Retrial begins for L.A. County Sheriff’s deputy accused in FBI case

The retrial of a sheriff’s deputy accused of obstructing a federal investigation into the Los Angeles County jails began Wednesday with prosecutors portraying him as a technically adept schemer and defense attorneys arguing that he was merely following orders.

The first trial of the deputy, James Sexton, ended in a mistrial in May, with the jury divided 6-6. Weeks later, six sheriff’s officials were convicted on related charges, despite a similar defense strategy of placing the blame on higher-ups.

In the summer of 2011, FBI agents were investigating allegations that sheriff’s deputies brutalized inmates and accepted bribes to bring contraband into the jails. By helping to hide an inmate informant from the FBI, Sexton engaged in a deliberate coverup intended to prevent the abuses from ever coming to light, Asst. U.S. Atty. Brandon Fox told the jury in his opening statement.

Sexton christened the mission Operation Pandora’s Box, Fox said, using his skills as the senior deputy at the jail’s intake department to assign aliases to the informant and keep the informant’s fingerprints off the falsified booking records.

“He knew, once the lid came off the box, that the evils and troubles would escape to the outside world,” Fox said of Sexton.

Sexton’s attorney, Thomas O’Brien, painted a different picture of his client, emphasizing that Sexton had been a deputy for less than three years. The Pandora’s Box email was a joke, O’Brien said.

O’Brien cited a Saturday meeting at sheriff’s headquarters with then-Sheriff Lee Baca and then-Undersheriff Paul Tanaka after the informant, Anthony Brown, was found with a cellphone provided by the FBI.

Since Brown had been revealed as a “snitch,” the Sheriff’s Department had to protect him from reprisals from both other inmates and the deputies he was accusing of wrongdoing, O’Brien said. Overtime pay for the team that guarded Brown around the clock, which included Sexton, was approved by higher-ups, O’Brien said.

“A junior deputy sheriff is facing felony charges for doing nothing more than following orders issued by the leadership to keep watch over the inmate and keep him from harm,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien hinted to jurors that Baca and Tanaka might testify, noting the jury would hear about the orders both men gave to their subordinates.

Tanaka, who is retired from the department and running for sheriff, testified in Sexton’s first trial as well as the trial of the six other deputies. He admitted on the stand that he is a subject of an ongoing federal investigation into obstruction of justice. Baca did not testify in either trial.

In addition to the obstruction cases, federal charges have been brought against 13 other sheriff’s deputies alleging excessive force against jail inmates and other crimes.

cindy.chang@latimes.com