Probe of deputy brawl was ordered limited
staff and using violence.
Martinez, the sheriff’s spokesperson, said the oversight commission’s investigation “suffers from a lack of legitimacy as it is neither a true hearing, a civil court, or a criminal court with appropriate constitutional safeguards. Its sole purpose appears to be inflicting political damage to influence the outcome of the sheriff ’s race, nothing more.”
The oversight commission last month disclosed a log kept by Sgt. Jefferson Chow, the investigator probing the East L.A. station party fight. In it, Chow wrote that, before Villanueva took office, he was instructed by Burson to question witnesses about the gang-like deputy groups.
Within a few weeks though, that instruction changed. The sergeant wrote in the log that Burson told him questions about the Banditos or other similar groups didn’t need to be part of his investigation.
Burson had been subpoenaed to testify at the commission’s second hearing on June 10 to clarify who gave him the instruction and why, but he did not show up. His declaration fills in some of those gaps.
Burson communicated the orders from the sheriff ’s office to Chow twice — once before Villanueva was sworn in, and again after. The first time, ask about the Banditos; the second time, don’t.
By the second time, Burson had been promoted from captain to chief. He said in his declaration that he was not offered a “quid pro deal” to cover up deputy gangs in exchange for a promotion, though he did acknowledge that “the timing of it might look suspect.”
Burson could not be reached for comment.
According to his declaration, Burson was told by the sheriff ’s chief of staff the second time that what happened at the party was just “drunken mutual combat.” Larry Del Mese, the chief of staff at the time who has since retired, could not be reached for comment.
Villanueva has echoed that in the past, saying there are no “gangs” in the department but problems stem from deputies who get drunk and get into fights. But he has also taken credit for addressing the problem of rogue groups with a policy that prohibits deputies from joining cliques that promote behavior that violates the rights of others.
Burson claimed in his declaration that Villanueva’s policy has “never actually been enforced.” He also said Chow’s investigation into the station party incident rebutted the characterization of it as a two-way brawl. Chow testified in a deposition in the lawsuit that prosecutors should have filed criminal charges.
At the oversight commission hearing, Inspector General Max Huntsman testified that the prosecutors who declined to file battery charges in the station party fight, didn’t know the full story, because the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation did not look meaningfully at allegations that the deputies who instigated the fight were Banditos members.
“The manner in which this case was investigated and presented amounted to a cover-up — essentially obstruction of justice,” Huntsman testified.
A district attorney spokesperson told The Times earlier this month that officials “monitored the testimony and are evaluating the information.”
Burson said he expects — and himself requests — the Department of Justice to step in to assess the matter.
“It is not my position and role to determine if the sheriff and his office purposefully engaged in a cover-up,” he said in the declaration. “But if I was unwittingly used in such a cover-up and interference in a criminal investigation, I find this deeply troubling.”
Burson’s declaration highlighted other missteps.
At a news conference in August 2020, Burson announced plans for a fullscale investigation that would examine the “deputy gang” problem across the entire organization, not just at a single station.
But he said that investigation never happened.
Burson said in the declaration that he was instructed by the Sheriff ’s Department to hold off until the research firm hired by the county’s Board of Supervisors to study the groups had completed its report. By the time that happened in September 2021, Burson was on medical leave. He retired a few months later.