Hearing Scheduled in County’s Efforts to Force Villanueva to Testify About Gangs in Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

A case management conference is scheduled on Thursday in Los Angeles County’s petition asking that Sheriff Alex Villanueva be ordered to honor a subpoena from the Office of the Inspector General and testify about deputy gangs while under oath and with his statements transcribed by a court reporter.

The OIG issued a subpoena last February calling on Villanueva to appear under oath for a 90-minute virtual interview on deputy secret societies.

In a petition filed in March, Villanueva’s lawyers disputed the necessity of the interview and noted that Villanueva previously appeared before the county’s Civilian Oversight Commission on Dec. 18 to answer an hour’s worth of questions on the same topic and shared a related video with the commission earlier last year

In a Feb. 25, 2020 letter to Villanueva accompanying the subpoena, Huntsman said Villanueva had asked the commission for feedback on that Jan. 21 video.

“We asked to meet with you to, among other things, obtain necessary information to provide the feedback you requested,” Huntsman wrote.

In his petition, Villaneuva’s lawyer, Linda Miller Savitt, maintained the OIG could reach out to lower-level managers to get the information he needs, but that Huntsman was seeking to embarrass Villanueva with “gotcha moments” over inconsistencies.

“Rather than use a less intrusive means of obtaining information, such as a series of questions or interviewing lower legal sheriff personnel who are involved in the day-to-day implementation of the policies and practices of the Sheriff’s Department, the inspector general is leap-frogging right to the top and threatening Sheriff Villanueva that ‘any statement you make during our meeting may be used in a future criminal proceeding against you,’” according to the petition.

Savitt further argued that the subpoena was too broad and harassing and lacked compelling reasons to require the interview of a senior public official, pointing to a recent federal decision to prevent the deposition of Gov. Gavin Newsom as support.

Villanueva unsuccessfully sought a protective order to stop the virtual interview from going forward.

During a case management conference both sides, the lawyers, and the judge meet to talk about how to handle the case.