National

Former Los Angeles Sheriff’s Officials Charged in Jail Probe

Published

11 years ago

May 15, 2015

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department agreed to settle after it was the focus of a federal probe over allegations that deputies discriminated against blacks and Hispanics in two high desert cities, officials announced. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

The former second-in-command of the nation’s largest sheriff’s department and a high-ranking official who was supposed to investigate crimes by deputies surrendered Thursday on charges they hid an FBI jailhouse informant to hinder a federal investigation into abuse by guards. (Nick Ut/AP Photo)

Brian Melley, ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The case of the vanishing inmate at the Los Angeles County jail nearly went all the way to the top.

“The scheme to obstruct justice rose to the executive level of the Sheriff’s Department,” Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura said. “Both men were aware that there was rampant abuse at the jail, and both men were aware that the internal investigations of that abuse were insufficient.”

Former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka and former Capt. William Thomas Carey, both 56, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

The two are the highest-ranking officials charged in the investigation of jailhouse corruption and abuse that tarnished the career of Sheriff Lee Baca, who resigned last year.

Federal prosecutors wouldn’t comment on whether Baca played a role in the cover-up or whether he would face charges.

The indictment stems from an investigation of civil rights abuses that blossomed into an obstruction-of-justice case when deputies and higher-ups discovered in the summer of 2011 that an inmate with a smuggled cellphone was providing information to the FBI about beatings by deputies. The inmate got the phone from a deputy who took a bribe.

Tanaka and Carey were involved from the get-go, taking extraordinary steps to thwart the investigation, Yonekura said.

The FBI wanted the informant to testify to a grand jury, but agents couldn’t find him.

Two lieutenants, two sergeants and three deputies were convicted of participating in the cover-up that involved shuttling the informant, Anthony Brown, between different jails under different names. The two sergeants tried to intimidate the lead FBI agent by threatening her with arrest.

The defense argued that the employees were following orders from higher-ups.

Tanaka testified for the defense that he was barely involved but following Baca’s orders that he thought were lawful. He said Brown was moved for his protection because he was a snitch and so the department could investigate how he got the smuggled phone.

Tanaka’s testimony will probably be used against him, Yonekura said.

Tanaka will be exonerated after all the facts are revealed, defense lawyer H. Dean Steward said.

Carey was charged with two counts of perjury for lying at the trial about why Brown was moved, the indictment said. Carey’s lawyer declined comment.

If convicted, both men could face up to 15 years in prison for the obstruction charges and Carey could face 10 more for perjury.

Twenty-three members of the department have now been charged with crimes ranging from civil rights violations to gun charges and obstruction of justice. Three deputies, all brothers, were acquitted of a mortgage fraud scheme.

The indictment alleged Tanaka fostered a culture of abuse by minimizing misconduct investigations and encouraging supervisors to let deputies operate in a “gray area” between justifiable conduct and abuse.

“When it comes to the law, there’s black and there’s white,” said David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office. “There’s no area for gray where he was looking for it.”

Despite being aware of concerns from outside the department about a lack of investigations into abuse, Tanaka advocated chopping the Internal Affairs Bureau from 45 investigators to one, authorities said.

Tanaka retired from the sheriff’s department in 2013 and serves as mayor of the nearby city of Gardena. He ran to replace Baca but lost by a wide margin to Jim McDonnell, who has vowed to reform the troubled agency.

Shortly after McDonnell took office last year, the department agreed to federal court oversight and new use-of-force policies to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by inmates who said they were beaten by guards.

Tanaka and Carey were released on bonds after making their court appearance. Tanaka said he’ll take a leave of absence from his part-time job as mayor.

Nine deputies still face charges of violating civil rights of inmates and jail visitors, including an Austrian consulate official who was handcuffed and detained with her husband.

Yonekura said she’ll never know what they might have uncovered if their investigation wasn’t impeded.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

21 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

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2 days ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke