Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna Reportedly Ignored Threat to Inspector General Max Huntsman

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna came under scrutiny from the Sheriff's Department's Surveillance Unit when a flyer described as a “thinly veiled threat” was on display in the sheriff's station last year.

According to a Los Angeles Times article, investigators from the Office of Inspector General went to the East Los Angeles train station and discovered a photo of Inspector General Max Huntsman affixed to an ad about hair loss and a quote from John Wayne.

According to Huntsman, nothing was done.

“It was in the detective bureau, in plain sight,” Huntsman told the Civilian Oversight Commission. “My team brought it to the attention of the sheriff’s department. So far, the number of Internal Affairs investigations into this matter is zero. And it's been six months.

Despite this, Huntsman said, the captain who oversaw the station was allowed to stay on site. up until this month – after the Times discovered a memo accusing him of conspiracy to avoid promoting a sergeant she would have considered an “angry black”.

“Again: no response, no movement, no action until it hit the front page,” Huntsman said. “This is how the Sheriff’s Department currently conducts its internal affairs investigations. It is unacceptable. This is not an improvement from the days when we had a sheriff who figuratively – almost literally – shot people.

Deputies presented a veiled threat against the county watchdog in a defaced poster. Nothing happened

The East LA station has been marred by allegations that it has harbored members of an alleged adjunct gang, The Banditos, for decades.

In late April, multiple media outlets reported that Sheriff Luna promoted a deputy, with a Banditos tattoo, to division chief after covering up the tattoo following Luna's 2022 election.

Luna is also under scrutiny from the Civilian Oversight Commission for its failure to implement any of 27 recommendations made by the watchdog more than two months ago in a report condemning the “cancer” of deputy gangs and urging the sheriff to create a policy officially banning secret groups.

In February 2020, Sheriff Alex Villanueva implemented a policy banning cliques and subgroups of deputies.

Read more: LA Times

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