Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Monday that will allow police oversight officials investigating misconduct to access confidential law enforcement personnel records, a change that watchdogs have argued will increase accountability for officers who break the rules.
Los Angeles County advocates and members of the county’s Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission pushed for months in support of AB 847. The legislation comes in response to what proponents have described as efforts by the sheriff’s departments in L.A. and other counties to stymie access to sensitive records.
When it takes effect on Jan. 1, the new law will “grant access to the confidential personnel records of peace officers and custodial officers … to civilian law enforcement oversight boards or commissions during investigations” into officers’ conduct, according to the bill’s legislative summary.
Hans Johnson, the chair of L.A. County’s Civilian Oversight Commission, said it’s a much-needed change.
“I’m pleased because this has been a long road,” he said in a phone call Monday night. “Tonight is a moment of vindication.”
The Sheriff’s Department wrote in a statement that “the passage of AB 847 provides clarity to a long-standing legal issue that has been the subject of contention between the Department and its Civilian Oversight Commission (COC) since its inception.” It added that the “Department will work with County Counsel, labor representatives, and the COC on the implementation of this new law.”
Some law enforcement unions and advocacy groups criticized the law.
Lt. Steve Johnson, president of the L.A. County Professional Peace Officers Assn., said in an email that his organization “fully understand[s] the intent to enhance civilian oversight,” but when “access to confidential records isn’t safeguarded with precision and responsibility, it opens the door to real dangers. Transparency must never come at the cost of personal safety or public trust.”
Newsom’s office did not immediately provide a comment Monday.
Johnson said the bill’s signing is an especially meaningful victory for the families of people such as Joseph Perez and Emmett Brock, who were beaten by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies in 2020 and 2023, respectively. He also cited the case of Andres Guardado, who was shot to death by deputies in 2023, “and others who were the subjects of efforts by our commission to get records disclosed to us under subpoena about sheriff deputies’ encounters and beatings.”
In a phone call Monday night, Vanessa Perez, Joseph’s mother, called the law’s signing a “big victory not just for Joseph, but for all families impacted by the Sheriff’s Department.”
Perez said she expects the new law will allow the Civilian Oversight Commission to review previously off-limits records about the deputies who beat her son and redacted portions of other documents.
She and other members of the general public will not be able to access the records, as the law requires “oversight boards to maintain the confidentiality of those records, and would authorize them to conduct closed sessions, as specified, to review confidential records,” according to its legislative summary.
Still, Perez is hopeful her son’s case will benefit from the additional disclosure now allowable under AB 847.
Robert Bonner, a former federal judge and former chair of L.A. County’s Civilian Oversight Commission who has said he was abruptly removed from that post earlier this year, praised the bill’s signing in an email Tuesday.
The law “will be essential to holding accountable those who use excessive force against members of the public,” Bonner wrote. “This is a big deal. This is a quantum leap forward for civilian oversight commissions.”
LA QUINTA — Briana Ortega had been home for all of three minutes when she heard a fist pounding against her door.
She opened it to find a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy “claiming a black man with dreadlocks had jumped over her backyard fence” and was trying to break into her La Quinta home, according to court records.
Almost immediately, Ortega, 29, suspected Deputy Eric Piscatella was there for other reasons. The encounter last summer wasn’t the first time they’d met. It wasn’t even the first time he’d shown up at her home unannounced, according to an arrest affidavit and claims in a civil lawsuit.
“You look pretty without makeup … sorry I don’t mean to be rude or unprofessional,” Piscatella said, after spending a scant few seconds looking out a window for the purported suspect, according to a recording of the incident.
It was the fourth time in less than a year that Piscatella had either shown up at Ortega’s home or contacted her without a legitimate law enforcement purpose, according to the affidavit and lawsuit. Ortega shared text messages showing the deputy tried to flirt with her and ask her out on dates, but she rebuffed him at every turn.
A former Riverside County sheriff’s deputy is accused in a lawsuit of using law enforcement resources to pursue a woman he met at a public event.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
Last year, Riverside County prosecutors charged Piscatella, 30, with seven counts of illegally using law enforcement databases to look up information about Ortega.
But instead of resolving the situation, Ortega says, the way Piscatella’s case played out in criminal court has only prolonged her ordeal.
Ortega said she remains “terrified” of Piscatella and declined to testify against him. In July, a Riverside County judge downgraded all charges against Piscatella to misdemeanors. He pleaded guilty and received probation, avoiding jail time.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco kicks off his campaign to run for governor at Avila’s Historic 1929 center on Feb. 17 in Riverside.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
“I feel like with him getting the misdemeanor, nothing is ever going to change… If it takes me having to [file this lawsuit], I will, if it helps,” she said.
Piscatella declined to comment through his defense attorney.
A spokesperson for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said Piscatella resigned last October after roughly five years on the job. His ability to work as a police officer in California is suspended, accreditation records show, but without a felony conviction it could be restored.
Ortega recalled her first run-in with Piscatella as innocent enough.
She was attending what she described as a “family fair,” with her two sons in Coachella in September 2023, enjoying amusement rides and carnival games when she said her oldest son ran up to a group of sheriff’s deputies who were giving out stickers. Piscatella was among them, according to Ortega, who said they had a polite but forgettable conversation.
They did not exchange contact information, but a few months later, in January of 2024, Ortega said, she got a text from an unknown number.
The texter claimed to be her “personal officer.” A fitness influencer with more than 100,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram, Ortega gets random flirtatious messages from men. So she shrugged it off.
That same month, Piscatella searched Ortega’s name and the city of La Quinta in both the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and other sheriff’s databases shortly before the texts were sent, according to court records. In Ortega’s civil suit, she alleged this was how Piscatella tracked her down.
One month later, Piscatella showed up at Ortega’s La Quinta home while she was at work, according to her lawsuit. Her mother answered the door, and was “alarmed” when the deputy questioned where her daughter was. Still, Ortega wasn’t bothered.
“I’m like, he’s a cop, he can’t be that crazy. He’s on the force for a reason … of course he knows where I live,” she said.
Echoing claims in her lawsuit, she added: “I’m not thinking he’s going to continue to look for me or stalk me. If I would have known, I would have complained.”
Ortega was so unfazed that she actually went to Piscatella for help a month later. Her younger sister had been the victim of an assault and was struggling to get attention from the Sheriff’s Department. So Ortega contacted the man who claimed to be her “personal officer.”
But when Ortega began describing the purported crime, Piscatella responded by asking her to send a “selfie” and insisting they should go to the gym together. Annoyed, Ortega eventually changed her number when instead of help, all she got was a picture of Piscatella wearing Sheriff’s Department clothes, according to text messages.
Court records show Piscatella continued to use law enforcement databases to keep tabs on Ortega in the months that followed. In May 2024, he searched her name and ran her license plate, according to court records. He did the same in July, right before showing up at Ortega’s house, claiming he saw the man with dreadlocks break in.
At that point, Piscatella’s interest in Ortega had turned into an “obsession,” according to her lawsuit. Since he arrived just minutes after she’d returned from a trip to San Diego, Ortega said it felt like Piscatella was “waiting for me.” She alleges in her lawsuit that the deputy “used law enforcement resources and databases … to stalk her.”
After letting him in, she surreptitiously recorded the deputy standing in her living room, talking to her children. In the lawsuit, Ortega said she was “confused, scared and uncomfortable,” especially after Piscatella asked for her new number, which she gave him out of “fear.”
Piscatella texted her a short time later, according to messages reviewed by The Times, describing her kids as “so cool.”
“I don’t feel comfortable with everything that just happened. Please do not contact me again,” Ortega wrote back.
Briana Ortega filed a lawsuit alleging that she has been living in fear of a former Riverside County sheriff’s deputy.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
She made a complaint to the Sheriff’s Department the same day. Court records show the department launched an internal investigation and quickly determined Piscatella had used law enforcement databases to look up information on Ortega several times, according to an affidavit seeking a warrant for his arrest.
The affidavit shows there was “no corresponding call for service” related to the day Piscatella showed up at Ortega’s home and claimed someone was breaking in.
Riverside County prosecutors filed seven felony charges against Piscatella.
Ortega said she refused to testify because, even though the Sheriff’s Department had presented a case against one of their own, she feared Piscatella or a fellow deputy might seek retribution against her.
