offduty

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.”

July 20 (UPI) — A 21-year-old undocumented migrant with an extensive criminal history is in police custody following a robbery-turned-shooting of an off-duty Border Patrol agent in New York City, officials said Sunday.

Miguel Mora is in police custody at Lincoln Hospital, where he underwent surgery following the exchange of gunfire late Saturday with the unidentified Border Patrol agent in Riverside, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters during a Sunday afternoon press conference. The suspect sustained gunshot wounds to the groin and leg.

The press conference was held at Harlem Hospital, where the 42-year-old Border Patrol agent was recovering from his injuries. He was shot in the face and forearm, and is expected to survive.

The incident occurred at about 11:53 p.m. Saturday. Authorities said the border agent and a friend were sitting on rocks along the waterside, when two males riding a scooter neared.

The passenger got off and approached the officer, producing a firearm. Tisch told reporters that upon realizing he was being robbed, the Border Patrol agent drew his own service weapon.

“The perp fired first, and an exchange of gunfire followed,” she said, before the suspects fled the scene.

At 12:18 a.m. Sunday, Mora arrived at BronxCare Health System with wounds matching those sustained by the suspect seen in CCTV footage of the shooting, she said.

He was in police custody but had not been formally arrested at the time of the Sunday afternoon press conference.

Authorities are still looking for the alleged accomplice who is accused of driving the scooter.

Tisch said Mora illegally entered the United States via Arizona from Mexico in 2023.

She said he has two prior arrests for domestic violence in New York and an active warrant for failing to appear in court in one of those cases. He was also wanted in the state for robbery in December and felony assault with a stabbing in January, with both those alleged crimes occurrring in the Bronx.

Mora was also wanted in Massachusetts in connection to the February robbery of firearms from a pawn shop.

Authorities said the Border Patrol agent does not appear to have been targeted due to his profession.

The firearm used to shoot the Border Patrol agent has yet to be recovered, authorities said.

“In less than one year, he has inflicted violence in our city, and once he is charged for last night’s crimes, we will be able to add attempted murder to his rap sheet,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.

NEW YORK — An off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was shot in a Manhattan park after an apparent robbery gone wrong, New York City police and federal officials said Sunday.

The 42-year-old officer was in stable condition after the Saturday attack and is expected to survive. A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said there was no indication the shooting was politically motivated.

The agent, who was not in uniform, was sitting in a park beneath the George Washington Bridge when he was approached by a man riding on the back of a moped, who shot him in the face and arm, police said. The off-duty officer returned fire as the moped sped off.

No arrests had been made as of Sunday afternoon, according to a police spokesperson.

The Department of Homeland Security shared video online of the two men on a moped, alleging the shooter was caught entering the country illegally in 2023 but released.

The NYPD spokesperson said they had no information about the source of that claim.

In a social media post Sunday afternoon, President Trump seized on the shooting, alleging it was evidence of Democrats’ failures to secure the border. “The CBP Officer bravely fought off his attacker, despite his wounds, demonstrating enormous Skill and Courage,” he wrote.

The shooting comes as federal officials say there has been a surge of attacks on agents carrying out Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Enforcement officers involved in the crackdown often cover their faces, which critics say spreads fear and panic across communities and imperils citizens as well as immigrants without legal status. The Trump administration defends masking, which it says is needed to avoid harassment of agents in public and online.

On Sunday, the acting director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, said he would allow agents to continue covering their faces, which he called a safety measure “If that’s a tool that the men and women of ICE that keeps themselves and their families safe, then I will allow it,” he said.