UPDATE, February 21, 2025: The Office of the Los Angeles County Counsel sent a letter to the California Second District Court of Appeal opining that the Civilian Oversight Commission could not file an amicus brief. The Los Angeles County charter limits the oversight body only in being party to litigation.
Members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission stated during their meeting last week that the body was unable to perform its duties due to the Sheriff’s Department’s refusal to turn over documents to the commission. The dispute reached a crisis Monday when commissioner Sean Kennedy resigned from the panel after receiving an email from Los Angeles County attorneys stating that the county would take action in state court if Kennedy filed a brief on the commission’s behalf in a contentious legal case related to the Sheriff’s Department.
At the heart of the dispute between the Sheriff’s Department and the commission is a state criminal case filed against Diana Teran, a former L.A. assistant district attorney. Teran is accused of sending court records, which are a matter of public record, regarding dozens of LASD deputies to a subordinate to review for possible inclusion in databases that prosecutors use to track police misconduct. One of them is known as the Brady database, named for a Supreme Court decision requiring the prosecution to turn over any evidence favorable to the defense.
Under former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, the Sheriff’s Department lobbied the California attorney general and the FBI to prosecute Teran beginning in 2019. Then-federal prosecutor Brandon Fox declined to press charges. California Attorney General Rob Bonta rejected the case but last April filed 11 similar felony counts against the then-assistant D.A. Teran, alleging that Teran had violated state hacking statutes through “unauthorized use of data from confidential, statutorily protected peace officer files.” Five of those charges have been dropped.
In its refusal to turn over material to the commission, the Sheriff’s Department has cited Teran’s prosecution, stating that it fears prosecution of department employees should it turn over the material.
“Teran’s indictment chills voter-mandated civilian oversight of the Sheriff’s Department,” Robert Bonner, chair of the Civilian Oversight Commission, said in a statement. “The Sheriff’s Department’s refusal to release confidential documents based on professed fears of prosecution by the Attorney General dramatically undermines our ability to carry out our mission.”
Bonner also said in a statement that the Civilian Oversight Commission has been unable to review documents related to internal investigations of deputy gangs, deputy-involved shootings, beatings, false statements and the filing of false reports to cover up deputy misconduct.
Last Thursday, the Civilian Oversight Commission voted unanimously with one absence to file an amicus brief in the pending criminal prosecution of a former top adviser to the L.A. District Attorney’s Office. Amicus briefs are submitted to the court by individuals or organizations that have an interest in the pending case but are not parties to it.
An attorney with the Office of the Los Angeles County Counsel advised at last week’s meeting that the commission did not have the authority to file a brief. In 2017, the body sent an amicus letter to the California Supreme Court.
In a letter to Bonner over the weekend, County Counsel Dawyn R. Harrison again asserted that the Civilian Oversight Commission did not have the authority to file a brief.
“County Counsel was never opposed to the Civilian Oversight Commission filing an amicus brief,” the Office of County Counsel said in an emailed statement. “The issue that County Counsel tried to make clear to Commissioner Kennedy was that the COC, as an advisory Commission to the Board of Supervisors, does not have legal authority to file an amicus brief without first obtaining the Board’s approval.”
Kennedy filed the brief on Monday, and resigned promptly after.
“I don’t believe it’s appropriate to allow County Counsel to control the COC’s independent oversight decisions because County Counsel represents the sheriffs engaged in misconduct and because they have hidden deputy gang misconduct for decades,” Kennedy told Capital & Main in a text message.
