A federal judge ruled Friday he won’t allow a mental health expert to testify that former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease while being investigated in a jail corruption scandal.
U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson said in a written ruling that Dr. James Spar’s testimony would be “entirely speculative and inadmissible, is the product of unreliable methodology, artificially limited facts and bare speculation.”
The ruling on the psychiatrist’s testimony was made just days before Baca is expected to return to federal court in downtown Los Angeles to stand trial again, this time on three counts: obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements, all related to an FBI probe that began in 2011 into inmate abuse at Men’s Central Jail.
In Friday’s decision, Anderson sided with federal prosecutors who in November argued that Spar’s testimony “is irrelevant and not helpful to the jury” adding that it would result in juror confusion and unfair prejudice to the government.
Nathan Hochman, Baca’s attorney, had said Spar would show that Baca’s cognitive skills — like a machine that is failing to work — were starting to become impaired years ago, even though he passed cognitive exams last year. Baca, 74, has publicly stated he is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He retired from the Sheriff’s Department in 2014.
Hochman would not comment on Anderson’s decision, but said: “Sheriff Baca is looking forward to getting this case to a jury.”
Anderson’s recent decision comes just days after he also ruled that Baca can’t wear a star-shaped Sheriff’s Department lapel pin or cuff links or present testimony that he had done good acts while serving as sheriff in his upcoming trial.
Anderson’s latest ruling marks several twists and turns since July, when Baca pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators and he agreed to a plea deal of serving a six month prison sentence. But Anderson rejected the agreement Baca struck with prosecutors, saying a six-month sentence was too light.
The jail corruption scandal has so far resulted in the conviction and sentencing of nine deputies and those higher in the Sheriff Department’s chain of command including former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who was sentenced in June to five years in federal prison.
Baca was eventually indicted on the three counts. But when his defense team wanted to introduce Spar to explain why he made false statements to investigators, Anderson severed the trial into two parts, so that testimony from the mental health expert could be heard by one jury, but not another.
In December, a jury couldn’t decide unanimously if Baca was guilty on the counts of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Jurors were split 11-1 in favor of acquitting the former sheriff and Anderson declared a mistrial. Prosecutors then decided to retry Baca on all three counts.
Laurie Levenson, a criminal law professor at Loyola Marymount University, called the events interesting so far. She said that in most instances, such a case would not be retried. She noted Anderson has not made it easy for Baca.
“He’s not caught a break from the judge,” Levenson said. “It’s been an uphill battle for Baca every step of the way.”
She said it doesn’t mean Anderson is making the wrong rulings, but “there’s not a ruling that is going in Baca’s favor,” she added.
Jury selection is expected to begin Wednesday.
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