A retired chief who was threatened with jail time for defying a subpoena is now speaking out. He claims he received orders from the top to not ask questions about the 'Banditos' during their investigation into an attack on non-Bandito deputies.
LOS ANGELES -- When four older deputies identified as Banditos attacked younger non-Bandito deputies at an East Los Angeles station party in September 2018, it seemed logical that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's investigation would delve into the issue of deputy gangs.
LASD's Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau -- or ICIB -- launched a criminal investigation one day after the attack. "I believe the manner in which this case was investigated and presented amounted to a cover-up, essentially obstruction of justice," Huntsman said.at special hearings before the Civilian Oversight Commission this month."If he doesn't appear at the next hearing, we're going to ask that the court actually put him in ... incarcerate him until he's ready to testify," said Commissioner Robert Bonner.
But now, Burson said that investigation never happened because he was told by the sheriff's office to hold off until after the"I do not think anyone from the sheriff's office ever told anybody including the Board of Supervisors or Max Huntsman that we were holding off until RAND completed its study," Burson wrote in his declaration.