At a July court hearing in Indio, Piscatella made an open plea to the court seeking to downgrade each charge to a misdemeanor and avoid jail time, according to a transcript of the proceeding.
Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Natasha Sorace pleaded with Superior Court Judge Helios J. Hernandez not to accept the lesser charges.
“The defendant was a police officer — a sheriff’s deputy, who used his position of power and the information he had access to as a result of that position to put someone in the community in significant fear for their safety,” Sorace said.
“He searched information — conducted a search about a particular individual and used that information to come up with an excuse to get into that woman’s house, where he proceeded to hit on her and make her feel uncomfortable in her own on home.”
But Hernandez rebuffed her attempts to argue the point further. In his view, “nothing actually happened.”
“He never, like, broke into the house or threatened her,” Hernandez said, according to a transcript of the hearing.
Hernandez sentenced Piscatella to probation and community service and ordered him to stay away from Ortega. Records show prosecutors have appealed the decision.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office would not say if Ortega’s refusal to testify affected their ability to bring other charges, including the stalking allegation she made in the civil suit.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s spokesperson declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The entire ordeal left Ortega feeling like law enforcement failed her at every level. She noted that Piscatella still knows where she lives.
While she previously did not hold a negative view of police, now she says she turns the other direction and grows anxious anytime she sees a Sheriff’s Department cruiser.
“It’s a betrayal of trust from law enforcement … who do you call when it’s the police who are the problem?” asked her attorney, Jamal Tooson. “When can you ever feel safe? You almost feel trapped, in your own house.”
The now-former British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, seen here arriving for a cabinet meeting in London, Britain in July. She resigned Friday over a tax underpayment scandal. File Photo by EPA/ANDY RAIN
Sept. 5 (UPI) — British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced Friday she will resign following a scandal over her underpayment of taxes on her home.
“Given the findings, and the impact on my family, I have therefore decided to resign as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as Deputy Leader of the Labor Party,” Rayner said in a press release.
“I have long believed that people who serve the British public in government must always observe the highest standards, and while the Independent Adviser has concluded that I acted in good faith and with honesty and integrity throughout, I accept that I did not meet the highest standards in relation to my recent property purchase,” she added.
Rayner had stated Wednesday that she referred herself to Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, in order to reach a determination on her realization that she paid an incorrect rate for Stamp Duty Land Tax on a home she purchased in May.
According to Raynor, she paid for her new home with a combination of a mortgage and money acquired from selling her stake in the residence she maintained with her former husband and their kids.
She alleges that she was given bad advice from her lawyers in regard to how much tax, or stamp duty she owed.
“I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice given both my position as Housing Secretary and my complex family arrangements,” Rayner said.
“I take full responsibility for this error,” she added. “I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount.”
Magnus issued a judgement Friday in which did note that “I believe Ms. Rayner has acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service.”
“I consider, however, that her unfortunate failure to settle her SDLT liability at the correct level, coupled with the fact that this was established only following intensive public scrutiny, leads me to advise you that, in relation to this matter, she cannot be considered to have met the ‘highest possible standards of proper conduct’ as envisaged by the [Ministerial Code],” he added.
The Ministerial Code are the standards all ministers are expected to uphold.
“Accordingly, it is with deep regret that I must advise you that in these circumstances, I consider the Code to have been breached,” he concluded.
She also said she had resigned because of media pressure on her family.
“While I rightly expect proper scrutiny on me and my life, my family did not choose to have their private lives interrogated and exposed so publicly. I have been clear throughout this process that my priority has, and always will be, protecting my children and the strain I am putting them under through staying in post has become unbearable,” Rayner explained.
“Thank you for informing me of your decision to resign from the Government,” wrote Prime Minister and leader of the Labor Party Keir Starmer in a handwritten letter. “I am very sad that your time as Deputy Prime Minister, Secretary of State and Deputy Leader of the Labor Party has ended in this way.”
She also received praise from Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and former Labor Party leader Ed Miliband, who called her “one of the great British political figures of our time” in an X post Friday.
“I know she will continue to stand at the front of the fight for social justice in this country,” he added.
“What did Keir Starmer know, and when?” asked Conservative Party leader and Member of Parliament, or MP Kemi Badenoch in a video clip posted online. “Did he mislead the public?”
“He has now lost a Deputy Prime Minister after losing a Transport Secretary, an Anti-Corruption minister and a Homelessness minister to scandal,” she continued, noting other members of Starmer’s administration who have resigned over varied reasons.
“You can’t be Housing Secretary, and avoid [$53,731] of stamp duty,” said Reform UK leader MP Nigel Farage in an online video. “Angela Rayner is gone.”
Reporting from Washington — It was an October afternoon when 13-year-old Andy Lopez, wearing shorts and a blue sweatshirt, walked down a sidewalk in Santa Rosa, Calif., loosely carrying at his side a plastic pellet gun that resembled an assault rifle.
Two Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies were driving in the neighborhood on a routine patrol. When Officer Erick Gelhaus, an Iraq war veteran, spotted the 5-foot-3 teenager, he thought the boy might be carrying an AK-47.
Their patrol car swung behind Andy. From 60 feet away, Gelhaus jumped out, crouched behind the door and shouted “Drop the gun!”
As Andy began to turn toward him, Gelhaus fired eight shots, killing the boy.
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to shield the deputy from being sued by the parents of the boy on the grounds that no law “squarely governs” this situation and would have alerted the officer that shooting the teenager on the sidewalk amounted to the use of “excessive force.”
Joined by several California law enforcement groups, Sonoma County’s lawyers are urging the justices to “support the common sense proposition that officers need not wait for a gun to actually be leveled or pointed at them before responding with deadly force to protect themselves and the public.”
They stand a good chance of prevailing, even though the high court grants only about 1% of appeal petitions.
In recent years, the justices have regularly intervened in police shooting cases to overturn rulings that cleared the way for a jury to decide whether an officer used excessive force.
In April, the high court, by a 7-2 vote, tossed out a lawsuit against a Tucson police officer who shot a woman four times as she stood in her front yard holding a large kitchen knife. The officer, one of three who came on the scene, decided she was threatening another woman who stood six feet away. The other woman later testified they were housemates, and she did not feel threatened.
The justices reversed the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which had allowed the woman’s suit to proceed. “Use of excessive force is an area of law in which the result depends very much on the facts of each case, and thus police officers are entitled to qualified immunity unless existing precedent squarely governs the specific facts at issue,” the court said in Kisela vs. Hughes.
In dissent, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the decision “sends an alarming signal to law enforcement officers … that they can shoot first and think later.”
Andy’s parents sued under the long-standing federal civil rights law that authorizes suits against officers who violate a person’s constitutional rights. In this instance, the suit alleged a violation of the 4th Amendment’s ban on “unreasonable searches and seizures.”
Chief District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland refused to grant immunity to the officer, and the 9th Circuit Court, by a 2-1 vote, affirmed her decision last year.
Judge Milan D. Smith, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said the officer did not appear to face an imminent threat.
“Andy was walking normally … in broad daylight in a residential neighborhood” and carrying a weapon that another driver in the area saw as being a toy gun, even though it did not have an orange plastic tip. “Gelhaus deployed deadly force while Andy was standing on the sidewalk holding a gun that was pointed down at the ground,” Smith wrote. And he “shot without having warned [him] that such force would be used, and without observing any aggressive behavior.”
In dissent, Judge Clifford Wallace, a Nixon appointee, called the case “tragic. A boy lost his life, needlessly, as it turns out.” But the suit should be dismissed nonetheless. “The majority greatly understates the potential danger Andy posed as perceived by Deputy Gelhaus. [He] reasonably believed that Andy was carrying an AK-47,” he wrote.
Sonoma County appealed to the Supreme Court in Gelhaus vs. Lopez and said the recent ruling in the Tucson case calls for throwing out the suit against the deputy.
“No existing precedent ‘squarely governs’ the ‘specific facts’ at issue here,” the county said. Its petition described “the specific situation” as “an individual apparently armed with an assault rifle refusing to drop a weapon. … An officer need not wait to be put in harm’s way before responding in defense of himself and the surrounding community … when confronting an assault weapon capable of spraying 30 bullets in seconds.”
The justices considered the appeal in their private conference on May 31 and relisted it for further consideration this past week. They could act on the case as soon as Monday.
