Luna

The race for Los Angeles County sheriff is already heating up — even with the primary not scheduled until next June. Six candidates have officially entered the field to unseat Robert Luna, with the early challengers slinging barbs, probing the incumbent’s political weaknesses and setting the stage for a heated campaign in the coming months.

Most vocal and well-known among the contenders is former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who lost to Luna in 2022 and is now vying for a rematch. He is among a field of current and former lawmen who have criticized Luna’s time in office as ineffective, uninspiring and opaque.

Luna told The Times he deserves to keep his job through 2030, arguing voters should choose stability as Southern California prepares to host major events in the coming years.

“The last thing we need is more inconsistency in leadership as we start working toward the World Cup and the Olympics,” Luna said.

Villanueva registered a campaign committee in July and has since leveraged his ability to draw attention like few others in L.A. politics.

But the political dynamics have changed since 2022, when Joe Biden was president and Villanueva was still in charge of California’s largest law enforcement agency. Now, President Trump has ratcheted up political pressure on L.A., and last year, Janice Hahn defeated Villanueva in the primary for her county supervisor seat by a nearly 30-point margin.

Through it all, Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College, said it seems as though “Luna is generally liked, perhaps because he has brought a steady hand to the department” after what she termed “upheaval” under Villanueva.

The former sheriff has been heavily criticized for his combative personal style, pursuit of political vendettas and his handling of investigations into so-called deputy gangs deputies and other alleged misconduct.

“Does Villanueva have a lane to come back? I don’t think so,” said Sadhwani.

Luna launched jabs at his opponents, with the sharpest reserved for his predecessor.

“Not one of those individuals that is running comes close to the experience that I have and the accomplishments that I’ve had so far,” Luna said. “There were a lot of controversies and scandals with the previous sheriff that, again, eroded public trust.”

And yet, there’s no conversation about the sheriff’s race that won’t mention Villanueva, whose name recognition runs deep across L.A. County.

Villanueva told The Times he’s “eager to get back in the saddle,” especially now, when “there are prosecutors ready to prosecute,” a nod to the tough-on-crime stances of Acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman.

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva talks with reporters at an election night gathering in Boyle Heights on June 7, 2022, when he was defeated by Robert Luna.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Villanueva had strong words for his 2022 opponent.

“The status quo is failing miserably the people of L.A. County,” he said. “I just can’t believe what Luna’s done to the organization I’ve spent my entire adult life in.”

Others jockeying for contention are pitching themselves as offering a breath of fresh air.

Lt. Eric Strong, who has served over 30 years in law enforcement and was seen as the most progressive of the 2022 candidates, is throwing his hat back in the ring after coming in third in that year.

“What really got me interested in running is seeing the continued failed leadership within the department,” Strong said in a recent interview. “Nothing’s changed. … Honestly Luna’s just a quieter version of Alex Villanueva.”

Then there’s Oscar Martinez, a proud immigrant and U.S. Marine Corps. veteran who made a career at the sheriff’s department after multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Andre White, 34, is the youngest candidate. A Compton-raised detective with 11 years at the department, he promises to take a “community-oriented approach” if he’s elected sheriff.

Brendan Corbett served as the assistant sheriff for custody operations under Villanueva.

Lastly, there’s Capt. Mike Bornman, who has decades of experience in the department and lists a “comprehensive forensic audit” of its books as the top priority on his campaign website.

In a recent phone interview, Bornman said he considered Luna a “vulnerable” incumbent.

The sheriff has faced criticism from opponents and advocates who say he has done too little to improve jail conditions, leading to a surge in inmate deaths this year. Like Villanueva, he has also faced pressure to do more to root out deputy gangs and boost recruitment.

“The morale is as bad as I’ve ever seen it,” Bornman said. “Something has to change,” he added. “I don’t think the department can take another four more years with the guy.”

Political analysts cautioned that the race is sill wide open, with one expert declining to speculate during the “embryonic” stages as the field takes shape.

Anything can happen in the eight months remaining before the primary, but Sadhwani said one thing is clear: Unseating the current sheriff won’t be easy.

“I will say in general that an incumbent such as Luna typically has the upper hand and challengers need not only cause but the campaign fundraising ability to get their message out — no small feat in a county as large as L.A.”

