A jury Friday convicted a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy of lying to investigators in a case stemming from the beating of a visitor to a county jail.
Byron Dredd was previously cleared of two counts related to the February 2011 beating of Gabriel Carrillo and its aftermath at the Men’s Central Jail visitor center. Dredd was not accused of taking part in the beating.
The former lawman faces up to five years behind bars at sentencing in Los Angeles federal court on May 20.
Carrillo took the stand on the first day of Dredd’s retrial Tuesday, telling jurors how he was handcuffed and brought to a break room after he and his then-girlfriend were found with cell phones, despite signs and verbal warnings that the devices were not permitted at the center.
Carrillo told of being pummeled and pepper-sprayed by deputies, while both of his hands were restrained by handcuffs.
Dredd, 36, was the sixth ex-sheriff’s official to be prosecuted in the Carrillo assault. Three others were convicted by a jury and two ex-lawmen struck deals with prosecutors.
Dredd was acquitted in September 2016 of two counts of wrongdoing that arose from allegations he conspired with the deputies involved in the beating to fabricate reports to cover up the Carrillo assault and blame the victim. The jury deadlocked 10-2 for acquittal on the false statements count.
Attorneys for Dredd unsuccessfully appealed last year to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, claiming that retrial following a hung jury constituted double jeopardy in his case.
Although not involved in the beating, Dredd said he witnessed the assault, and the jury Friday determined that he lied to FBI investigators during a July 2012 interview about what he saw in order to protect fellow deputies.
After the beating, the deputies and their supervisor claimed that Carrillo had tried to attack when one of his hands was uncuffed for fingerprinting. Based on the reports, state prosecutors filed criminal charges against Carrillo, and several of the deputies lied at Carrillo’s preliminary hearing.
Prosecutors eventually dropped the case before trial, and the county later paid Carrillo $1.2 million to settle a civil lawsuit.