If they deny the appeal, the parents’ suit would go to trial in Oakland. The court could agree to hear the case in the fall. Or the justices may reverse the 9th Circuit’s decision to allow the suit by citing their recent ruling in the Tucson case.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has relieved three deputies of duty while it investigates the circumstances of the bloody beating of a Valencia man outside a Santa Clarita bar last year.
Parker Seitz, 25, alleged in a federal lawsuit that off-duty sheriff’s deputies attacked him outside a bar called the Break Room last Thanksgiving Day.
He sustained multiple serious injuries, according to the complaint filed in California’s Central District federal court on Aug. 25, including a fractured jaw, a punctured lung and a bruised collarbone.
Seitz is suing the county, multiple L.A. County sheriff’s deputies, hired security guards at the Break Room, and the bar itself for unspecified damages.
“Parker Seitz was violently attacked by off-duty Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies, under the watchful eye of security guards contracted by a local business,” Josh Stambaugh, an attorney for Seitz, said in a statement. “He suffered serious injuries and, as we allege in our lawsuit, members and leaders of the LASD then attempted to conceal the truth of the attack and evade accountability on behalf of the organization.”
The sheriff’s department said in an email that it “takes these allegations seriously,” and that on Dec. 2 it “initiated an internal investigation into the incident. Three employees have been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation.”
Management at the Break Room did not respond to requests for comment.
The complaint alleges assault and battery by off-duty deputies Randy Austin and Nicholas Hernandez and an unidentified third assailant, along with a civil conspiracy by the county and a number of sheriff’s department employees accused of trying to bury the incident.
Parker Seitz, 25, alleges off-duty sheriff’s deputies attacked him outside a Santa Clarita bar called the Break Room last Thanksgiving Day. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has relieved three deputies of duty while it investigates the incident.
(Robert Hanashiro / For The Times)
About 10:30 p.m. Nov. 27, Seitz and two friends visited the bar, where Austin, Hernandez and the third assailant “began to bother and harass Seitz, including by repeatedly reaching for the sunglasses resting on” his head, according to the complaint. Minutes after Seitz left the bar about 1:36 a.m. Nov. 28, the complaint said, Hernandez knocked the shades off Seitz’s head “in a rude and offensive manner” and “an altercation broke out.”
The altercation dissipated quickly, according to the complaint, but then at about 1:46 a.m., Austin, “suddenly and without any justification,” punched Seitz and knocked him down, then Austin, Hernandez and the unidentified third person proceeded “to beat and stomp on him while he was on the ground.”
Seitz was bloodied during the beating and taken to a nearby hospital. Shortly after his arrival there, Justin Diez — who was a captain in charge of the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s station at the time of the incident and was promoted in April to lead the department’s North Patrol Division as commander — and deputy Richard Wyatt allegedly defamed him and violated his constitutional and civil rights in an effort to intimidate him and cover up the assault, the complaint said.
Wyatt, Seitz alleged, told one of Seitz’s friends that he had thrown the first punch and that he had been disruptive while at the hospital, which Seitz denies.
Later that morning, Diez called Seitz’s father, Ryan Seitz, and told him his son had “started a fight with off-duty deputies of the LASD” and “if Ryan Seitz would leave it to” Diez, he “would make sure the situation would go away,” the complaints said, describing the call as an attempt “to cover up the true circumstances of the beating … and to intimidate and dissuade Seitz from filing or pressing charges or pursuing any claims against the deputies” or the county.
The Sheriff’s Department did not directly respond to the allegations outlined in Seitz’s complaint, but it said that it “has established policies and procedures that clearly outline the standards of conduct required of all employees. … Any violation of these standards will be addressed promptly, and appropriate action will be taken if evidence is found to support the allegation of misconduct.”
Stambaugh said Seitz “was out with friends after a Friendsgiving dinner celebrating the purchase of his first home” the night he was allegedly assaulted.
“Parker Seitz’s lawsuit is a demand for accountability in response to the wrongs he has personally suffered, and an effort to ensure that the actions of these specific LASD members remain an anomaly,” Stambaugh said in his statement. “This is not the LASD that the Seitz family had supported and believed in.”
Angela Rayner denies she wanted to dodge the extra tax, adding that she made a ‘mistake’ following legal advice.
Published On 3 Sep 20253 Sep 2025
United Kingdom Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has admitted she underpaid property tax on a flat she purchased, triggering calls for her sacking, as her party faces sliding poll numbers amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Rayner, who also serves as housing minister, confirmed she owed more tax on a property she bought in Hove, a seaside town in southern England, after initially relying on incorrect advice.
“I’m devastated because I’ve always upheld the rules and always have done,” she told Sky News on Wednesday. “I made a mistake based upon the advice that I relied upon that I received at the time.”
The admission has put her under pressure as Labour struggles in the polls, a year after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s landslide victory.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has surged ahead, with a June YouGov poll projecting Reform would win 271 seats in parliament, pushing Labour down to 178. The Conservatives, who suffered a historic defeat last year, would take just 46 seats.
Rayner, 45, is seen as a future leadership contender, but her future may hinge on an investigation by the government’s independent adviser on ministerial standards. Her opponents have accused her of avoiding 40,000 pounds ($54,000) in stamp duty on a second home by transferring ownership of her primary residence in northern England before buying the Hove property.
Calls to resign
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged Starmer to dismiss her. Starmer defended his deputy, saying she had gone “over and above” transparency requirements regarding her property dealings and that he was “very proud” to work with her.
The Labour government has already been rattled by a string of scandals, with four ministers resigning over misconduct since its election. Both Starmer and Rayner were also criticised earlier this term for accepting high-end clothing donations, a practice they later scrapped.
Known for her blunt style and strong working-class roots, Rayner is widely regarded as one of Labour’s strongest political assets.
She rose to prominence from a modest background, often using her story to connect with disillusioned voters. Political analysts say her appeal among working-class communities is a key part of Labour’s strategy, making her potential downfall a significant blow to Starmer’s leadership team.
The controversy comes as Labour grapples with slowing economic growth, discontent over cuts in welfare schemes, and frustration among voters who backed the party last year, hoping for sweeping change. Pollsters say Reform UK’s surge signals deep public anger at mainstream parties, with Farage positioning himself as the voice of working-class Britons.
With the next election not due until 2029, Labour still has time to recover. But Rayner’s troubles add to a growing list of scandals that have chipped away at Starmer’s authority, fuelling speculation over whether the government can hold on to its massive majority.
British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, seen here arriving for a cabinet meeting in London, Britain in July. Rayner admitted Wednesday to underpaying taxes on a home purchase by more than a million dollars. File Photo by EPA/ANDY RAIN
Sept. 3 (UPI) — British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said Wednesday she mistakenly underpaid taxes on a home purchase by a mark of over a million dollars.
“I am committed to resolving this matter fully and providing the transparency that public service demands,” Rayner said in a press statement.
“It is for that reason I have today referred myself to the independent adviser on ministerial Standards, and will provide him with my fullest cooperation and access to all the information he requires.”
The independent adviser on ministerial standards is a nonpartisan position intended to advise the British prime minister in regard to the conduct expected of governmental ministers.
Raynor said she shorted the stamp duty on a property she purchased in May by around $1.08 million but alleged it was due to a misunderstanding.
According to Raynor, following her 2023 divorce, she maintained a residence with her ex to continue co-parenting their children, but that home was willed to one of their children, who due to having special needs, was named the eventual sole beneficiary of that house, which was placed in a trust for that child.
Raynor said some of the accrued interest on that home was transferred into the trust, and then sold her remaining stake in the residence.
She asserted that she still lives there, but bought another home in May, and used the lump sum received from selling the stake of her original home into the new property, in addition to using a mortgage to finance the rest of what was owed.
“When purchasing the property my understanding, on advice from lawyers, was that my circumstances meant I was liable for the standard rate of stamp duty,” Raynor said in her statement.
“However, given the recent allegations in the press I have subsequently sought further advice from a leading tax counsel to review that position and to ensure I am fully compliant with all tax provisions,” she continued.
Raynor further stated she has since been advised that “although I did not own any other property at the time of the purchase, the application of complex deeming provisions which relate to my son’s trust gives rise to additional stamp duty liabilities.”