So far, fundraising has been mostly anemic, at least according to the county’s most recent comprehensive campaign finance data available for the sheriff’s race, which covers only Jan. 1 through June 30.

Over those six months, Luna raised about $393,000; Bornman brought in nearly $23,000 of contributions; Martinez brought in about $6,700; and White raised less than $3,000. The other three candidates had not even declared their candidacies by June 30.

Sept. 14 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1901, U.S. President William McKinley died of wounds inflicted by an assassin eight days earlier. He was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1920, the first live radio dance music was broadcast, carried by a Detroit station and featuring Paul Specht and his orchestra.

In 1959, the Soviet probe Luna 2 — known informally as Lunik 2 — became the first Earth-launched space vehicle to land on the moon.

In 1960, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was founded.

OPEC ministers meet in Moscow on December 23, 2008. File Photo by Anatoli Zhdanov/UPI

In 1975, Pope Paul VI canonized Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint.

In 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco — American film actress Grace Kelly — was killed when her car plunged off a mountain road by the Cote D’Azur. She was 52.

In 1991, the South African government, ANC, Inkatha Freedom Party and 20 other anti-apartheid groups signed a peace accord to end black factional violence.

In 1996, Bosnians elected a three-person collective presidency: one Muslim, one Serb and one Croat.

In 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush proclaimed this to be a day of national mourning and remembrance for those killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The FBI identified the hijackers and said several had taken flying lessons in Florida.

In 2003, authorities said an estimated 124 people were dead or missing after South Korea was struck by the most powerful typhoon to hit the country in a century.

In 2005, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, the third and fourth largest U.S. air carriers, filed for bankruptcy as the industry reeled under record high jet fuel costs.

In 2008, the U.S. brokerage firm Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for $50 billion and Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy after it failed to find a buyer.

File Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/UPI

In 2010, U.S. hiker Sarah Shourd, imprisoned in Iran on charges of espionage for more than a year after she and two male companions were accused of illegally crossing into Iranian territory, was released on $500,000 bail. The men — Shane Bauer, her fiance, and Josh Fattal — were freed just over a year later.

In 2023, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, on felony gun charges. He was the first child of a sitting president to be charged by the department.

File Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI

A bloodied female and her male companion were escorted out of SoFi Stadium during the fourth quarter of the Rams season opener Sunday along with two other spectators who had engaged in the same violent altercation.

The woman and her companion were wearing jerseys of the Houston Texans, who the Rams defeated 14-9. Video clips on social media showed her face covered with blood when security guards led her from Section 428 high above the end zone.

The incident appeared to begin with words and shoving between the woman in the No. 99 jersey of retired Texans legend JJ Watt and a woman wearing a Rams jersey. The altercation escalated, with the man wearing the No. 7 jersey of Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud pouring a cup of beer on the head of the woman in the Rams jersey.

Two men in Rams jerseys one row above the brawl stood and began shoving and grabbing the two Texans fans until security personnel arrived about two minutes into the incident.

The two men from the row above removed their jerseys — one of former Rams great Aaron Donald and the other of Rams receiver Puka Nacua — but additional security personnel arrived, handcuffed both men and escorted them away.

SoFi Stadium, which opened in 2020, has been plagued by brawls. Oakland chef Daniel Luna was in a medically induced coma for weeks after Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics discovered him lying on the ground in the stadium’s Lot L during the NFC Championship Game between the Rams and San Francisco 49ers.

It took three days and an inquiry from The Times before Inglewood authorities acknowledged the incident. Bryan Alexis Cifuentes, 33, was charged with one felony count of battery with serious bodily injury after video showed that he dropped Luna with one punch. Cifuentes pleaded not guilty and investigators determined that Luna started the altercation when he shoved Cifuentes.

Luna sued the Rams and L.A. County, claiming that because he was drunk deputies should have put him in a form of protective custody after he was denied entrance to the stadium because he didn’t have a ticket.

The suit was dismissed by Inglewood Superior Court Judge Ronald F. Frank, who wrote that “the Sheriff’s Department did not create the peril in which plaintiff found himself. [Luna] alleges that he was already inebriated when he was detained initially. The sheriffs took no affirmative action which contributed to, increased, or changed the risk which would have otherwise existed.”

