The Antelope Valley Times

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County recommends $1M settlement with inmate/informant at center of Baca case

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Inset: Former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca.

Los Angeles County is recommending a $1 million settlement with the inmate-turned-informant at the center of a scandal that led to the conviction of former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca and nine other sheriff’s department employees, according to documents obtained Friday.

Anthony Brown filed a civil rights suit against the county, Baca and others in March 2015, seeking damages for claims including cruel and unusual punishment and failure to provide adequate medical care.

In August, the parties announced in a filing in Los Angeles federal court that the case had been settled, although complete resolution of the matter is contingent upon final approval by the county Claims Board and Board of Supervisors. The Claims Board is expected to take up the matter on Monday. No date has been set for the Board of Supervisors hearing.

Brown, 54, is serving a lengthy state prison sentence for bank robbery and has a long criminal history.

The Baca case stems from a period in 2011 when Brown, then an inmate at Men’s Central Jail, was feeding information to the FBI about alleged corruption and inmate abuse inside the jail, which is run by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. When guards discovered a cell phone in Brown’s possession had been smuggled into the jail at the behest of federal investigators, they realized they were the target of a federal probe.

At that point, Undersheriff Paul Tanaka became involved, overseeing a plan to derail the federal probe and hide Brown from FBI handlers during a time when prosecutors wanted to interview the inmate/informant. Brown was booked and re-booked under a series of false names, and was eventually told he had been abandoned by the FBI.

Ten former sheriff’s department officials — including Baca, Tanaka, and captain Tom Carey, who headed an internal investigations unit — were subsequently convicted for their roles in the cover-up. All claimed they had been involved in a legitimate investigation into how and why a cell phone had been smuggled into the men’s jail.

Baca, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, was sentenced in 2017 to three years behind bars after a jury found he oversaw the plan to interfere with the federal probe into inmate abuses in the county jail system and lied to prosecutors about his role. He began his sentence in February 2020 after years of legal wrangling.

Tanaka was sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison after a jury found he helped lead the scheme. Carey, who pleaded guilty to obstructing the FBI investigation, was sentenced in 2017 to nine months in prison for obstruction of justice and lying on the witness stand.

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16 comments for "County recommends $1M settlement with inmate/informant at center of Baca case"

  1. Here’s something else to contemplate: The biggest sellers of cell phones, drugs and anything else sellable are the guards. This situation with guards finding a cell phone on A. Brown definitely tells me the truth is elusive.

    • Seems simple enough. The guy was informing for the FBI, and the FBI gave him a phone, probably via his lawyer.

  3. The cons of being an informant; excuse the pun: Once the decision is made to be an informant, the police own you and do not respect you, a Judas to those you inform on will have you looking over your shoulder for the rest of your cowardly life.

      • “Well, I see Claire’s feelings on informants are pretty clearly aligned with the criminals.” Now that’s funny.

        • Seems like a variation on “snitches get stitches,” so I can see the comparison.

          I think this guy is either really dumb or surprisingly committed. To work for the FBI against the LASD while in the custody of the LASD with a long sentence ahead is pretty remarkable. Kinda surprising that he lived through it really.

          • Stinger…My Grandfather (German/Jewish) that I dearly love, also told me to “be a mensch.” I’ve stumbled a few times in my long life, and I’m deeply flawed, but I hold fast to the belief that without law and order in America, we will fall. When there is corruption in law enforcement we all pay the price, as well as our peace being taken by emboldened law breakers.

  4. Okay, who here thinks that the ten guys that got arrested were the entire problem and once those “bad apples” went to prison the rest of the LASD was completely cleaned up a-okay?

    • You’re right dim snot , the only way to save us from evil would be to arrest all cops and set the criminals free. Because the bad apples nowadays are the cops and the robbers are righteous. Your so enlightened, maybe you should run for office.

      • LOL…interesting way to avoid answering the question.

        When you accuse me of wanting to “fire all cops and set all criminals free” where are you suggesting I stand on Baca? Tanaka? The rest of the tried and convicted criminals that used to be running the LASD? Do I really sound like I want those criminals freed?

    • I believe that further investigation, with a full public disclosure upon its termination, by an internal investigations team that is willing to go where the evidence takes them, and is not subject to external pressures, would be most efficacious in getting to the real roots of the issue. Even more than that, such would make clear within, and without, the department that such inappropriate behavior really is unacceptable by command and will truly not be tolerated…

      Okay, Tim… You can stop laughing now… ;-)

      *sigh* I will admit that I have been consistently disappointed with most Internal Affairs departments’ results, historically.