“I acknowledge that due to my reliance on advice from lawyers which did not properly take account of these provisions, I did not pay the appropriate stamp duty at the time of the purchase,” she admitted. “I am working with expert lawyers and with [His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs] to resolve the matter and pay what is due.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared alongside fellow Labor Party member Raynor on Wednesday in Parliament and said he is “proud to sit alongside Rayner,” but political opponents from the Conservative Party have gone on the attack.
“It’s utterly extraordinary that while working families and businesses are being hammered by Labor’s tax hikes, Angela Rayner has failed to pay the right amount of stamp duty,” posted Member of Parliament, or MP Mel Stride to X Wednesday. “The Deputy Prime Minister should not be setting the rules when she fails to keep them herself.”
“The property tax-dodging free-loading Deputy Prime Minister has finally admitted breaking the law and evading paying taxes owed,” said MP Priti Patel in a social media post Wednesday. “She says that she’s sorry, but she’s only sorry that she was caught out.”
“If Keir Starmer had a backbone, he’d sack Angela Rayner immediately,” posted Conservative Party leader and MP Kemi Badenoch to X Wednesday. “She has to go.”
The administration of United States President Donald Trump is expected to install Jim O’Neill as acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), replacing a director who clashed with the White House over policies that defy scientific evidence.
News outlets, including The Washington Post and The Associated Press, reported O’Neill’s selection after Trump officials said they removed CDC Director Susan Monarez.
O’Neill is currently deputy to Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Sources close to Monarez have told news agencies that she butted heads with Kennedy over questions of misinformation and vaccine policy.
“She said that there were two things she would never do in the job. One was anything that was deemed illegal, and the second was anything that she felt flew in the face of science, and she said she was asked to do both of those,” Richard Besser, former acting director of the CDC, told reporters.
Several high-level CDC officials resigned from their positions in solidarity with Monarez and in defiance of what they depicted as the undermining of scientific expertise as a basis of public health policy.
Robert F Kennedy Jr swears in Jim O’Neill as deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on June 9 [Amy Rossetti/Department of Health and Human Services via AP]
Monarez said that she refused to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts”. She had been in her job for less than a month.
Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaccination activist before joining the Trump administration, has moved to reshape the agency and expel advisers who do not align with his views.
He purged a vaccine advisory board of its members in June, moving to replace them with individuals who share views closer to his own.
Speaking on the TV programme Fox and Friends on Thursday, Kennedy portrayed the CDC as an institute in dire need of reform.
“The CDC has problems,” Kennedy said, accusing the centres of spreading COVID-19 “misinformation” after it advised mask wearing and social distancing.
While he did not mention Monarez by name, he argued the CDC’s culture was due for a change.
“ I cannot comment on personnel issues, but the agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it, and we are fixing it. And it may be that some people should not be working there any more,” he said.
“We need strong leadership that will go in there and that will be able to execute on President Trump’s broad ambitions.”
At Thursday’s White House news briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed the sentiment that the CDC director had to be loyal to Trump’s agenda.
“Her lawyer’s statement made it abundantly clear themselves that she was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again,” Leavitt said.
She also offered a White House account of how Monarez was allegedly fired.
“The secretary [Kennedy] asked her to resign. She said she would, and then she said she wouldn’t. So the president fired her, which he has every right to do,” Leavitt said. “It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly re-elected on November 5th. This woman has never received a vote in her life.”
But scientists and doctors who worked closely with Monarez said recent changes at the CDC undermined the agency’s mission to protect the public from health threats.
One top CDC leader who resigned this week, Demetre Daskalakis, warned that the agency’s new direction under Trump portended real risks to public health.
“I’m a doctor. I took the Hippocratic oath that said, ‘First, do no harm.’ I believe harm is going to happen, and so I can’t be a part of it,” said Daskalakis, the former director for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Tensions had been especially high within the agency over the last several weeks, after a gunman who blamed COVID-19 vaccines for his health issues attacked the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
That shooting left one police officer dead, and the suspect took his own life.
Kennedy himself has baselessly called the COVID-19 vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made”.
After the shooting, representatives for the CDC’s workers denounced Kennedy for contributing to public distrust of the health agency.
“This tragedy was not random, and it compounds months of mistreatment, neglect, and vilification that CDC staff have endured,” a union representing CDC employees, AFGE Local 2883, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the group Fired But Fighting, composed of laid-off employees, condemned Kennedy for “his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust”.
As the CDC continues to winnow down its workforce, employees also issued an open letter to Kennedy, accusing him of “terminating critical CDC workers in a destroy-first-and-ask-questions-later manner”.
Aug. 28 (UPI) — The White House chose Jim O’Neill, a close ally of top health official Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on Thursday to serve as acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to sources in multiple media reports.
The move comes a day after the Trump administration fired CDC Director Susan Monarez less than one month into the job. Kennedy, secretary of Health and Human Services, had pushed Monarez to resign after she disagreed with his anti-vaccine policies, but she refused.
O’Neill, who served as deputy secretary of the HHS, was selected to fill the top CDC post temporarily, unnamed sources told The Washington Post, which first reported the news. Axios and The Hill independently confirmed the appointment.
O’Neill previously served as principal associate deputy secretary of the HHS during the administration of President George W. Bush. He is also the former CEO of the Thiel Foundation, founded by Peter Thiel, a donor to President Donald Trump.
Monarez has refused to leave her job as head of the CDC and was contesting her ouster, saying only Trump has the authority to fire her. Monarez’s lawyers said Kennedy sought to remove her because she declined “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives” and she accused him of “weaponizing public health,” according to the BBC.
Four other CDC officials resigned Thursday in protest of Monarez’s firing and in defiance of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine policies.
President Donald Trump answers questions from the media as he chairs a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Tuesday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 10 (UPI) — Tammy Bruce, the former conservative radio host and Fox News contributor who now serves as the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the next deputy representative to the United Nations.
“I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Tammy Bruce, a great patriot, television personality, and bestselling author, as our next deputy representative of the United States to the United Nations, with the rank of ambassador,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“Since the beginning of my second term, Tammy has been serving with distinction as spokesperson of the State Department, where she did a fantastic job. Tammy Bruce will represent our country brilliantly at the United Nations. Congratulations Tammy!”
Bruce’s nomination will require confirmation by the U.S. Senate after its monthlong recess. It was not immediately clear who would replace her at the State Department.
Mike Walz, Trump’s former national security adviser, has been nominated to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He testified at his Senate confirmation hearing last month, but his confirmation has since stalled. It is the last cabinet-level position that has not been confirmed by the Senate.
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who shot a man in the back in 2021 will not face criminal charges, according to records made public by the district attorney’s office late last month.
Los Angeles County prosecutors found there was “insufficient evidence” to prove Deputy Yen Liu was not acting in lawful self-defense when he shot Adrian Abelar at a Rosemead auto body shop four years ago, firing a round that fractured several vertebrae and nearly paralyzed him, according to court records and Abelar’s attorney.
Abelar, 29, had just thrown a gun from the car and was face down on the pavement when Liu opened fire at point blank range, according to body-worn-camera footage. Deputies were responding to reports that Abelar — a convicted felon who could not legally possess a firearm — had threatened to shoot several people at the auto body shop.
But when Liu and two other deputies arrived at the scene, they found Abelar sitting calmly in his car. The deputies approached Abelar, who lied about the fact that he was on probation. Abelar said he decided to flee because he feared if deputies found him with a gun, they would arrest him or kill him.
Abelar said he tossed the weapon as soon as he got out of the car. In video from the incident, deputies can be heard shouting, “Gun!” right before Liu closes in on Abelar, whose right arm is clearly outstretched and empty at the time Liu opens fire.
Ultimately, prosecutors decided the reported threats made by Abelar and the fact that he was in possession of a gun precluded them from charging the deputy.
“Since one reasonable interpretation of the evidence leads to the conclusion that Liu acted in response to an apparent danger, insufficient evidence exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Liu did not act in self-defense when he shot Abelar in the back,” prosecutors wrote in a 10-page declination memo made public in late July.
“The D.A.’s office bent over backward to claim they can’t prove a criminal violation … they clearly can and don’t want to,” said Abelar’s civil attorney, Thomas Beck. He claimed the investigation was “purposefully stalled for more than two years.”
Liu has returned to active duty and is assigned to the Temple Station, where he worked when the shooting occurred, according to Nicole Nishida, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman. An internal review to determine whether or not Liu violated department policy has been launched, Nishida said.
