A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy whose department vehicle crashed into two small children in Boyle Heights, killing them both, is seeking internal department information on the accident that she was denied during her disciplinary hearing and subsequent appeal of her termination with the Civil Service Commission.
Former Deputy Carrie Robles-Placencia was in training when driving the LASD vehicle that struck Maria Munoz and her two sons as they stood on a sidewalk on Nov. 16, 2017. Although no criminal charges were filed against Robles-Placencia, she was terminated due to the accident in January 2024.
According to the Los Angeles Superior Court petition filed Thursday, for three decades before Robles was let go, the LASD turned over copies of the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau’s investigator’s logs to the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the union of sheriff’s deputies, in preparation for employees’ pre-disciplinary hearings and post-disciplinary appeals with the Civil Service Commission.
“Investigators’ logs are an invaluable source for necessary preparation by deputy sheriffs and their respective attorneys to prepare for pre-disciplinary and/or post disciplinary hearings,” the petition states.
But in a letter from Chief Bobby S. Wyche of the LASD’s Central Patrol Division attached to the petition, Wyche says the logs contain internal confidential attorney-client summaries and would not be produced in Robles-Placencia’s case.
The logs are prepared by both criminal and Internal Affairs Bureau investigators and typically contain entries documenting the opening and closing of the investigation, receipt of electronic and other documents, review of video and other electronic media, transmissions of emails, documentation of telephone calls, drafting of witnesses questions, conduct of witness interviews, creation of summaries of witness testimony and other investigative activities, the petition states.
The logs further serve as chronological summaries of all the significant activities of the investigator and also constitute the necessary overview for persons reviewing the investigation and its supporting documentation for thoroughness, plus they are relied upon by the department to make final decisions regarding misconduct allegations as well as possible penalties, according to the petition.
Nonetheless, Robles-Placencia’s attorney was denied access to the logs at both the disciplinary and Civil Service Commission hearings, that latter of which ended with a denial of her appeal, the petition states. The CCC hearing officer initially found the logs relevant, but then reversed his decision, according to the petition.
One body that did agreed with Robles-Placencia was the county Employee Relations Commission, which sustained an ALADS unfair labor practices charge that the county had unilaterally changed a prior practice of providing investigator logs to attorneys representing union members facing discipline.
Robles-Placencia asks that the judge order that all future deputies facing disciplinary hearings also have access to the investigator logs.
According to investigators’ reconstruction of the incident back in August, the sheriff’s patrol vehicle was headed southbound on Indiana Street when it stopped at a red light at Whittier Boulevard, which is when the deputies responded to a call of an assault with a deadly weapon involving a gunshot victim.
The sheriff’s department stated that Robles-Placencia’s trainer was in the SUV with her. The accident happened while they were responding to that deadly weapon assault call with the vehicle’s flashing lights on, but not the siren. The two boys, Marcos and Jose Luis Hernandez, died and seven others were injured.