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The Sheriff’s Department pushed back hard Wednesday against a warning by the inspector general that the department’s defiance of reforms had recently intensified.<\/p>\n
“It is unfortunate (Inspector General Max Huntsman) continues to misinform the Board of Supervisors, through deception and omission,” Lt. John Satterfield said in a statement provided to City News Service<\/em> on behalf of the department. “We want to correct the inaccurate statements characterizing the sheriff or the department as obstructing either oversight or reform.”<\/p>\n In remarks to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Huntsman pointed to rising in-custody deaths and deputy-involved shootings as evidence.<\/p>\n “Unfortunately, the behavior of the Sheriff’s Department has gotten worse in the last month in terms of the aggressive way in which it has fought back against reform,” Huntsman told the board, though he did not offer any specific data on recent events to back up the statement.<\/p>\n The inspector general’s presentation related to events of the quarter ending in December, but Huntsman said the numbers showed problems “coming to a head.”\u00a0He acknowledged that it is difficult to draw broad conclusions from a small data sample, but said he was troubled by the year-over-year rise in deaths of inmates in custody.<\/p>\n The report offers very little information on the deaths, making it almost impossible to draw comparisons over time, but Huntsman said that even allowing for deaths related to COVID-19, the numbers were higher than 2013 levels.\u00a0As a point of reference, former Sheriff Lee Baca, later convicted for his role in obstructing an investigation into department corruption, resigned in 2014.<\/p>\n During the last three months of 2020, seven inmates died while in custody. One was a suicide, one was a medical emergency, one inmate was found unresponsive in a cell and the other four cases involved prisoners transferred to hospitals for a “higher level of care,” according to the report.<\/p>\n The department said it had not had any unusual increase in in-custody deaths outside of COVID-19-related losses. It provided information to CNS for January, during which eight inmates died, four reportedly from COVID-related causes.<\/p>\n “It is disingenuous to say COVID was not related to the increase in deaths,” according to the department statement. “In February 2021, we had two inmate deaths: one a terminal cancer patient and one an unfortunate suicide at the Palmdale Station jail. We continue to experience individuals being brought into custody in extremely poor health and with serious pre-existing medical conditions.”<\/p>\n The inspector general also highlighted 11 shootings involving deputies during the fourth quarter as additional cause for concern. Seven people were struck by gunfire and six died as a result.\u00a0Those summaries were based on preliminary information from the department that the OIG was unable to verify. They included the widely reported case of Nicholas Burgos Jr., 38, who was shot by a deputy at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center after smashing equipment in an apparent rage and then trying to force his way into another patient’s room.<\/p>\n All but one of the other fatalities involved a suspect that deputies said was armed with a gun. One of two men killed in a single incident may have been shot by someone other than deputies, according to the preliminary department report.\u00a0The department pointed to rising violence on the streets and the threat to deputies.<\/p>\n “When compared to this time last year, the murder rate in L.A. County has more than doubled,” Satterfield said. “Yet, there have been two deputy-involved shootings in 2021. Although every violent encounter is unfortunate, we reject the notion that the existence of a DIS is indicative of some manner of wrongdoing or mismanagement.<\/p>\n “Our personnel make split-second decisions during situations posing a significant credible threat of death or serious bodily injury which are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving,” he said, adding that each incident is thoroughly investigated.<\/p>\n