An FBI agent told a federal jury Tuesday that she knew she was right to investigate the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on allegations of inmate abuse inside Men’s Central Jail, because of the way she was later treated by deputies.
Special agent Leah Tanner returned to the stand in a downtown Los Angeles federal courtroom in a corruption case against former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who prosecutors allege was aware of his high-ranking officers’ intentions to obstruct FBI agents from probing deeper into excessive use of force on inmates by deputies.
Tanner had testified for the prosecution on Monday that phone records the FBI compiled show Baca, Undersheriff Paul Tanaka and other top brass kept in constant contact with each other after they learned a flip phone had been planted by the FBI inside Men’s Central Jail in August, 2011. The flip phone was to be used by inmate Anthony Brown, to report excessive force and corruption inside the jails. She said those calls correspond with a series of events. For example, Brown’s records were falsified, his identity changed and he was hidden from FBI agents. Later, two deputies threatened Tanner with arrest at her home.
But Nathan Hochman, Baca’s defense attorney, worked for five hours Tuesday to pick a part Tanner’s testimony from the day before.
During his cross examination, Hochman went over her experience, pointing out that during the time of the investigation, she had been with the FBI for about a year. He asked her why she deceived a deputy who wanted to go on a date with her by not telling him why she was interviewing inmates in the jails. She and the deputy met on a handful of occasions, but Tanner disagreed with the word “deceive.”
“We wanted to conduct our investigation and we didn’t want anyone to know,” she said. “I was basically trying to not tell him.”
Hochman also wanted to know if Brown ever recorded any video or took photos with the flip phone that was smuggled to him. Tanner said no. He asked her if she believed Brown’s life was in danger after the deputies found his phone. Again, Tanner replied no.
Then, using the charts of calls she compiled between Baca, Tanaka, and others on the chain of command, Hochman asked Tanner if she knew for sure that the calls made between them meant they actually spoke to one another. Some of the phone numbers, he pointed out, belonged to Baca’s driver.
“You don’t know what was said in that 2-minute call?” Hochman asked, pointing out one call in particular.
“No,” Tanner responded.
Hochman then played for the jury a muted surveillance video taken by undercover sheriff’s detectives. The video shows two sheriff’s sergeants waiting for Tanner in front of her apartment building. The encounter shows the moment when they threatened her with arrest. Hochman timed the encounter and asked Tanner if she thought it was about a minute or two.
She agreed.
But under redirect questioning by U.S. Assistant Attorney Brandon Fox, Tanner said that encounter felt like an eternity.
“How did that confrontation feel?” Fox asked.
“It was very difficult,” Tanner responded, her voice breaking a little. “I worked really hard on the investigation. I did everything properly. It also made me realize I was doing the right thing in investigating the Sheriff’s Department.”
Federal prosecutors had expected to rest their case by Tuesday, but were unable to introduce their last two witnesses. The trial resumes on Thursday with testimony expected from former U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr., who will likely recall a meeting with Baca regarding the FBI’s investigation.
This is Baca’s second trial related to the jail corruption investigation. In December, a jury could not decide unanimously if Baca was guilty on the counts of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. A mistrial was declared and prosecutors decided to try him again, but this time they included a third charge of making false statements to investigators.
It remained unclear Tuesday if Baca planned to testify.
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