LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Because the race for Los Angeles County Sheriff between incumbent Alex Villanueva and challenger Robert Luna heats up, latest allegations declare Villanueva was giving preferential therapy to those that contributed to his marketing campaign.
“The sheriff rewarding his donors is a transparent pay-to-play corruption scheme,” mentioned Luna throughout a press convention on Thursday.
In September, sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant in Monterey Park at a gun store referred to as Caps Armory, which is frequented by regulation enforcement together with deputies.
The proprietor – Roy Yamamoto – is an enormous supporter of Villanueva and even hosted a fundraiser for his re-election marketing campaign.
The search warrant was linked to 2 feminine deputies who have been not too long ago relieved of responsibility, Deputy Gisel Del Actual and Deputy Carrie Robles.
As a part of their jobs, these deputies helped course of functions permits to hold hid weapons.
Luna claims these permits have been sped up for individuals who contributed to Villanueva’s marketing campaign.
“The sheriff shortly tried to cowl his tracks and search the gun retailer and relieved two deputies who could also be concerned within the scheme, however in fact, and that is crucial, the sheriff shouldn’t, and can’t examine himself,” mentioned Luna.
Villanueva responded to Luna’s claims by saying, “They discovered two dozen permits that have been a little bit bit faster over 4,200 permits that we issued, that is not precisely Earth-shattering information. We have complied with the regulation to the T and we now have all of the proof to help it.”
Plus, there’s a battle in courtroom with the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace over the search warrants executed on the dwelling of L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.
At a information convention this week, Villanueva mentioned the Legal professional Normal, which has taken over the investigation, requested to delete video from physique cameras.
“To have the Legal professional Normal’s Workplace ask that we delete our physique worn digital camera footage is of concern to us,” mentioned Villanueva.
The Legal professional Normal’s Workplace responded saying, “We didn’t ask the L.A. County Sheriff’s Division, or anybody else, to destroy proof. Our workplace is dedicated to taking each step crucial to make sure the preservation of all proof crucial for a full and thorough investigation on this matter. It is also value noting that the search warrant supplies are at the moment beneath courtroom supervision. Past that, to guard its integrity, we’re unable to touch upon an ongoing investigation.”
The sheriff responded to that by saying, “I feel the legal professional basic may have to talk together with his deputy legal professional basic as a result of we now have all the electronic mail correspondence between his workplace and our workplace relating to precisely what they requested for, which is destruction of proof, which we thought was very alarming.”
The subsequent standing listening to involving the proof in reference to the Kuehl case is about for December 8.
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