Becerra reaches deal with Kern County sheriff
Accord resolves probe of possible civil rights abuses with modest reforms and oversight.
The Kern County Sheriff ’ s Office and the California Department of Justice have resolved a four- year investigation of potential civil rights abuses with a settlement that implements modest reforms and places the agency under oversight from an outside monitor, Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said Tuesday.
Becerra had overseen an investigation opened in 2016 by his predecessor, Vice President- elect Kamala Harris, that probed civilian complaints of excessive force and other misconduct by the Kern County Sheriff ’s Office and the Bakersfield Police Department. The investigation was civil — not criminal — in nature.
In a seven- page complaint filed Tuesday in Kern County Superior Court, Becerra’s deputies alleged that the Sheriff ’s Office used excessive force on residents of Kern County, particularly with the use of its canines; carried out unreasonable stops, searches, arrests and seizures; and committed “legal violations” in using deadly force against people with mental disabilities.
“After a comprehensive investigation,” the complaint says, “the Attorney General’s Office concluded that because of defective or inadequate policies, practices, and procedures, [ the Kern County Sheriff ’s Off ice] has failed to uniformly and adequately enforce the law.”
Yet during a news conference with Sheriff Donny Youngblood and Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez, Becerra, who has been tapped by Presidentelect Joe Biden to lead the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, struck a far more conciliatory tone.
He emphasized the investigation’s “good outcome”: a 59- page settlement in which the Sheriff ’s Office agreed to review its use- offorce policies, change how it trains and deploys canines, lay out a plan to recruit deputies from diverse backgrounds, and improve how it accepts and investigates civilian complaints, among other reforms.
Youngblood pushed back on the state’s written allegations, emphasizing that the settlement makes no legal f inding that his office had committed civil rights abuses.
“We do not believe — I do not believe — that the men and women of this department have ever violated constitutional rights,” he said. In the end, he added, “We could go to court and let a judge and jury decide whether we’d done anything right, wrong or indifferent — or we could go to the table with the Department of Justice.”
Youngblood said his off ice has already implemented 70% of the settlement’s proposed reforms. The Kern County Board of Supervisors has allotted funding to equip every sheriff ’ s deputy with a bodyworn camera, he said, as well as to hire 42 more sworn and professional personnel, some of whom will be tasked with monitoring body- worn camera video and releasing it through public records requests.
“We’re not starting from square one,” Youngblood said.
Becerra defended the length of the probe, which spanned four years. He said the investigation of the Bakersfield Police Department continues, but he declined to discuss it.
“These things take time,” he said. “You need to make sure you’re doing this right.”
Harris had opened the investigation weeks after a Bakersfield police officer killed a 73- year- old man, Francisco Serna.
At the time, the Bakersfield Police Department said the officer opened f ire only after telling Serna to take his hand out of his pocket and stop walking toward the officer. Serna did not have a weapon in his pocket, but a dark- colored crucifix.
California attorneys general have previously launched civil rights investigations into police departments in Maywood and Riverside.
In Maywood, a two- year probe found that the small city in southeastern Los Angeles was patrolled by “rogue cops” who arrested people without probable causeand routinely used excessive force, without oversight from Maywood’s elected leaders.
Maywood reached an agreement with the state that required the city to raise its hiring standards, among other reforms. A year after entering the agreement, Maywood chose to disband its police force and contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’ s Department.