Use-of-force experts who reviewed footage in the case previously told The Times that Liu’s decision to shoot was problematic.
“The guy clearly does not have a weapon in his hand and the deputy who is on top of him draws his firearm, jams it in the guy’s back and fires it immediately upon contact,” said Ed Obayashi, a lawyer and former Plumas County sheriff’s deputy who advises police departments throughout California about use-of-force incidents.
Abelar’s lawyer disputed claims made by Richard Doktor, the auto body shop owner, who summoned deputies to the scene by claiming Abelar had made threats and brandished a gun.
According to recordings made public by law enforcement, Doktor said Abelar arrived at his shop that day demanding car repairs because he was fleeing from the cops due to an active murder warrant. Doktor separately alleged to The Times in an interview that Abelar was threatening his employees with a gun.
While there was a warrant out for Abelar’s arrest on a probation violation at the time of the shooting, he was not wanted for any violent crime, according to the sheriff’s department. Abelar has not been charged with a crime in relation to the incident at Doktor’s shop.
Beck said statements given to the sheriff’s department by other auto shop employees do not corroborate Doktor’s claims. Neither the sheriff’s department nor the district attorney’s office responded to questions about the veracity of Doktor’s allegations. Doktor has also criticized the sheriff’s department’s response, contending Abelar was “no threat” when Liu fired his gun.
Doktor did not respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment this week.
Abelar’s civil suit was settled last year for $700,000, according to Beck. But his client has not been paid yet and will not be able to claim that money for a while.
Abelar fell into homelessness after his “only living relative” died last year, Beck said. While living on the street, Abelar was arrested last May on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, resisting arrest and having a forged driver’s license, records show.
In February, he pleaded no contest to the weapons charge and a sentencing enhancement for having a prior violent felony conviction and was sentenced to four years in state prison, records show. Even with jail credits, Abelar likely won’t get out of prison until 2028.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, is speaking with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for a second day. File photo by Rick Bajornas/UN Handout Photo/EPA
July 25 (UPI) — Ghislaine Maxwell, associate of child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, is meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche Friday to answer more questions about her knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and who may have associated with him.
The two met Thursday and spoke for six hours at a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Fla. Friday’s meeting is a continuation of the questioning. Blanche is a former defense attorney of President Donald Trump.
Before leaving for Scotland Friday, Trump brushed off questions about Epstein.
“I have nothing to do with the guy,” Trump said of Epstein. He socialized with Epstein for years before falling out with him in the mid-2000s.
Trump said reporters should focus on those who allegedly spent time with Epstein, such as former President Bill Clinton and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who was also once the president of Harvard.
People “don’t talk about them. They talk about me,” he complained.
“You should focus on Clinton. You should focus on the president of Harvard, the former president of Harvard, you should focus on some of the hedge fund guys,” CNBC reported that Trump said.
“I’ll give you a list. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein, I sure as hell didn’t.”
When asked if he would pardon Maxwell, who has served five years of a 20-year sentence for finding and grooming young girls for Epstein’s abuse, Trump said, “It’s something I haven’t thought about.”
“I’m allowed to do it,” he added.
Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus said Maxwell was “hoping for another productive day.”
“Ghislaine has been treated unfairly for over five years now,” he added.
“If you looked up scapegoat in the dictionary, her face would be next to the definition next to the dictionary definition of it,” he said. “So, you know, we’re grateful for this opportunity to finally be able to say what really happened, and that’s what we’re going to do yesterday and today.”
“We just ask that folks look at what she has to say with an open mind, and that’s what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has promised us, and everything she says can be corroborated, and she’s telling the truth,” Markus said.
“She’s got no reason to lie at this point, and she’s going to keep telling the truth.”
Markus refused to comment on the nature of the questioning.
On social media, Blanche said he would reveal what he learned from Maxwell “at the appropriate time.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a recent review of Epstein-related documents by the Justice Department and FBI allegedly found that Trump’s name appeared several times in the files.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., during a press conference on Wednesday, said making the Epstein files public needs to be done in a way that protects the victims mentioned, some of whom are minors.
It was just past 12:30 a.m. on June 9 when Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a burglary in progress at a home in Lynwood.
Upon arrival, according to the department’s incident summary, they saw Federico Rodriguez, 45, through a window, holding what appeared to be a pair of scissors.
Hearing screams inside, deputies forced a door open and entered the home, where they found Rodriguez repeatedly stabbing a woman. Sgt. Marcos Esquivel immediately drew his handgun, footage from his body-worn camera showed, and fired multiple shots that killed Rodriguez.
The incident was the fifth of six fatal shootings by deputies that the sheriff’s department has reported so far this year.
The woman Rodriguez was stabbing survived. But despite the apparently life-saving actions of the deputies, two days later the case became a point of controversy in a broader dispute between the department and L.A. County’s Office of Inspector General, which investigates misconduct and the use of deadly force by law enforcement.
The inspector general’s office sent a letter on June 11 to the County Board of Supervisors raising concerns that officials have been blocked from scenes of shootings by deputies and deaths in county jails.
Inspector General Max Huntsman said his office interprets the state law that led to its creation over a decade ago as giving him and his staff the authority to conduct meaningful on-site investigations, with state legislation approved in 2020 strengthening that power.
Inspector General Max Huntsman listens to testimony in the Robinson Courtroom at Loyola Law School in 2024.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Huntsman said allowing his staff to tour scenes of shootings and receive information directly from homicide detectives and other sheriff’s department personnel while the dead bodies have yet to be removed is essential for proper oversight.
But the sheriff’s department has repeatedly denied or limited access, Huntsman said. The June 11 letter announced the “indefinite suspension of Office of Inspector General regular rollouts to deputy-involved shootings and in-custody deaths.”
Huntsman said the decision to halt the rollouts was a response to a persistent lack of transparency by the sheriff’s department.
“The purpose of going there is to conduct an independent investigation. If all we’re doing is standing around being fed what they want us to know, that is not an independent investigation,” he told The Times. “We’re not going to pretend to be doing it when we only get to peek under the curtain.”
At the Civilian Oversight Commission meeting on July 17, Sheriff Robert Luna said his department “will now have a process in place” to allow officials responding to shooting scenes to contact an assistant sheriff to ensure “a little more oversight” over the process.
An interior view of the Altadena Sheriff Station in January.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Luna called Huntsman’s June 11 letter “alarming,” but disputed how many times officials had been turned away, saying he was only aware of it happening “once — at least in the last five years.”
Commissioner Jamon Hicks inquired further, asking whether the department could be incorrect about the number of times access has been restricted or denied, given that the inspector general’s office alleges it has been a recurring issue.
“It could be, and I’d love to see the information,” Luna said. “I’ve been provided none of that to date.”
Huntsman told The Times that officials from his office were “prohibited from entering” Rodriguez’s home on July 9, as were members of the district attorney’s office and the sheriff’s department’s Internal Affairs Bureau. It was at least the seventh time the sheriff’s department had improperly limited access since 2020, he said.
In a statement, the sheriff’s department said the “claim that the OIG was denied access on June 9 at a [deputy-involved shooting] scene in Lynwood is inaccurate.”
“An OIG representative was on scene and was given the same briefing, along with the concerned Division Chief, Internal Affairs Bureau, Civil Litigation Bureau, Training Bureau, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office,” the statement said.
An exterior view of the hiring banner outside the Altadena Sheriff Station in January.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The statement went on to say that the department is “only aware of one incident on February 27, 2025,” in which the OIG was denied access to a deputy-involved shooting scene.
“The Sheriff’s Department remains firmly committed to transparency in law enforcement and continues to work closely and cooperatively with all oversight bodies,” the statement said.
During the July 17 meeting, Dara Williams, chief deputy of the Office of Inspector General, said the office’s personnel often arrive at shooting scenes hours after deputies have pulled the trigger because of the logistical challenges of traveling across the county. Sheriff’s department homicide detectives typically present preliminary findings and offer tours of the scenes.
But on several occasions, the watchdogs have been denied access entirely, leaving them to rely solely on whatever information the sheriff’s department chooses to release, Williams said.
Hans Johnson, the Civil Oversight Commission’s newly elected chair, said investigators can’t do their jobs properly without being able to scrutinize homicide scenes.
