million lawsuit filed by eight former East L.A. deputies who say they have been harassed and abused by alleged Banditos. The case, which facilities on allegations relating to the 2018 off-duty brawl, will go ahead, however with a barely narrower scope.
