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Feds Charge 2 LA Sheriff’s Deputies With False Imprisonment, Witness Tampering
A L.A. County Sheriff's Department uniform
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Photo via LASD Facebook
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Federal prosecutors Thursday announced they have secured indictments against two former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies for allegedly falsely imprisoning a 23-year-old skateboarder in Compton, threatening him with violence, and trying to cover it up.
The FBI is investigating the same two deputies for their involvement in the controversial fatal shooting of 18-year-old Andres Guardado two months later.
The backstory
In April 2020, former deputies Miguel Angel Vega and Christopher Blair Hernandez allegedly detained the victim after he told them to stop bothering two Black males in Wilson Park and exchanged profanities with them, according to the indictment.
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Vega and Hernandez allegedly grabbed the man — identified by prosecutors only as Hispanic with the initials “J.A.” — then placed him in their patrol car and threatened him with violence. They began pursuing another person and crashed the car. Vega and Hernandez allegedly told J.A. to leave the accident scene and radioed that a man with a gun wearing clothes similar to J.A. was on the loose. Vega and Hernandez allegedly filed false reports to cover up their actions.
The charges
Vega and Hernandez are charged with conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, witness tampering, and falsification of records. Vega is charged with an additional count of falsification of records. Attorneys for Vega and Hernandez were not immediately available for comment.
Why it matters
Hundreds of people spent their Father's Day marching from the auto body shop where 18-year-old Andres Guardado was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy last week to the Compton Sheriff's station were that deputy is based.
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Brian Feinzimer for LAist
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The FBI is also investigating Vega and Hernandez in connection with the June 2020 shooting of Guardado. Vega fatally shot Guardado in the driveway of an auto body shop near Compton, sparking angry protests.
Vega's attorney has said Guardado reached for a gun he already had placed on the ground. Guardado's family says it does not believe he had a gun. L.A. County agreed to pay the Guardado family $8 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.
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