{"id":73393,"date":"2016-08-29T17:27:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T00:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=73393"},"modified":"2016-09-22T09:05:54","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T16:05:54","slug":"judge-orders-mental-exam-for-former-l-a-county-sheriff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2016\/08\/29\/judge-orders-mental-exam-for-former-l-a-county-sheriff\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders mental exam for former L.A. County Sheriff"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lee
Lee Baca retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department in 2014 at the height of the federal probe. He had been sheriff since December 1998.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES \u00a0– A federal judge has ordered a psychological examination of former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca<\/b> to determine if he suffers from any mental impairment that would prevent him from understanding the corruption charges against him or assisting in his own defense, according to court papers obtained Monday.<\/p>\n

In his order for a Nov. 21 hearing, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson ruled that a mental competency exam — conducted by a licensed, court-approved doctor — must take place no later than Sept. 30, followed by the preparation of a report describing whether Baca is suffering from a mental issue and, if so, its history, current symptoms and diagnosis or prognosis.<\/p>\n

The tests should signal whether Baca is “mentally incompetent to the extent that he is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense,” Anderson wrote in the Friday order.<\/p>\n

In a separate court filing last week, government prosecutors asked Anderson to determine whether Baca is fit to stand trial. The motion came after Baca’s attorney indicated he would employ a “mental defect” defense based on a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.<\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Fox wrote that while he believes Baca is competent, he wants a definitive ruling to alleviate any doubt prior to the December trial.<\/p>\n

Baca is charged with conspiring to obstruct justice, obstructing justice and lying to the federal government, stemming from his alleged response in 2011 to a covert FBI investigation into corruption and brutality by guards at Men’s Central Jail.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Nathan Hochman says the 74-year-old ex-lawman is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and was impaired by the illness at the time of the charged offenses five years ago.<\/p>\n

Hochman told the judge last week he planned to introduce evidence of a mental defect long plaguing his client. Anderson responded: “You mean to say people who suffer from Alzheimer’s don’t know right from wrong?”<\/p>\n

Hochman also said he may make an attempt to have the trial moved out of Los Angeles County, asserting that widespread publicity tainted the jury pool.<\/p>\n

In addition, the attorney said Baca’s earlier guilty plea — which was withdrawn — to a false statements charge was a “unique fact” that was also widely publicized to the detriment of his client.<\/p>\n

At his Aug. 12 arraignment, Baca told Anderson he suffered from periods of “cloudiness in my brain” due to Alzheimer’s disease, but the judge found him capable of entering a plea.<\/p>\n

The ex-sheriff backed out of the earlier plea deal on the lying count, which called for Baca to serve no more than six months in prison, after Anderson rejected the agreement as too lenient. If Baca had not withdrawn from the plea, he could have been sentenced to up to five years behind bars.<\/p>\n

He was subsequently indicted on the new charges, and he could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of all counts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n

Although Baca admitted in court to lying to investigators, that and other previous admissions cannot be used against him in the current case.<\/p>\n

Baca — who ran the nation’s largest sheriff’s department for 16 years — is accused of participating in a wide-ranging conspiracy to derail the FBI’s probe of corruption and brutality in county jails. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After jail guards discovered that an inmate, Anthony Brown, was an FBI informant, they booked him under false names and moved him to different locations in order to keep him hidden from federal investigators. They also went to the home of an FBI agent and threatened her with arrest.<\/p>\n

Baca claims he knew nothing of the plan and that his former second-in- command, Paul Tanaka<\/b>, was in charge of the sheriff department’s response.<\/p>\n

Ten ex-sheriff’s officials — including Tanaka — have been convicted or pleaded guilty in connection with the obstruction case.<\/p>\n

Tanaka, who alleges his former boss ordered the response to the discovery of the jails probe, was sentenced by Anderson to five years in prison, but is free until Oct. 3 pending appeal.<\/p>\n

Baca had initially pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to investigators about his knowledge of the plan to threaten the FBI agent. That false statements count is one of the three counts Baca is now facing.<\/p>\n

Baca retired in 2014 at the height of the federal probe. He had been sheriff since December 1998.<\/p>\n

A federal appellate panel recently upheld the convictions of seven former sheriff’s department officials convicted in the conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

Ex-L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca pleads not guilty to federal charges<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Ex-L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca indicted on three federal counts<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Judge rejects Baca plea deal<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Baca diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Former Sheriff Lee Baca pleads guilty to federal false statements charge<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Tanaka convicted in Sheriff\u2019s Department corruption case<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Sheriff Lee Baca announces retirement<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u00a0– A federal judge has ordered a psychological examination of former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca to determine if he suffers from any mental impairment that would prevent him from understanding the corruption charges against him or assisting in his own defense, according to court papers obtained Monday. In his order for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":72990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}