LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County attorneys want to bar the testimony of four top public officials in the upcoming trial of a long-running civil suit by multiple sheriff’s deputies who say they were pressured to quit or leave the East Los Angeles station by an internal clique known as the Banditos.
The Los Angeles Superior Court suit filed by plaintiffs Art Hernandez, Alfred Gonzalez, Benjamin Zaredini, David Casas, Louis Granados, Mario Contreras, Areila Leums and Oscar Escobedo is scheduled for trial Jan. 21.
All are still with the department except for Hernandez, who resigned in September 2023 after disciplinary action was taken against him related to, among other things, two drunk-driving arrests in four years, according to the county attorneys’ court papers.
County attorneys object to proposals by the plaintiffs to call as witnesses Supervisor Hilda Solis, Sheriff Robert Luna, Undersheriff April Tardy and Los Angeles Police Chief James McDonnell, who was sheriff from 2014-18.
Defense attorneys maintain the four are “apex” witnesses, which is defined as a person who sits at the highest level of a large organization. The same lawyers contend the testimony the plaintiffs want can be obtained from other witnesses.
“None of the apex witnesses has unique or superior personal knowledge of relevant facts and plaintiffs have not exhausted less burdensome alternatives…” the county lawyers argue in their court papers.
Solis never worked for the sheriff’s department and the plaintiffs have failed to identify any important information she would have that is relevant to their alleged mistreatment at the East Los Angeles station, the county attorneys further state.
The plaintiffs’ suit was originally filed in September 2019 and deals in part with the events that allegedly occurred during a September 2018 training session at Kennedy Hall — an East Los Angeles event venue where the plaintiffs maintain the alleged Banditos “sucker-punched” Hernandez and “knocked him out cold,” then kicked him while he was unconscious and unable to defend himself.
The suit alleges the assailants also grabbed Escobedo from behind twice and choked him unconscious in a manner that could have killed him.
The plaintiffs were threatened and bullied in attempts to get them to conform to a “corrupt culture,” were denied needed backup on dangerous calls and were “shaken down” and ordered to pay taxes to the gang, according to the suit. The plaintiffs also allege they were given excessive calls, sent hostile messages, forced to perform unpaid overtime and denied promotions and transfers.
But in their court papers, county attorneys argue the county is not responsible for anything that allegedly happened to the plaintiffs at Kennedy Hall.
“The county cannot be held liable for the fight since none of the people involved were acting within the scope of their employment with the department, not the plaintiffs or the individual defendants,” the county attorneys state. “The party was voluntary — LASD did not require anyone to go. It was planned and funded by the deputies. None of the attendees were on- duty. And it took place at a site not owned or operated by the county.”
The county put the individual defendants on administrative leave, investigated the incident and then fired the individual defendants for their involvement, according to the attorneys’ court papers.
The plaintiffs allege the Banditos are an all-Latino gang that targets young Latinos for harassment, but the county lawyers state in their court papers that the plaintiffs cannot show they heard a single comment or insult about their ethnicity.
The Banditos members actually admitted members of all races and treated all non-Banditos the same, regardless of race, and the plaintiffs were harassed only after they spoke out against the Banditos and not because the plaintiffs themselves are Latinos, the county lawyers state in their court papers.
