Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna has sued the Civilian Oversight Commission over its subpoena requests for misconduct records and use of force cases.
According to Luna he was advised by county counsel not to respond to the requests ahead of a scheduled oversight commission meeting held on March 20.
“This complaint is not intended to cause division between County Departments, but rather to gain clear guidance on the complex legal issues surrounding what can and cannot be disclosed to the COC moving forward,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “Without judicial clarification on this long-running disagreement, the Department risks potential criminal charges, civil liability, and erosion of public trust.”
During the commission meeting the commission’s chair voiced his displeasure with the sheriff’s department failure to comply with their subpoena requests.
“As a former federal judge and a person who’s practiced law for many years, I find this extraordinary and, frankly, disrespectful to this commission and not lawful,” said commission Chair Robert Bonner. “They needed to provide a custodian of records, and they thumbed their nose at us and said ‘we’re not going to do that.’”
The subpoena requests involve the 2020 shooting death of 18-year-old Andres Guardado, Emmett Brock who was beaten by a deputy for flipping him off in 2023, and Joseph Perez who was beaten by deputies in 2020.
This is the latest development in the battle between the sheriff’s department and the oversight commission since one of the commissioners announced his intent to resign last month.
Sean Kennedy, a prominent member of the COC is citing interference by county lawyers over the body’s efforts to dismiss charges against Diana Teran who has been charged by Attorney General Rob Bonta for accessing confidential files for deputies.
“We have heard from the leadership of the department that they cannot give COC ad hoc committees confidential documents,” Kennedy said during Thursday’s special meeting. “They’re afraid that their employees will be prosecuted by the California attorney general just as Ms. Teran is being prosecuted.”
Teran served as a constitutional policing advisor for the LASD under then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell before joining the DA’s Office to help carry out its constitutional duty under U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland. Under Brady, prosecutors have a duty to disclose exculpatory evidence that could be used to impeach the credibility of prosecution witnesses, including law enforcement witnesses.
The California Department of Justice, led by the Attorney General, filed charges against Teran after the LASD, under then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s now defunct Public Corruption Unit, accused her of downloading confidential information from its personnel file system in 2021 while trying to identify deputies to add to the DA’s “Brady List.” Maintained by law enforcement agencies and prosecutor offices, the Brady List contains names and details of law enforcement officers who have sustained incidents of untruthfulness, criminal convictions, and other issues raising questions about their credibility.
During a special meeting held by the COC Feb. 13, they contemplated filing an amiscus brief on the matter.
During the meeting, a lawyer for the county told the commission it did not have the authority to file a brief without getting permission from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. But Robert Bonner, the former federal judge who chairs the commission, disputed that and said the oversight commission had done it once before without pushback.
The Commission then filed an amicus curiae brief on February 17, 2025, after its members unanimously voted to do so in a special meeting of the Commission last week. With this “friend of the court” brief, the Commission asserted Diana Teran’s “good-faith efforts” to fulfill the DA’s constitutionally mandated disclosure of exculpatory information should be “lauded, not criminalized.”
After filing the brief, Kennedy resigned.
“It is not appropriate for the County Counsel to control the COC’s independent oversight decisions,” Kennedy said, “because the County Counsel represents sheriffs engaged in misconduct and because they helped hide deputy gang misconduct for decades.”
The Commission added that the LASD, with the blessing of County Counsel, is using the Teran prosecution as an excuse not to share information with the Commission, such as death review reports of in-custody deaths in the County jail and force incident reports relating to the use of lethal and potentially excessive force. The Commission stressed that this is negatively impacting its ability to provide the County with effective oversight of the LASD. In its amicus brief, the Commission said the LASD should not be allowed to “use this misguided prosecution to escape meaningful civilian oversight.”
“Teran’s indictment chills voter-mandated civilian oversight of the Sheriff’s Department,” Robert Bonner, Chair of the Commission, said. “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.”
He said it is imperative that the Commission have access to confidential information, such as use of force reports, death reports, and internal investigation reports, including body-worn cameras and third-party videos.