“We count on you, in part, as eyes and ears in the community and in these high-value and very troubling cases of fatalities and deaths,” he said at the July 17 meeting.
Williams said the the sheriff’s department has also been “painfully slow” responding to requests for additional information and records following homicides by deputies. She said that in one particularly egregious example, “we served a subpoena in October of last year and we are still waiting for documents and answers.”
Responding to Huntsman’s letter on June 16, Luna wrote to the Board of Supervisors that the department’s Office of Constitutional Policing “has assisted the OIG by providing Department information to 49 of 53 instances” since January. “Suffice it to say,” he added later in the letter, “robust communications take place between the OIG and the Department. Any assertion to the contrary is false.”
Luna said sometimes access could be restricted to preserve evidence, but Williams said she does not “think it’s fair to say that we were excluded” for that reason.
Williams told the commission she was not allowed to tour a scene earlier this year that Huntsman later told The Times was a Feb. 27 incident in Rosemead.
The sheriff’s department’s incident summary stated that Deputy Gregory Chico shot Susan Lu, 56, after she refused commands to drop a meat cleaver and raised the blade “toward deputies.” Lu was taken to a hospital and declared dead later that day.
In his June 16 letter, Luna wrote that “the OIG, Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB), other Department units, and executives were denied access … due to concerns regarding evidence preservation, given the confined area and complexity of the scene layout.”
Williams told the commission “there was a narrow hallway but the actual incident took place in a bedroom, so I don’t know why we couldn’t have walked down that narrow hallway to just view into the bedroom” where the homicide took place.
“The bottom line,” she added later, “is we don’t want to mislead the public to give them the idea that this is actually effective oversight because, once again, we’re just getting the information from the department.”
DENVER — Colorado’s Democratic attorney general on Tuesday sued a sheriff’s deputy for allegedly helping federal immigration agents find and arrest a college student who had an expired visa.
Atty. Gen. Phil Weiser also disclosed that his office is investigating whether other law enforcement officers on a regional drug task force the deputy worked on have been sharing information to help federal agents make immigration arrests in violation of state law limiting cooperation in immigration enforcement. The federal government has sued Colorado over such laws.
On June 5, Mesa County Deputy Alexander Zwinck allegedly shared the driver’s license, vehicle registration and insurance information of the 19-year-old nursing student in a Signal chat used by task force members, according to the lawsuit. The task force includes officers who work for federal Homeland Security Investigations, which can enforce immigration laws, the lawsuit said.
After federal immigration officers told him in the chat that the student did not have a criminal history but had an expired visa, Zwinck allegedly provided them with their location and told her to wait with him in his patrol car for about five minutes, asking about her accent and where she was born. He let her go with a warning and gave federal agents a description of her vehicle and told which direction she was headed so they could arrest her, the lawsuit said.
When Zwinck was told of the arrest, the lawsuit said he congratulated the federal agents, saying “rgr, nice work.” The following day, one federal immigration agent praised Zwinck’s work in the chat, saying he should be named ”interdictor of the year” for the removal division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Zwinck is also accused of violating the law again on June 10 by providing immigration officers with the photo of the license of another driver who had overstayed his visa, information about the person’s vehicle and directions to help them arrest the driver. After being told that immigration officers “would want him,” Zwinck replied that “We better get some bitchin (sic) Christmas baskets from you guys,” the lawsuit said.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the lawsuit. Spokesperson Molly Casey said the office is about a week away from finishing its internal investigation into the student’s traffic stop and plans to issue a statement after it is finished.
A working telephone number could not be found for Zwinck, who was placed on paid leave during the sheriff’s office’s investigation. Casey declined to provide the name of an attorney who might be able to speak on his behalf.
The sheriff’s office previously announced that all its employees have been removed from the Signal group chat.
Weiser said he was acting under a new state law that bars employees of local governments from sharing identifying information about people with federal immigration officials, a recent expansion of state laws limiting cooperation in immigration cases. Previously, the ban on sharing personal identifying information only applied to state agencies, but state lawmakers voted to expand that to local government agencies earlier this year.
“One of our goals in enforcing this law is to make clear that this law is not optional. This is a requirement and it’s one that we take seriously,” he said.
The law allows violators to be fined but Weiser’s lawsuit only seeks a judge’s order declaring that Zwinck’s actions violated the law and barring him from such actions in the future.
Five years after her son was beaten so badly by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies that he needed more than 30 stitches and staples to his face and head, Vanessa Perez is still looking for answers. So are county officials tasked with holding the department accountable for misconduct.
Despite a subpoena and an ongoing legal battle, obtaining a complete account of what happened to Vanessa’s son Joseph Perez has proved impossible — at least so far.
The sheriff’s department has released a heavily redacted report outlining its version of what transpired in the San Gabriel Valley community of East Valinda on July 27, 2020.
According to the report, deputies from the Industry Station stopped Joseph, 27, on suspicion of breaking into a car. He punched and kicked them multiple times, the document states. Three deputies injured their hands and a fourth broke his leg falling off a curb. Six deputies punched Joseph and deployed various holds and takedowns before he was arrested and charged with five counts of resisting an executive officer, court records show.
But entire pages of the department’s “use of force” report are blacked out, leaving Vanessa and members of the Civilian Oversight Commission wondering what details are being kept secret.
County oversight officials issued three subpoenas in February for cases under scrutiny, including one seeking an unredacted copy of the Perez file. The County Counsel’s Office has resisted, arguing the files should remain confidential, and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has declined to hand them over.
Amid the subpoena standoff, Vanessa, 43, shows up to speak at nearly every monthly meeting of the oversight commission in a black T-shirt with a picture of her son’s bloodied face.
“Surviving an arrest shouldn’t look like Joseph. And it shouldn’t look like 121 punches either. That’s what they admitted to,“ she told The Times, referring to an unofficial tally she made based on the deputies’ statements in the redacted document.
Vanessa Perez holds a photograph of her son, Joseph Perez, taken after he was beaten by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in July 2020.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The beating was so severe, she said, it left her son struggling to carry on a conversation.
“He’s not able to do that anymore,” she said. “It’s just hard for him to socialize, period, with the constant fear.”
A month after the oversight commission‘s subpoena, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna responded by filing a lawsuit, asking a court to determine whether his department must comply. Luna said at the time that the County Counsel’s Office had advised the department that releasing the documents “violates the law.”
In a statement to The Times, the sheriff’s department said it is “taking deliberate steps to resolve the dispute and ensure its actions align with both the law and the principles of transparency.”
Last month, the County Counsel’s Office said in a statement that it “has fully supported” the commission “in its efforts to seek the information it needs to play a powerful oversight role on behalf of LA County citizens. This includes assisting with a declaratory relief action that will hopefully bring judicial clarity to the commission’s ability to obtain the information it seeks.”
Joseph maintains he was not the aggressor in the July 2020 incident. His mother said he was in the middle of a “mental health episode.”
Court records show Joseph has been jailed multiple times since on a range of charges, including methamphetamine possession and damaging a vehicle. In August 2022, he pleaded no contest to one of the five charges from the beating incident and was sentenced to 32 months in state prison.
He is currently incarcerated at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic after violating his probation from a separate case in which he was convicted of resisting two West Covina police officers.
He has struggled with addiction and been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression and psychosis, according to his mother.
Anne Golden, Joseph’s public defender, said in a recent court hearing that he suffers from impaired executive functioning due to a traumatic brain injury inflicted by the deputies.
In a brief phone call last month from jail, Joseph told The Times he believes the full report about what happened to him should be released to “show that I was in the right.”
Vanessa Perez holds a photo of her and her son, Joseph Perez.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“They’re lying about a lot of stuff with my case,” he said. “They lied about how it went down; they’re saying I’m the aggressor when I wasn’t. The reality is they beat me up — they left me for dead.”
The sheriff’s department said the deputies involved in the incident declined to comment.
The department said in a statement that every use of force “incident is thoroughly reviewed to evaluate if policies and procedures were followed,” adding that in “this incident, the use of force … was determined to be within policy.”
Oversight officials seeking records related to Joseph’s case and others have been stymied at every turn, according to Loyola Law School professor Sean Kennedy. Kennedy resigned from the commission in February following a dispute with county lawyers over another matter.
