By Jennifer Van Laar | RedState
Los Angeles-based independent investigative journalist Cece Woods has been a thorn in the side of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department since at least 2018, when she exposed a law enforcement cover-up of a string of murders in and around Malibu Creek State Park. Since then she’s also reported on corruption in LA County government, and her reporting on Biden FAA Administrator nominee Phil Washington’s corruption when he was head of LA Metro was key to that nomination’s failure.
Now Sheriff Robert Luna is going to extreme lengths, including threatened lawfare, to attempt to silence her.
Luna was elected in 2022 after a contentious election in which members of the LA County Board of Supervisors and then-District Attorney George Gascon collaborated to push him over the finish line because they didn’t like that the incumbent, Alex Villanueva, was pursuing public corruption cases. He’s therefore up for re-election in 2026. Over the last few months, Woods tells RedState, there were persistent rumors that Luna wouldn’t pursue re-election and might even step down from his job due to health concerns – and several credible sources, who Woods had relied on in the past, told her those concerns related to Parkinson’s disease.
While working on a full story, Woods posted about the rumors on X:
Nobody from Luna’s office contacted her to say that he didn’t have any health issues, or that the rumors were false, or to ask for a retraction, Woods said, until December 11, when she received a five-page intimidation and threat letter from self-proclaimed “rabid defender of stars in trouble” attorney Martin Singer on Luna’s behalf.
Intimidation Letter
The letter, obtained exclusively by RedState, begins (emphasis original):
Our firm is litigation counsel to Los Angeles Sheriff, Robert G. Luna. I write regarding the outrageous defamatory statement you made on your public “X” account page on November 10, 2024 in which you stated that my client is suffering from Parkinson’s disease and suggested he is unable to perform his obligations due to the effects of the disease (the “Statement”). Be advised that your assertion, even by implication, is highly defamatory and has exposed you, and all those involved in this conduct, to very substantial liability.
We demand that you immediately remove the Statement from your X page, demand that you immediately cease and desist from posting and/or disseminating any further false statements about my client, including without limitation any statements accusing my client of suffering from diseases that impact his professional obligations and/or presenting my client in a false light, and demand that you immediately post a Correction on your public “X” account page stating Sheriff Robert G. Luna is not suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and does not need to step down as the Sheriff. Should you ignore this demand, you will be exposing yourself to significant legal liability.
Read the full article here.
