The Brief

While you may not know casting director/film and TV producer Reuben Cannon by name (yet), it’s very likely you’re familiar with his work. Over the course of his career, Cannon cast TV shows like Moonlighting and Sanford and Son, films including The Color Purple, What’s Love Got to Do With It, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and several of director John Carpenter's horror movies. His production credits include many of Tyler Perry’s TV shows and films and Spike Lee’s 1996 movie Get on the Bus.

He also made Hollywood history, by becoming the first Black casting director in the 1970s. Cannon got his start in the mailroom at Universal Studios, worked his way up to a job as a casting department trainee, then a casting director, moved to Warner Brothers to take a position as head of television casting, and then opened his own casting office in 1978.

In the latest season of The Academy Museum Podcast, Cannon spoke with host (and Academy Museum director and president) Jacqueline Stewart about getting his start in casting, what it was like to be the “first” in the industry, and why he ultimately decided to leave casting in favor of producing.

These interview excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.

Getting in the door

Jacqueline Stewart: So I want to talk about how you got started in the industry …

Reuben Cannon: I tell the story that everything I needed to know about my job at Universal Studios, as a mail person or part of the Universal Studio's Training Program, I learned in Chicago on my paper route. 'Cause there are three fundamentals when you're delivering newspapers in Chicago. One is: Deliver papers every day without fail. No excuses, no matter the weather. Number two: Get to know your customers, because if you don't get to know your customers, you will not be able to collect the money that you’re owed. And number three: Most important, don't get robbed. 

So how do those basic elements apply to Hollywood? Well, I was hired at Universal Studios to work in the mail room and deliver the mail every day without excuses. Get to know your customers. Even though your customers are Alfred Hitchcock and Paul Newman and Lew Wasserman, you still get to know them and because you're gonna need a reference at some point to move out of the mailroom. And number three, don't let anyone rob you of your dreams.

So let's talk about that transition that you made from Chicago to Los Angeles. What was L.A. like when you got out here?

Well, in 1970, ‘71, it was right after the Watts riots, so the place was teeming with a certain degree of, you can say consciousness. But I don't know if it was consciousness, so much as it was an effort on L.A. to try to right itself, to create more, now we call diversity, and more inclusiveness. There was an effort for that and I think that probably led to perhaps my being hired in the mail room.

So you're at Universal, and while you were there, were there mentors you had or how did it work in terms of giving you an orientation to the industry? 

There weren't many. There was an older gentleman who worked in the custodial department —  Willie. And Willie, while he was basically a janitor, he had such wisdom and he'd been paying attention and, you know, he went back to the W.C. Fields days. And having him tell me stories about the various factions on the studio lot, who to look out for, it really was right out of the African diaspora tradition of sharing knowledge and wisdom. 

So, if there was a mentor in that way, it was Willie. But there were also very few brothers there, very few Black folks. There was a guy in personnel, Jim Harris, who was the one who hired me. And to give you a history of how I was hired, my uncles had given me a strategy for how to get a job that had never failed me in Chicago.

And that is, if you go to the place that you wish to be hired the day after payday, and introduce yourself to the person that's gonna hire you. Because he's gonna, inevitably, and these are blue-collar jobs, he's gonna be short. 'Cause someone would've gone out the night before and partied, and you're there.

I got my job as a busboy at a restaurant that way, I got my job once as a steel mill for the summer that way. So I thought, I'm gonna try that strategy here at Universal Studios. So I'm talking to Jim Harris in personnel and after I fill out my application I said, "Mr. Harris. You mind telling me what day do people get paid here?" And he looked at me like, "You know, you don't even have a job. You want to know about payday?" And he says, "Well, we have different unions and different guilds here, so every day people are being paid here." I said, "OK, I'll be here every day." And I was.

So I rode the bus from Crenshaw and Adams every day and sat in the reception area of the personnel department at Universal and waited for someone not to show up. I didn't care what department it was. Get me on the lot, I'll find my way. So by mid-December, I said I need to break this up. So let me spend half my day at Warner Brothers, and the other half of my day at Universal, and I'm down to $28. And it's the day before New Year's Eve. So Jim Harris sticks his head out of the door and says "Reuben, there are two mailroom employees that are stuck up at Big Bear. They went skiing. They can't get back in time to bag the mail. Can you help us out?"

And that temporary position turned into a full-time position. The mail room was the recruitment center — the first place that the studio would look when they were looking to add staff. And so there was a posting for a casting department trainee. And I'd spent time in the theater working with actors. That was what first got me interested in entertainment and the magic of creating and expressing through the arts. So I applied for the position along with two other fellow mail boys.

So those are the three resumes that were sitting on the desk of the head of the casting department, Ralph Winters. And it comes back to the story about "get to know your customers." I had met Ralph delivering mail because in the mail room, you deliver mail to the entire lot. And it really goes to show you how one person can impact the entire industry.

So Ralph Winter said, "Reuben, I've seen you here delivering mail. Everyone in the office here seems to like you. If I had career ambitions, I'd have to hire one of the other two gentlemen, because of their connections, their letters of recommendation are from very influential people in the industry. But on paper, you're more qualified because of your background. But because I'm gonna retire in three years, I have the luxury of doing what's right and what's fair."

And so he hired me. I became the first Black casting trainee, and then became Universal's top casting director.

Being the first

So for quite a long time, you were the only Black casting director in Hollywood. And I wonder how you felt about that. I mean, you made it clear that there were others you wanted to bring in, but during that period, was this pointed out to you a lot? 

Well, it was obvious. And it just spoke, to me, to the historical racism of Hollywood. But I also knew that it was a trial. I was a test balloon. If I messed this up, who knows how long it would be before another one? So there was that weight, there was the cultural pressure, as well as the industry pressure.

So I was very mindful [of that] and fortunately, you know, having grown up in Chicago, I just knew how to compartmentalize my life in a way that I could focus. And my world was pretty much locked into focusing on making sure I became the most knowledgeable person in the room about actors on TV, and two plays a week, and two films a week. So I had a pretty steady diet built around just gaining knowledge about talent.

Were there moments where you really faced explicit forms of discrimination? Or more subtle microaggressions?

More, I guess you would call microaggressions. People — there would be a shock because once again, the history of racism, the assumption that you go and audition, they'd never seen a Black casting director before. So then the agent would send him out to audition and the agents, I don't think, said to them, "You're gonna meet Reuben Cannon, and he's Black." I don't think they made that add-on. So the actor would come in, and they might have been thrown, you know, to see, and some would actually say, "I didn't know you were Black." I guess the name Reuben could imply other possibilities. And I said, "Is it a problem?" [And they’d say] "Oh, no, no, no, no, no."

Although there was one guy who said, "I have a problem with that." He was a devout racist and he said he didn’t want to read. So I called his agent up, and I think his agent might have dropped him after that.

What was the reaction of Black actors? 

Well, they were overjoyed, but it was — they were overjoyed, but then they expected me to absolutely just flood Universal Studios with, you know — 

With the hookup. 

Totally, totally.

You know, I was casting a pilot once: “Lazarus Syndrome.” And the usual suspects were on the list. Former TV series stars. But I knew that Lou Gossett was looking for a series and I, of course, to myself, [thought] "When do I bring his name up? Do I bring it up in the beginning or do I bring it up after all these other guys say no?"

So that's just even that type of, you know, thinking in terms of when it's gonna be best received. I decided not to put his name on the list in the beginning, but let's get three turndowns. So we got three turndowns. And I say, "You know, there's a great way to do this show with an actor who has great marquee, great skill, in Lou Gossett." And [writer] Bill Blinn and [director] Jerry Thorpe, they loved the idea. But I'm sure if I had not been there, that wouldn't have happened.

The ‘Ray Charles moment’

Let's talk about your auditioning process. How do you approach it? 

I would first try to engage actors in conversation and make them feel comfortable. 'Cause I know the anxiety that surrounds the audition, and so I find out more about them. The part I enjoyed most about casting was just finding out about the actors' personal lives. 

So I would try to create a comfortable environment 'cause I want them to do the best work. I mean, I wanna get the job done so I can move on to my next project. I'm not looking to delay the process. 

There's a metaphor I use, what I call the “Ray Charles syndrome.” When Ray Charles sings “America the Beautiful,” a song you've heard all your life, it's like hearing it for the first time. Same with dialogue. When you’re auditioning, you hear the dialogue read by any number of actors, but someone will come in and say those words and it's like Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful.” You will hear it for the first time in a new way. And that's what I would look for. I would look for that Ray Charles moment.

And when it happens, it's just — you know, the room changes, the air in the room changes.

Leaving the casting for producing 

I want to talk about your transition to producing. Why did you make that decision? What was it that made you wanna go into that side of the industry? 

The thing is, casting directors are almost the unheralded heroes of the whole filmmaking process.

You know, it really annoys me when people accept their awards, they thank the incredible cast. Well, who put that cast there? I mean, you hear it over and over again. "I owe to the — to my cast." Well, where'd that cast come from? Did they just walk in off the street? They should be acknowledged. 

Why do you think it's underappreciated and under-acknowledged? 

Because once the work is done, the focus then goes on the actor. You know, it's almost like your work is done in the shadows. Once it's completed — it's like the home you're living in, you know, you don't give the architect credit. So the architect of the movie, from a casting perspective, is just not acknowledged. The work is done and you move on. 

So that was part of it, the lack of appreciation for the craft and the work that goes into it. But also the, just the financial — you know, that you put that work in and the work lives on, but you don't get any ongoing residuals.

So whenever I would work on a movie with a producer, I would say, "Look, I'm the casting director, but I’m also a student. My aspiration is to produce films." And they would welcome that. So I would be there on days when my work was done, and I would still go to set and observe. 

The first opportunity came [when] I was casting for [film producer] Bill Borden. Bill Borden called me and said, "Reuben, we have a project that we'd like for you to direct." I said, you know, "I really don't have — I'd rather be the kingmaker, not necessarily the king. But what's the project?" He says, "The Million Man March. What if we were to do a movie about a group of men that embark on a bus from Los Angeles as strangers and form relationships and friendships before they get to Washington?"

I said, "I like that. I like it because there's a chance to show diversity among Black men. But it's not for me to direct. Let me call Spike [Lee] and see if he might be interested." So I called and pitched the idea to Spike. Spike says, "What are they gonna be doing? They gonna be singing on the bus?"

I said, "No, it's not a musical, it's a road trip." I said, "Look, I think it's a great movie, we could put together a group of wonderful actors." And then he came around. He says, "You know what, you’re right. But let's do it this way. If we're gonna do it in the spirit of the march, it should be financed by Black men. And why don't you, you’re in Hollywood, you take the actors, I'll take the athletes, OK?"

So if you see the movie it says “15 Black Men Productions.” The movie was financed by 15 Black men — the first time in the history of Hollywood a movie’s ever been financed totally by Black men. The initial investment was from myself, Spike and screenwriter Reggie Bythewood. And the four actors that were investors were Wesley Snipes, Danny Glover, Robert Guillaume and Will Smith. 

And we made the movie [Get on the Bus]. It holds up and it's one of my favorites 'cause it accomplished what we talked about in terms of diversity. And the issues that are discussed are still in the forefront of conversations.

Listen

How do I find The Academy Museum Podcast? 

It's now available from LAist Studios — check it out wherever you get your podcasts! Or listen to the episode with Reuben Cannon on the player above.

President Donald Trump is canceling nearly $1 billion in spending approved by Congress, the White House announced on Friday, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives.

Trump’s Office of Management and Budget described the funding cut as focused on “the most harmful government spending.”

Most of the cuts are focused on services for immigrants, including nonprofits that serve refugees and unaccompanied minors accused of being in the country illegally. The administration says the funds are no longer necessary because illegal border crossings have diminished considerably.

A White House press release announcing the funding rescissions notes that some of the organizations are led by people who worked in the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama.

Trump’s move was condemned by Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican in a tough re-election campaign and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Collins said in a statement that the action came without warning or consultation. She also said she would work to address with colleagues “these illegal actions.”

“Not only is the delay itself an impoundment that was not reported to Congress, but also it is a usurpation of Congress’s appropriations powers,” Collins said. “OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding.”

Typically, Congress can review the president’s proposed spending cuts before they take effect. But Trump made that all but impossible by announcing them with just five days left in the federal fiscal year. The Government Accountability Office says the maneuver, known as a “pocket rescission,” is illegal.

Collins called it the latest attempt by OMB to “undermine Congress’s Constitutional power of the purse.”

A hedge fund manager who wants more bike lanes and a construction workers' union are the biggest donors in L.A. city elections over the past two months.

They put a total of $7 million behind City Councilmember Nithya Raman’s run for mayor, according to the latest campaign filings submitted by Thursday to meet a state deadline.

Aaron Sosnick, a hedge fund founder, and the construction workers union — the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters — each gave $3 million to the same committee backing Raman, city filings show. Sosnick gave another $1 million to the pro–Raman political committee of the street-safety group Streets for All.

Airbnb has pumped in more than $4 million into backing Mayor Karen Bass and three other city candidates. The filings also show the LAPD officers' union has spent nearly $3 million, money that went to oppose Raman, city attorney candidate Marissa Roy and city council candidate Estuardo Mazariegos, and to support council candidate Tim Gaspar. Most of that Airbnb and police union spending was before the June primary election, though police union spending against Raman has picked up recently.

Overall, the filings show Raman’s significant earlier disadvantage in outside dollars has narrowed significantly in recent weeks. So far, the amount of ad spending by outside groups for the general election is similar between the two candidates, with a total of $1.57 million supporting Bass and against Raman, versus $1.53 million supporting Raman and against Bass. Those groups still have millions of donor dollars on hand for future ads.

Ballots are set to start hitting voters’ mailboxes by the week of Oct. 5.

What to know about the mayor’s race

Sosnick runs the New York-based hedge fund A.R.T. Advisors, which uses computer programs to quickly buy and sell stock, to make money from short-term price changes. He is based in Reno, according to campaign filings, and splits his time between New York and L.A.’s Los Feliz neighborhood, according to Michael Schneider, Streets for All’s founder.

Sosnick has been a major donor to prior streets-focused campaigns in L.A., including 2024’s Measure HLA. That voter-approved initiative requires the city to add planned bike lanes, bus lanes and pedestrian upgrades when it repaves major streets.

Two years after voters approved it, the city had completed only about 300 feet of HLA improvements as of March, Streetsblog L.A. reported at the time. The city paused some repaving and shifted to smaller repairs that stay under the measure's trigger, Streetsblog reported.

The construction workers union — which has said most of its nearly 100,000 members are in Southern California — endorsed Bass in 2022, before switching to Raman in August. The union broke with Bass over her affordable-housing directive, ED1, which doesn't require union wages.

The LAPD officers' union has put more than $2 million into groups opposing Raman. A recent ad funded by the union highlights Raman’s remarks about opposing a city ban on homeless encampments near schools. In the ad, Raman is shown saying she doesn’t "think a kid’s gonna be safer because a tent is 500 feet away from a school."

The police union committee also received $525,000 from Douglas Emmett Inc., the landlord behind the largest attempted eviction from rent-controlled housing in the city in decades. The city declined to legally intervene on behalf of the renters, who ended up suing and winning a 2024 court ruling that found the evictions were illegal.

Airbnb has given more than $4 million to groups backing Bass, city attorney candidate John McKinney and City Council candidates Jose Ugarte and Gaspar. The city attorney's office has a current lawsuit against Airbnb over alleged price gouging after the January 2025 fires. Whoever wins in November will inherit the case. This year, Bass advanced a proposal backed by Airbnb to relax city regulations by letting Airbnb hosts rent out second homes and investment properties through 2028.

Dodger Stadium parking-lot co-owner Frank McCourt's real estate firm also gave $25,000 to a group backing Bass. McCourt needs approvals from the Metro board, which Bass chairs, for a proposed gondola project.

Much of Bass' other outside support comes from unions, including the SEIU union that represents most city government staff, whose pay is negotiated by the mayor and approved by the city council.

City attorney

Beyond $2 million from an Airbnb-backed committee supporting McKinney, the police union’s committee has spent $357,000 against city attorney candidate Roy.

Smart Justice California, a criminal-justice-reform advocacy group that wants to reduce incarceration, and a group of trial lawyers are major backers of a committee supporting Roy. The city attorney oversees the city’s misdemeanor prosecutions and defends the city against lawsuits, including those brought by plaintiffs' firms.

City Council: Gaspar and Ugarte far ahead in outside money

In Council District 3, Gaspar’s biggest outside supporters include about $550,000 from an Airbnb-backed group, around $230,000 from a major association for apartment landlords and $136,000 from the police union. His opponent, Barri Worth Girvan, has received a much smaller amount of outside backing, largely from unions, including one that represents construction workers.

In Council District 9, outside spending for Ugarte includes about $300,000 by Airbnb and about $230,000 by the landlords association. Among their many responsibilities, the city council votes on rent rules.

Ugarte’s opponent, Estuardo Mazariegos, has received much less outside support, largely from the main union for L.A. Unified School District teachers and a tenant organizing group known as ACCE.

How the biggest donations flow

Direct giving to the candidates’ campaigns is legally restricted to $1,800 per donor each election cycle for L.A. mayor and city attorney, and $1,000 for city council. So the biggest donors instead spend through “independent expenditure” committees, or “IEs.” Donors can give unlimited amounts to these committees, as long as the spending isn't coordinated with the candidates' campaigns.

That IE money often flows through multiple committees — many of which combine money meant for candidates in multiple races — on its way to election ads, which can make the money hard for the public to easily track.

The general election will take place Nov. 3.

The City of Long Beach is pushing back against requests to release information about a sustained misconduct finding from the personnel file of one of its former officers — even as more details come out about past incidents.

Defense attorney Scott Sanders has requested material in the personnel files of former Long Beach Police Officer Erik Suarez after he learned Suarez was convicted on aggravated battery charges stemming from a 2019 beating in Cobb County, Georgia.

In court filings, Sanders has argued that information should have been disclosed to his client, Lonnie Jacobs, from the outset of the case. Jacobs is facing up to four years in prison on a charge that he brought a controlled substance into a jail. Sanders has argued the case should be dismissed because he alleges the initial arrest was based on Suarez misrepresenting facts and omitting evidence.

Now the defense has requested information from Suarez’s personnel file about both the Georgia conviction and an allegation that Suarez assaulted a man on the job in 2023. Sanders argues that information in the personnel file could show a pattern of misconduct by Suarez. In court filings, he also claims it could reveal a practice within the Long Beach Police Department to conceal incriminating information about its officers in protected personnel files.

“The reasonable conclusion is that the non-disclosure of Officer Suarez’s conduct and conviction is illustrative of an intentionally flawed process designed to conceal evidence that is favorable to defendants and harmful to LBPD officers,” Sanders wrote in a declaration submitted to the court on Sept. 23.

“With what we've learned so far, every defendant charged in a Long Beach case must presume that evidence is being concealed in their case,” Sanders told LAist. “Just look at the lengths the department went to in order to protect Officer Suarez's misconduct. He was arrested after violently causing serious injuries to the victim. Then just three months after being convicted in that case, he used force while on duty that the department found impermissible. Long Beach PD's response? Send him back to the streets and block defendants from finding out the truth.”

Erik Suarez from a photo in a Long Beach police file documenting his use of force during an arrest in 2023.

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Suarez left the Long Beach Police Department in June and is now with the Burbank Police Department, according to records from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.

The Burbank Police Department confirmed that Suarez was employed there and assigned to the field operations division. The department said it could not comment on “confidential personnel records or specific aspects of an individual’s background investigation, employment history, disciplinary history, or other personnel matters” and declined to make him available for an interview.

LAist tried to reach Suarez by calling a phone number linked to him in public records. Each time, a man answered and said he was not Suarez, but that he was in contact with Suarez. This week, that man said he had no interest in passing along the reporter's contact information.

Todd Vigus, an attorney for the Long Beach Police Department, argued in a Sept. 22 response to Sanders’ motion that the allegations surrounding Jacobs’ arrest “do not establish good cause to search the officers' personnel files for every conceivable form of misconduct, moral turpitude, discipline, performance deficiency, racial bias, or unrelated wrongdoing.”

A spokesperson for the Long Beach Police Department said in an email dated Sept. 11 that they are prohibited from discussing personnel matters and internal investigations, but did confirm that the department was aware of Suarez’s arrest in Georgia.

