September 23rd..."Just Following Orders"..... 6 Los Angeles County Sheriff's sentenced to prison. A very sad day for the LASD

Six LA County Sheriffs were sentenced to prison this morning after being convicted of conspiracy, making false statements and obstructing an FBI investigation.

The sentence went as follows:

Lt. Greg Thompson - 37 months
Lt. Stephen Leavins - 41 months
Dep. Gerard Smith - 21 months
Dep. Mickey Manzo - 24 months
Sgt. Scott Craig - 33 months
Sgt. Maricela Long - 24 months 

Plus 1 year supervised release after they are set free.

They were all convicted on July 1st of this year on charges including: obstructing an FBI Investigation, conspiracy, tampering with witnesses, threatening an FBI Agent and making false statements.  

Judge Percy Anderson spoke slowly and firmly stating that the defendants "lacked the courage to do what is right." When he spoke to the defendants, he went on to say: "You broke the vow you made to protect the public and serve the community. You have embarrassed the Sheriff Department and none of you showed the courage to do what's right."  But 'following orders' is exactly what these deputies believed 'to be right!'  Some of these defendants have been with the Sheriff Department for 30 years and have always upheld the law.  So why would any of them now decide to start becoming corrupt when they were so close to retirement?  It just doesn't make sense.  

Judge Anderson also said they all "acted as a shield to protect the dirty deputies...... perhaps it is a symptom of the corrupt culture within the Sheriffs Department".  Yet these deputies were merely following the orders from their higher-ups ~ Sheriff Baca and Under Sheriff Tanaka ~ regarding the handling of inmate (and FBI informant) Anthony Brown.   

The prosecution accused two of the defendants of "scaring and trying to intimidate a female FBI Agent", when what they were doing was simply trying to find out why she had 'smuggled a cell phone illegally into their jail'.   That is a crime in itself.

The Judge continued to humiliate the defendants by saying that they all felt and behaved as if they were "above the law".  He also said that they had a choice between right and wrong yet they repeatedly engaged in the wrong conduct.  

But how is it 'wrong conduct' when they were clearly following orders of their supervisors.  Aren't the true puppet masters Under Sheriff Paul Tanaka and retired Sheriff Lee Baca?

Judge Anderson stated that none of the defendants had shown the 'slightest remorse'.  But why should they feel remorse for a crime that they know that they were not committing?

The attorneys, for the defendants, asked for a punishment of home confinement and/or probation and to also take in to account their careers in law enforcement and protecting the public.  The Judge said he did take this in to account and would adjust their sentences 'downward'.  Yet, the sentences that were adjusted 'downward' were by a few months at the most.

All of these five male and one female Sheriff deputies were merely 'following orders'.  They were protecting their jail and conducting business as usual.  Today they themselves became victims to the Justice System which, as we all know, is often very unjust.

In a nutshell it seems that the actual people who believe that they are 'above the law' aren't these Sheriffs at all.... it's the FBI.  They were quite happy to (illegally) smuggle a cell phone in to an inmate at the Men's Central Jail and yet they received no punishment at all.

Unless I'm wrong, I always thought that it was illegal to fight a crime by committing one (a crime) in order to investigate that crime?

To be continued.......