At least four fights have broken out at Chargers games at SoFi Stadium. The most recent was a brawl in a game against the Raiders in September 2024. A video provided to KTLA shows showed a group of Chargers fans fighting a shirtless man.

Moments before the Chargers and Dallas Cowboys squared off at SoFi in 2023, the teams scuffled at midfield after several Cowboys ran through the Chargers’ defensive backs as they were conducting pregame drills.

Several fights broke out off the field during the game, including one on a concourse exit that involved a dozen or more fans. No fans were arrested, according to the Inglewood Police Department.

After a game between the Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs in November 2022, a man was thrown over a railing. A person who recorded a video of the incident told KABC-TV Channel 7 that the fight began after one man bumped into another. A third man tried to intervene and was thrown over the railing onto the concrete steps below.

A 2022 poll of more than 3,000 fans by Sportsbook Review concluded that many NFL stadiums are more violent than SoFi Stadium and that fans generally feel safe attending games at the venue.

Crimes in and around stadiums occur all too often, with 39.2% of poll respondents reporting having witnessed or fallen victim to at least one crime in or outside a stadium. Only 5.4% of fans had witnessed a crime at SoFi, and only one of those polled said they had been a victim of a crime while attending a Rams or Chargers home game.

Sportsbook Review updated its rankings last week, with SoFi moving up from the 15th to the 11th most dangerous NFL stadium. M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, is ranked as the most dangerous; Highmark Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills, is ranked as the safest.

When an explosion killed three L.A. County sheriff’s deputies last month, Mike Fratantoni thought about 1857.

A horse thief named Juan Flores broke out of San Quentin State Prison, joined a posse that called itself Las Manillas — the handcuffs — and headed south toward Southern California. They robbed stores along the way and murdered a German shopkeeper in San Juan Capistrano. Los Angeles County Sheriff James R. Barton was warned about them but ignored the danger. He and his men were ambushed. Four were killed — Barton, Deputy Charles Daly and constables Charles Baker and William Little. The spot, near the interchange where State Route 133 and the 405 Freeway meet in Irvine, is now called Barton Mound.

Orange County was still a part of L.A. County then, the population was just over 11,000, California was a newly minted state, and the Mexican period was giving way to the Wild West.

“They all died alone with no help coming,” said Fratantoni, the Sheriff’s Department’s staff historian. “Today, you know your partner is coming to help you. People say the job’s dangerous now — it’s never not been dangerous.”

So as Sheriff Robert Luna prepared to hold a news conference hours after the accident at a department training facility in East L.A. took the lives of Dets. Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn, Fratantoni sent over notes about what happened to Barton and his men. That’s how Luna was able to tell the public that the latest line-of-duty deaths to befall the department happened on its deadliest day in more than 160 years, a line quickly repeated by media across the country.

Fratantoni describes himself as the “default button” whenever someone has a question about the Sheriff’s Department’s past, whether it’s a colleague or the public, whether it’s about the positive or the scandalous. He can tell you why female deputies stopped wearing caps (blame the popularity of beehive hairdos in the 1960s) and reveal why longtime Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz was a pioneer in trying to rehabilitate addicts (his father was an alcoholic).

It’s a job the Long Island native has officially held for a decade. He assumed the position with the blessing of then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell to tap into a passion Fratantoni had dabbled in on his own almost from the moment he joined the department in 1999.

“You can’t talk about L.A. County history without us,” Fratantoni said when we met at the Hall of Justice. Outside, the flags remained at half-staff in honor of the dead detectives. He was taking me on a tour of the building’s basement museum, which showcased the histories of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, district attorney’s office and coroner. “We’ve been there from Day 1. We were here before the Board of Supervisors. We were here before LAPD. We’ve never closed. We’ve survived it all.”

“We check with Mike on everything,” Luna told me in a phone interview. Last year, the sheriff joined Fratantoni and other current and retired Sheriff’s Department members for the dedication of a plaque to commemorate the 1857 Barton Mound massacre. “You get 10 minutes with him, and wow.”

I was able to get two hours.

Fratantoni is burly but soft-spoken, a trace of a New York accent lingering in his by-the-books cadence. All around us were books, poster boards and newspaper headlines of criminals that Angelenos still remember and those long forgotten, people such as Winnie Ruth Judd, who murdered two friends in Phoenix in 1931 then traveled to Los Angeles by train with their bodies in trunks.