“To have effective and meaningful civilian oversight, it’s necessary for the commission to be able to review confidential documents about police misconduct and use of force,” Kennedy said. “Without that, this is all just oversight theater.”
Last month, Robert Bonner, the oversight commission’s chair, revealed that L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger intended to replace him despite his desire to stay on and finish ongoing work.
Barger said in an email last month that the move “reflects my desire to continue cultivating public trust in the oversight process by introducing new perspectives that support the Commission’s vital work.”
During the commission’s June 26 meeting, Bonner, 84, alleged that powerful people in county government do not want meaningful oversight over the sheriff’s department. A former federal judge who once served as U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and led the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bonner was fiery in his remarks.
He said he believed the County Counsel’s Office was advising the sheriff to withhold documents as a means of “telling this commission what it can and can’t do, and that goes over the line.”
“Surviving an arrest shouldn’t look like Joseph. And it shouldn’t look like 121 punches either. That’s what they admitted to.“
— Vanessa Perez on the arrest and beating of her son, Joseph Perez
“They treat our subpoenas like public record requests,” Bonner said.
The Civilian Oversight Commission has said it is willing to go into closed session to review the full reports, but the county’s lawyers argue that’s not legal.
On Tuesday, the state Senate’s public safety committee approved a bill previously approved by the state Assembly that would allow oversight commissions across California to conduct closed sessions to review personnel records and other confidential materials.
But the proposal, AB 847, still requires approval from the full state Senate and governor. And even if it does become law, the county counsel’s office argues that the L.A. County code explicitly bars the commission from reviewing sensitive documents in closed session.
Robert Bonner, chair of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Civilian Oversight Commission, speaks during the commission’s meeting at St. Anne’s Family Services in L.A. on June 26.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Bonner has pushed for the county code to be changed, saying he and other members of the oversight body “vigorously disagree with County Counsel’s interpretation” of it.
“This commission needs subpoena power to be effective, and it needs to have effective subpoena power, which means it needs to be able to go into closed session,” Bonner said during the commission’s June meeting.
The sheriff’s department said it “will abide by the ultimate judicial determination as to whether those records can be lawfully disclosed.”
Whether the oversight body can issue subpoenas is not in dispute. In March 2020 — four months before Joseph was beaten — L.A. County voters overwhelmingly approved Measure R, a ballot initiative that granted the commission subpoena power.
But the county is thwarting the legal orders, according to Bert Deixler, former special counsel to the Civilian Oversight Commission. That intransigence, he said, contributes to a culture of impunity in the sheriff’s department.
“More momentum will be built in the wrong direction, the county will continue to get sued, the county continues to have more and more financial challenges, and it’s a race to the bottom,” he said.
On June 3, Vanessa Perez drove in from her home in West Covina to attend a hearing for her son at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown L.A.
After waiting several hours for him to emerge, she became emotional as Joseph finally walked into the courtroom through a side door. His hands were cuffed in front of his wrinkled yellow jail T-shirt and his ear lobes were stretched with white paper plugs over his tattooed neck.
Vanessa Perez stands at the location in East Valinda where her son, Joseph Perez, was beaten by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in July 2020.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
But despite his lawyer’s pleas for the court to allow Joseph to enter a job training program and immediately begin receiving treatment for his mental health problems, Judge James Bianco ordered him to remain behind bars pending a mental health diversion reinstatement hearing.
“Mr. Perez has been given all the chances that I’m inclined to give him,” Bianco said.
Joseph looked back at his mother once before being escorted back out of the courtroom.
While her son remains locked up for now, Vanessa is demanding the unredacted version of the beating report be made public. She wants to understand why his beating didn’t warrant an internal affairs investigation or discipline for the deputies involved.
“We know Joseph wasn’t the first and won’t be the last,” she said. “With Joseph’s story exposed we … will know how they lied, how they covered their asses, from the deputies to the sergeant to the captain.”
The Hague court’s Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan warns civil war ‘has reached an intolerable state’.
A senior International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has concluded that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity” are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan’s western Darfur region.
ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan presented her assessment before the United Nations Security Council on Thursday of the devastating conflict, which has raged since 2023, killing more than 40,000 people and displacing 13 million others.
Khan said the depth of suffering and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur “has reached an intolerable state”, with famine escalating and hospitals, humanitarian convoys and other civilian infrastructure being targeted.
She said it was “difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur”.
“On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur,” she said.
The prosecutor’s office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighbouring Chad.
She detailed an “intolerable” humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that “famine is escalating” as aid is unable to reach “those in dire need”.
“People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponised,” Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become “common practice”.
In June, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan warned that both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had escalated the use of heavy weaponry in populated areas and weaponised humanitarian relief, amid the devastating consequences of the civil war.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan had told the Security Council in January that there were grounds to believe both parties may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in the region, while the administration of then-US President Joe Biden determined that the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide.
The Security Council had previously referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.
In 2023, the ICC opened a new probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the SAF and RSF.
The RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.
ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.
“I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population – they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past,” said Khan.
“But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court,” added Khan.
Michael Madsen, the actor who was a staple in numerous Quentin Tarantino films including “Kill Bill” and “Reservoir Dogs,” has died. He was 67
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to The Times that deputies responded to the actor’s Malibu home Thursday morning and found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 8:25 a.m. The spokesperson did not reveal a cause of death, adding that foul play is not suspected and Madsen seemingly died of natural causes.
A local activist who handed out protective face shields to protesters last month during demonstrations against the Trump administration’s chaotic immigration raids was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday.
Alejandro Orellana, a 29-year-old member of the Boyle Heights-based community organization Centro CSO, faces charges of conspiracy and aiding and abetting civil disorder, court records show.
According to the indictment, Orellana and at least two others drove around downtown L.A. in a pickup truck distributing Uvex Bionic face shields and other items to a crowd engaged in a protest near the federal building on Los Angeles Street on June 9.
Prosecutors allege Orellana was helping protesters withstand less-lethal munitions being deployed by Los Angeles police officers and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies after an unlawful assembly had been declared.
Orellana is due in court on Thursday morning. An e-mail to his federal public defender seeking comment was not immediately returned.
U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, a former California Assemblyman appointed by President Trump, has promised to aggressively prosecute anyone who interferes with Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations or harms police during protests. Federal prosecutors have brought at least 14 cases related to last month’s demonstrations and Essayli promised more people will be charged.
Asked how handing out defensive equipment was a crime during a news conference last month, Essayli insisted Orellana was specifically handing out supplies to violent demonstrators.
“He wasn’t handing masks out at the beach. … They’re covering their faces. They’re wearing backpacks. These weren’t peaceful protesters,” he said. “They weren’t holding up signs, with a political message. They came to do violence.”
Essayli described anyone who remained at a protest scene after an unlawful assembly was declared as a “rioter” and said peaceful protesters “don’t need a face shield.”
Orellana, who works for United Parcel Service, has no criminal record and previously served in the U.S. Marines, according to Carlos Montes, a fellow member of Centro CSO.
Montes said he believes Essayli is specifically targeting Centro CSO for its pro-immigrant activism, noting FBI agents seized another member’s cellphone last week as part of their investigation into Orellana.
“It’s ridiculous charges. We’re demanding they drop the charges now. They’re insignificant, ridiculous,” Montes said. “The most it amounts to is that he was passing out personal protective equipment, which includes boxes of water, hand sanitizer and snacks.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Marine Corps did not immediately respond to a request for Orellana’s service record.
Montes also challenged Essayli’s argument that peaceful protesters have no need for protective equipment, pointing to myriad instances in which people have been seriously injured by Los Angeles police and county sheriff’s deputies in recent years.
A Times investigation last month highlighted incidents in which protesters allege Los Angeles Police Department officers fired rubber rounds and other crowd control munitions without warning in recent weeks, causing demonstrators and members of the media to suffer broken bones, concussions and other forms of severe harm.
Times staff writer Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.
Alec Baldwin and additional “Rust” movie producers have agreed to settle a negligence lawsuit brought by three New Mexico crew members who witnessed the 2021 fatal shooting of the film’s cinematographer.
Crew members Ross Addiego, Doran Curtin and Reese Price filed the lawsuit in 2023, seeking compensation for the trauma they said they suffered after Baldwin accidentally shot Halyna Hutchins. The crew members were setting up their gear in a small wooden church on the movie set when the shooting occurred.