In response to a records request from LAist, department officials on Thursday released records from a 2023 use of force investigation that determined Suarez used "unnecessary or unreasonable force" while arresting someone.

That same year, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office investigated an allegation that Suarez committed “assault under the color of authority” but declined to press charges.

“The decision to decline prosecution in the 2023 matter was based on the evidence available at the time,” said Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office. “Although we did not know of the allegation from Georgia, the facts of that case would not have been a deciding factor in that charging decision.”

How Suarez's record came to light

When Suarez left the LBPD in June, Sanders was attempting to subpoena him for questioning about why he arrested Jacobs, who is bald, when his body-worn camera footage showed a witness describing the person who threatened him with a gun as having dreadlocks or braids.

Sanders attempted to subpoena Suarez twice through the Long Beach Police Department. In response to the first subpoena, in April 2026, the department said Suarez was out of the country. After the second subpoena filed June 22, the department informed Sanders that Suarez had resigned.

According to state records, Burbank hired Suarez two weeks later, on July 6. He’d worked for the Long Beach Police Department from November 2017 until June 19, 2026 — three days before Sanders made a second subpoena attempt.

Still attempting to subpoena Suarez, now at his home, an investigator working for the defense of Lonnie Jacobs — the man Sanders represents in the drug case — found Suarez had been convicted of misdemeanor aggravated battery in 2022 in Cobb County, Georgia.

According to court records LAist obtained from Georgia, the incident took place in a Waffle House in 2019.

The victim told the Long Beach Press-Telegram that Suarez threatened to kill him while beating him on the ground. The victim said he has vertigo and problems with his vision from the beating, according to the newspaper.

The Cobb County District Attorney’s office charged Suarez with two felony counts of aggravated battery. In 2022, Suarez pleaded guilty to misdemeanor aggravated battery. He served a year on probation and was ordered to take an anger management class.

According to the article, the victim said he was told by Georgia prosecutors that Long Beach police officials had been informed of the charges, and was surprised to see that Suarez was still working for the police department years later.

Records released by the Long Beach Police Department show Suarez received a two-day suspension for bringing discredit to the department by leaving the scene of the assault without reporting it.

Former Long Beach Police Officer Erik Suarez received a two-day suspension after the 2019 arrest in Cobb County, Georgia.

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Long Beach Police Department

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Sanders argues in his filing that these details support the motion to open up Suarez’s police records. In California, police personnel files are mostly shielded from public disclosure, except under certain circumstances, including findings of unnecessary use of force and misconduct while on the job.

Defendants who believe those personnel files may include information relevant to their case can file what’s called a Pitchess motion in court. If a judge agrees with the motion, the court will have an opportunity to review personnel files and pull out information deemed relevant to the case at hand.

Sanders filed an initial Pitchess motion before a preliminary hearing, but the court denied his request. He filed another motion to disclose Suarez’s personnel files once the defense learned about the Georgia conviction. Long Beach filed in opposition to that motion, arguing information in Suarez’s personnel file is not relevant to the Jacobs’ case. It is that motion that a judge is considering now.

Why this case could have broader implications

Sanders argues the Georgia conviction should have been disclosed not through a Pitchess motion, but proactively under Brady v. Maryland, a 1963 Supreme Court case that established prosecutors’ obligation to disclose information that could help defendants win their case. In his motions, Sanders is asking not only for information about Suarez’s conviction and potential misconduct, but for evidence that the Long Beach Police Department employs a similar tactic to hide information about other officers in their personnel files.

“Quite clearly, there can be no safe haven within a police department that is created to facilitate the concealment of improper acts by its officers or to hide the department’s efforts to protect officers from receiving deserved consequences,” Sanders wrote in a Sept. 23 supplement to the second Pitchess motion. “It is a near-certainty that the department is engaging in a pervasive practice of non-disclosure.”

On Thursday, a judge in Long Beach granted a continuance in the case against Jacobs, rescheduling the hearing for the second Pitchess motion for Nov. 12.

What the DA knew — and didn’t know

Shortly after Sanders began defending Jacobs, a deputy district attorney on the case notified the defense that the DA’s office investigated Suarez in 2023 for “assault under the color of authority,” but did not file charges.