We passed through a row of original L.A. County jail cells that were brought down piece by piece from their original location on the 10th floor of the Hall of Justice. He pointed out a display case of makeshift weapons, tattoo needles and fake IDs created by inmates over the department’s 175 years. I stared too long at a black jacket and AC/DC hat worn by the Night Stalker — serial killer Richard Ramirez.

Fratantoni shows off vintage items used for illegal gambling.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

The museum receives free rent from L.A. County but is otherwise funded and maintained by the Sheriffs’ Relief Foundation and the dollar a month pulled from the paychecks of Sheriff’s Department employees who sign up to support — “We don’t want to be a burden,” Fratantoni explained. It’s not open to the general public, but he frequently hosts deputies, prosecutors, law students and even school field trips.

“The kids come and love this one for some reason,” he said with a chuckle as we passed a narcotics display. “Not my favorite one.”

Fratantoni never rushed me and turned every question I had into a short story that never felt like a lecture. He frequently apologized for random artifacts strewn around — plaques, movie posters, a biography of mobster Mickey Cohen — or displays not lit to his liking. “Am I putting you to sleep yet?” he joked at one point.

The 45-year-old is more than a curator or nerdy archivist. Luna, like his predecessors Alex Villanueva and McDonnell, has entrusted Fratantoni to not just help preserve the department’s history but also imprint its importance on the men and women who are its present and future.

“I have always been a fan of history,” said Luna, who has organized lunchtime lectures about the department and civil rights. For Black History Month in February, Fratantoni spoke about the troubles faced by deputies William Abbott and John Brady, who in 1954 became the department’s first integrated patrol unit.

The recriminations against Abbott, who was Black, and Brady didn’t come from within but rather the residents in West Hollywood they served. “I believe it’s important to teach our deputies where we’ve been and some of the challenges we’ve faced. You can’t help but to want to listen to his stories,” Luna said of Fratantoni.

“Mike is just phenomenal,” said Deputy Graciela Medrano, a 25-year-veteran who was also at the museum the day I visited. A black ribbon stretched across her badge — a sign of mourning, law enforcement style. “I’ll ask him about cases that happened when I was just starting, and he immediately knows what I’m talking about. He makes us all appreciate our department more.”

Every year, Fratantoni speaks to the latest class of recruits about the department’s history. “They know it’s been around but nothing else. So I share photos, I tell stories. And I tell them, ‘You’re getting a torch passed to you, and you’re going to run the next leg.’ You can see their reactions — our history gives them a sense of purpose.”

He’ll also attend community events with other deputies in vintage uniforms or old department cars. “Someone will see it and say, ‘That’s my granddad’s car’ and smile. We can have conversations with the public we otherwise wouldn’t be able to.”

Fratantoni was supposed to focus this year on the department’s 175th anniversary. Another goal was to seek out an interview with Shirley MacLaine, one of the last surviving queens of the Sheriff’s Championship Rodeo, an annual event that used to fill up the Memorial Coliseum and attract Hollywood A-listers.

But 2025 got in the way. We spoke a week before the burials of Osborn and Kelley-Eklund (the services for Lemus have yet to be announced). Fratantoni also sits on the committee charged with putting names on the Los Angeles County Peace Officers’ Memorial.

“I don’t like doing it, and I hope I don’t have to fill out paperwork for it ever again, but if that’s what I have to do, I’m honored to be a part of it,” he said. “I hold it close to my heart.”

Fratantoni in front of a section of the museum that highlights the history of the L.A. County district attorney’s office.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

Even the work commemorating what happened during the Barton Mound massacre remains unfinished. The victims were buried at the old City Cemetery downtown but were moved to Rosedale Cemetery in Mid-City in 1914. No one bothered to mark their new graves, which were lost until researchers discovered them a few years ago. Fratantoni and others are fundraising for new tombstones for their slain predecessors.

He mentioned Daly’s story: Born in Ireland. Came to California for the Gold Rush. Became a blacksmith — he put the shoes on the horses that Barton and his constables were going to use to pursue Las Manillas. A strong, able man whom Barton deputized so he could join them on the day they would all die.

“It’s sad to see people who lost their life be forgotten,” Fratantoni said. “That’s just…”

The historian tasked with talking shook his head in silence.

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.”