In the lawsuit, the crew members blamed the tragedy on “dangerous cost-cutting” and a “failure to follow industry safety rules.” The movie’s star, Baldwin, also served as a producer on the low-budget western.
The plaintiffs sued Baldwin, his El Dorado Pictures company and Rust Movie Productions LLC, alleging negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In the suit, the crew members argued that Baldwin and other producers “cut corners, ignored reports of multiple, unscripted firearms discharges, and persisted, rushed and understaffed, to finish the film.”
Baldwin and fellow producers have long denied such allegations.
Last week, the two sides asked a New Mexico civil court judge to dismiss the case.
“All claims have been settled and compromised,” attorneys for both sides wrote in a joint June 25 motion.
Terms of the proposed settlement were not disclosed. Representatives for the two sides declined to comment.
“Each party has agreed to bear its own costs and fees,” the lawyers wrote.
The film was running behind schedule the day of the shooting after camera crew members had walked off the set. The camera technicians have said they were frustrated by inaction over their complaints of a lack of nearby housing, rushed conditions and safety violations, including accidental gun discharges.
The shooting claimed the life of Hutchins, 42. She died that day, leaving behind her husband, their son and her family in Ukraine. The producers previously settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought on behalf of her husband, Matthew Hutchins.
Addiego was the film’s dolly operator, responsible for operating the mechanisms for camera movement. Curtin was the set costumer, overseeing costumes and accessories. Price was the key grip, who handled the nonelectric support gear.
New Mexico authorities brought three criminal prosecutions, including against Baldwin, who pointed the gun at Hutchins during a setup shot for a close-up of Baldwin’s prop revolver.
Baldwin pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and his high-profile trial ended abruptly last July after former New Mexico 1st Judicial District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the charge.
The judge found the special prosecutor and Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies had concealed evidence from Baldwin’s legal team, which the judge said prejudiced the case against Baldwin.
At the time, the actor-producer’s team was exploring whether prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies botched the investigation into how the bullets made their way onto the desert set.
The weapons handler Hannah Gutierrez was convicted of involuntary manslaughter following a two-week trial last year. The Arizona woman was released from prison last month after serving 14 months.
Abraham Márquez, a reporter with the nonprofit investigative news startup Southlander, was filming a tense standoff between Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and immigrant rights protesters in Paramount on Saturday night when he saw a deputy aim a “less-lethal” launcher in his direction.
Sensing a confrontation, Márquez said, he raised his press credential and “kept yelling press, press, press,” even as he turned and began running in the opposite direction. He barely made it a few feet before he felt a stinging pain as first one foam round, then another slammed into his buttocks and his back.
“They just unloaded,” he said of the deputies.
He was nearly struck again a short time later, when deputies riding by in an armored vehicle sprayed foam rounds into a gas station parking lot where Márquez and a KTLA-TV news crew had sought cover, he said. He was shaken, but said that he felt compelled to keep reporting.
“I got hit and whatnot but I’m glad I was there to document it,” he said.
The incident was one of dozens in which journalists have been shot with less-lethal police rounds, tear-gassed, shoved and detained while chronicling the ongoing civil unrest and military intervention in the nation’s second-largest city, according to interviews and video footage reviewed by The Times.
The police actions have drawn angry condemnation from public officials and 1st Amendment advocates. There have been multiple reported instances of reporters not only being struck by projectiles, but also having their bags searched, being threatened with arrest and getting blocked from areas where they had a right under state law to observe police activity.
Among those hit by police projectiles were several Times reporters in the course of covering protests in downtown L.A. over the past few days.
The LAPD and L.A. County Sheriff’s Department have faced criticism and lawsuits over their treatment of news media during past crises, but some covering the recent events say the situation has only gotten worse with the inflammatory anti-media messaging coming from the Trump White House.
“The price for free speech should not be this high,” said Arturo Carmona, president and publisher of Caló News, a news site that covers issues that matter to English-speaking Latinos. “Several of our reporters, several of whom are women of color, have been harassed and attacked by law enforcement.”
In one high-profile case, a CNN reporter was briefly detained by officers while doing a live on-air segment.
In another, Australian TV news reporter Lauren Tomasi was shot in the leg by a less-lethal round by an riot gear-clad officer moments after she wrapped up a live on-air segment. The incident became an international affair, with Australian Prime Minister Tony Albanese calling it “horrific.”
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said it “sends a terrible message,” and several city councilmembers referenced it while grilling LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell on Tuesday about his department’s response to the protests.
In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department said it was reviewing video footage from several incidents involving the news media to determine whether any of its deputies were involved.
The department said it is “committed to maintaining an open and transparent relationship with the media and ensuring that journalists can safely perform their duties, especially during protests, acts of civil disobedience, and public gatherings.”
“Our goal is to support press freedom while upholding public safety and operational integrity,” the statement said.
LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Rimkunas said that two of the roughly 15 complaints the department was investigating as of Tuesday involved possible mistreatment of journalists — a number that is expected to grow in the coming days and weeks.
Rimkunas said the department decided to launch an investigation of the Tomasi incident on its own, but has since been in contact with the Australian consulate.
A coalition of 27 press and civil liberties advocacy groups wrote to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday “to express alarm that federal officers may have violated the First Amendment rights of journalists covering recent protests and unrest related to immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles area.”
Multiple journalists who covered the protests told The Times that officers and deputies used physical force or the threat of arrest to remove them from areas where they have a right to be.
In doing so, the journalists said, police were ignoring protections established by state law for journalists covering protests, as well as their own departments’ policies adopted after mass protests after George Floyd’s murder in 2020 and over the clearance of a homeless encampment in Echo Park in 2021.
On Saturday, journalist Ben Camacho was documenting the scene in Paramount, where images of people vandalizing and burning cars dominated the nightly newscasts. Wearing his press pass and with a camera hanging around his neck, he watched in shock as law enforcement opened fire on the crowd with less-lethal munitions, striking Nick Stern, a British news photographer, who crumbled to the ground in front of him.
After helping carry Stern to safety, Camacho said he too was struck by a round in the kneecap.
“I start to screaming pretty much at the top of my lungs,” he said. “It was like a sledgehammer.”
He noted that many people are working on freelance contracts that don’t offer medical insurance, and said officers sometimes brush aside reporters with credentials from smaller independent outlets, which have an important role in monitoring events on the ground.
Some police officials — who were not authorized to speak publicly — said officers try their best to accommodate reporters, but the situation on the street involves split-second decisions in a chaotic environment where they find themselves being attacked. They also contend that journalists from newer outlets or those who primarily post on social media act in adversarial or confrontational ways toward officers.
Los Angeles Press Club Press Rights Chair Adam Rose said he has been collecting examples of officers from local, state and federal agencies violating the rights of journalists — seemingly ignoring the lessons learned and promises made the wake of past protests.
Rose said many of the incidents were documented in videos that journalists themselves posted on social media. As of Wednesday morning, the tally was 43 and counting.
The mistreatment of journalists at the recent protests are part of a “history of ugly treatment by police,” Rose said, which included the 1970 killing of one of the city’s leading Latino media voices, Ruben Salazar, who had been covering a Chicano rights protest when he was struck by a tear-gas canister fired by a sheriff’s deputy.
Even in cases where police abuses are well-documented on video, discipline of the offending officers is rare, Rose said.
With plunging revenues leading to the downsizing of many legacy newsrooms, a new generation of citizen journalists has taken a vital role in covering communities across the country — their reporting is as protected as their mainstream counterparts, he said.
“The reality is police are not the ones who’re allowed to decide who is press,” he said.
Some larger news companies have taken to hiring protective details for their reporters in the field, largely in response to aggressive crowds.
On Saturday, L.A. Daily News reporter Ryanne Mena was struck in the head by a projectile fired by law enforcement during a demonstration in Paramount.
She wasn’t sure whether it was a tear gas canister or less-lethal munition, but said she later sought medical treatment and was diagnosed with a concussion. The day before she was hit in the thigh by another projectile while reporting downtown outside the jail, she said.
Covering a few prior protests had taught her to always be mindful of her surroundings and to “never have my back toward anyone with a weapon.”
“It’s still kind of unbelievable that that happened,” she said of her concussion. “It’s unacceptable that that happened that other journalists were targeted.”
Times staff writers Connor Sheets and David Zahniser contributed to this report.