In his latest filing, Sanders argues this disclosure suggests that the district attorney’s office was aware of its obligations to disclose evidence under Brady and would have disclosed the Georgia conviction if they knew about it.

The district attorney’s office handbook instructs prosecutors to turn over evidence that directly opposes guilt or could be used to impeach a witness, including felony convictions, misdemeanors or other conduct that “reflects on believability, misconduct involving moral turpitude.”

A charge evaluation worksheet submitted to the court provides some details about the 2023 incident but, according to Sanders, leaves other questions unanswered.

The worksheet says that Suarez was assisting other officers responding to a domestic violence call in 2023. The other officers had arrested and handcuffed a man who, according to the worksheet, was “forcefully resisting” arrest. The worksheet says the man bit Suarez. The account reports Suarez then punched the man in the face, and the man lost consciousness for about four minutes. That narrative is based on reports from body-worn camera footage, reports and interviews, the worksheet says.

The district attorney’s office decided not to press charges against Suarez, citing “insufficient evidence” showing Suarez used more force than necessary.

In the latest filing, Sanders raises several issues with the worksheet provided by the district attorney’s office and is seeking more information about what happened during the incident.

The worksheet says Long Beach “opened an investigation into the allegation that Suarez used excessive force” in March 2023, two months after the incident.

In response to a records request from LAist, the Long Beach Police Department said they had identified one investigation with a sustained finding of “unnecessary or unreasonable force” from 2023 in Suarez’s personnel file. Later that same day, the department released the investigatory files related to that incident.

The records show the internal affairs investigation was prompted by deputy chief Gerardo Prieto, who also requested a criminal investigation, and resulted in a three-day suspension for Suarez.

A summary of a meeting between Suarez and LBPD leadership states that Suarez and James Trott, an attorney with the Long Beach Police Officers Association, argued the use of force was reasonable. Trott said the incident “should and alone and not be associated with the prior out-of-state incident,” according to the summary.

The worksheet from the district attorney’s office does not reference any sustained findings by the Long Beach Police Department. It does not describe the allegation or explain where the allegation came from, a key omission, according to Sanders.

The report summarizes an interview with the man Suarez punched. It does not include any statements from that man and explicitly states they did not seek a compelled interview with Suarez.

Importantly, Sanders argues, the report makes no mention of the conviction against Suarez in Georgia that occurred just a few months earlier.

The man Suarez punched was convicted of resisting arrest during the incident. Sanders argues that he was entitled to know about Suarez’s conviction, and that the district attorney’s office should have known about the conviction while deciding whether or not to charge Suarez.

The district attorney’s office handbook states that when considering pressing charges on someone, prosecutors shall “review all available police reports and the accused’s background and prior record.”

“The fact that the accused’s alleged conduct is consistent or inconsistent with prior proven conduct may remove or create a reasonable doubt,” the handbook explains.

The district attorney’s office told LAist the office was not aware of the Georgia conviction at the time of their 2023 investigation.

What makes The Little Sugarplum special? Three sisters started the traveling pop-up bakery, each with a different role in running it. There’s the medical student-turned-baker, the hospitality worker-turned-marketer, and the blackjack dealer-turned-accountant.

What else? Their cinnamon rolls, which have become the main attraction, include a variety of rotating flavors like strawberry shortcake, matcha, coffee and ... mashed potatoes. Yeah, you read that right.

They recently shared their secrets with LAist host Austin Cross.

About the owners

Jenna Agpaoa grew up with her two sisters in Valley Center, a city in San Diego County, where their passion for baked goods began to take shape.

The Amish cinnamon roll

Soon after starting the bakery, their content went viral after sharing a recipe for a traditional Amish cinnamon roll, which notably uses mashed potatoes as an ingredient. They learned the recipe from an old neighbor growing up, who was Pennsylvania Dutch, a group descended from German-speaking immigrants from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Now you can find them vending all across Southern California, including at places like Ubefest and 626 Night Market.

Their fall flavor menu

They offer other baked goods in addition to cinnamon rolls, including cookies, brownies and bread.

The Little Sugarplum's fall menu.

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Courtesy The Little Sugarplum Bakery

)

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