Former Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca might be ordered to testify at the obstruction of justice trial for his former undersheriff, if a federal judge approves a new defense motion on Monday.
The attorney for Paul Tanaka, the former number two lawman in the department, said he will file a motion to order Baca to testify, with immunity from further prosecution. H. Dean Steward told City News Service he will file the motion will be before the judge Monday morning.
Tanaka is charged with two counts of obstructing justice by attempting to derail the federal investigation. If convicted of both counts, Tanaka, 57, could face up to 15 years in federal prison.
Tanaka’s motion claims that a witness has already testified that it was the sheriff and not the undersheriff who gave orders at a meeting on a Saturday in August 2011. It claims it was Baca — not Tanaka — who ordered a county investigation into how an FBI informant got a cell phone in the county jail.
It also claims it was Baca who engineered keeping the informant under wraps in the massive county system, unable to contact his federal handlers.
Tanaka is asking the judge to order Baca to testify with a grant of immunity from further criminal prosecution. And it claims the then-sheriff’s alleged actions can only be confirmed by ordering Baca to testify at Tanaka’s trial, now underway in Federal Court.
Baca has already plead guilty to lying to federal Justice Department investigators probing the department’s handling of the informant, which was surreptitiously called “Operation Pandora’s Box.” He is awaiting final sentencing in May.
“The trail testimony has, without Baca, not presented the full facts,” read the Tanaka petition. “The government has conceded elsewhere that Baca was a co-conspirator, and his testimony remains crucial to any understanding of what occurred here.”
On Friday, Tanaka was on the witness stand and was asked by another defense attorney, Jerome Hai,g if he had ignored a federal subpoena for the witness or helped in “hiding” the inmate within the sprawling jail system.
“No,” Tanaka responded firmly.
Tanaka also insisted that he was not aware of anyone in the sheriff’s department ordering such actions.
In testimony that refuted the words of a string of previous witnesses, Tanaka painted himself as not overly concerned when he learned of the FBI’s covert probe of brutality allegations at Men’s Central Jail and other facilities.
“I don’t remember having any particular reaction,” he told the jury when asked about how he handled news of the federal investigation.
Earlier this week, witnesses said Tanaka was furious and had repeatedly cursed the FBI after discovering that the agency had “flipped” an inmate and was secretly looking into abuse allegations.
According to prosecution testimony, Tanaka was aware of the illegal plan by deputies to conceal Brown’s whereabouts as well as an attempt to intimidate the FBI’s case agent on the probe.
In his testimony today, he portrayed himself as an ambitious, demanding law official who had no tolerance for deputies who violated the rules.
“Those that violate the policy should be treated accordingly,” he told the Los Angeles federal jury.
He is expected to return to the witness stand Monday to face cross- examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Fox.
Fox’s questioning was interrupted by a defense objection almost as soon as it got started when he asked Tanaka about his time as a sergeant at the Lynwood sheriff’s station in the 1980s.
As soon as Fox mentioned the Vikings, a clique of Lynwood deputies who have been described in court papers as a white supremacist gang, Haig leapt up to object. The judge sent the jury home for the weekend and ordered both sides to brief their arguments involving the issue. Tanaka has admitted to having a Vikings tattoo on an ankle.
–City News Service