Ex-LA County sheriff Baca guilty of obstructing FBI probe

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was convicted Wednesday of obstructing an FBI investigation into corrupt and violent guards who took bribes to smuggle contraband into the jails he ran and savagely beat inmates.

The trial, the second Baca faced after a jury last year deadlocked 11-1 in favor of acquittal on obstruction charges, cast a dark shadow over a distinguished 50-year law enforcement career that abruptly ended with his 2014 resignation from the nation's largest sheriff's department as the corruption investigation spread from rank-and-file deputies to his inner circle.

In addition to tarnishing his reputation as a policing innovator and jail reformer, the case threatened to put Baca, 74, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, behind bars for up to 20 years.

Baca appeared to have escaped the fate of more than a dozen underlings indicted by federal prosecutors until a year ago, when he pleaded guilty to a single count of making false statements to federal authorities about what role he played in efforts to thwart the FBI.

A deal with prosecutors called for a sentence no greater than six months. When a judge rejected that as too lenient, Baca withdrew his guilty plea and prosecutors hit him with two additional charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

The federal probe began in 2011 when Baca's jail guards discovered an inmate with a contraband cellphone was acting as an FBI mole to record jail beatings and report what he witnessed.

Word quickly reached Baca, who convened a group to derail the investigation and ferret out more about what the FBI was focused on, prosecutors said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lizabeth Rhodes said during closing arguments that corruption in the nation's largest jail system "started from the top and went all the way down."

Read more at http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Ex-Sheriff-Lee-Baca-Found-Guilty...