By: Emilie St. John
A newly filed lawsuit against the County of Los Angeles is alleging a deputy in the East Los Angeles station is attempting to form a new deputy gang, according to the court filing.
Deputy Amayel Garfias filed his lawsuit on Jan. 26 in Superior Court alleging he was first verbally and then physically assaulted over two days in Jan. 2021.
It is not known when Garfias first filed his claim against the County, which is a precursor to a lawsuit. The County has consistently refused to disclose details related to lawsuits, specifically the cost to taxpayers to defend them, under public records requests.
Neither the former nor current Sheriff are named in the lawsuit, however, newly elected Sheriff Robert Luna campaigned on a platform of eradicating deputy gangs once he took office.
Deputy gangs have not been a subject of any Civilian Oversight Commission meeting agendas once former Sheriff Alex Villanueva was defeated for reelection last November.
Villanueva has publicly made statements that he addressed the issues with the alleged “Banditos” that were alleged to exist in the East LA station and it appears to be corroborated in Garfas’ lawsuit where he notes a “new gang” is forming.
Luna has been in office for nine weeks and has been on a PR promo with hand-selected media appearances where he discusses how “great” things are going. When he appeared on KBLA 1580 on Feb. 2 to speak with Tavis Smiley, he was already aware of the lawsuit and reaffirmed everything was “going well”.
He was asked point blank were deputy gangs in the department and he responded “yes” but wasn’t asked what he was doing about it.
“I will be making announcements soon,” said Luna.
The five women Board of Supervisors has been silent, most notably Holly Mitchell, who was the ring leader to get Villaneuva out of office after being passed the baton by her predecessor Mark Ridley-Thomas on the lack of definitive action by Luna on the deputy gang issue.
Sheriff deputies killed five people last month, including one in Compton, where the Compton Station is alleged to be run by deputy gangs too.
Luna has yet to make an appearance in the City in order to show solidarity with residents and reassure them that he is making addressing deputy gangs his top priority. Instead, Luna told Tavis Smiley his priorities are restoring public trust and jail conditions.
“How are you restoring public trust when your department keeps killing people,” asked Smiley.
Restoring public trust also entails addressing the allegations of the deputy gangs and not hiding behind Inspector General Max Huntsman to do it.
Is it time to admit Robert Luna is not fit for office and do the County Supervisors have egg on their face for unanimously supporting him?
To view the lawsuit click here.
