Deputy Says He Was Punished for Revealing Racist Memo

A San Diego County sheriff’s sergeant said Friday that he has been disciplined for publicly revealing the existence of a racist memo in the Sheriff’s Department’s Poway substation and that he is being fingered as a confidential source in newspaper stories relating to Sheriff John Duffy’s private home-security system.

Department officials declined to discuss those allegations, saying policy prevents them from speaking about internal investigations involving the discipline of officers.

Sgt. Joe Lopez, a sheriff’s deputy since 1977 and a sergeant for the past five years, said he was given a formal reprimand this week for sending a copy of the memo to the Latino Peace Officers Assn. He also was transferred to a night shift at the Lemon Grove substation shortly after leaking the memo to the group last year.

The organization published a copy of the memo, which ridiculed illegal aliens and encouraged deputies to arrest and humiliate undocumented workers in the Poway area.

The existence of the memo caused a storm of protest in North County, where law enforcement officials have been sharply criticized for being insensitive to the growing Latino immigrant situation.

According to Lopez, the reprimand accused him of conduct unbecoming an officer for sending a copy of the memo to the LPOA. He said his supervisors told him that, if he found the memo offensive, he should have complained to his chain of command within the Sheriff’s Department.

According to Lopez, an internal complaint would have gone nowhere.

“It wouldn’t have been disclosed otherwise,” he said. “It wouldn’t have gotten anywhere within the department. It would have been hushed up, and they would have said I only have a chip on my shoulder.”

Lopez also said he was told by sheriff’s internal affairs investigators that he was suspected of leaking information about Duffy’s Scripps Ranch home to The Times, which published stories last month about unusual security measures at the new house.

He said he was told that the investigators assumed he was a confidential source for the newspaper on those stories because he was one of the Poway deputies who responded to the sheriff’s home on a false burglar alarm call in October, and thus would have been familiar with Duffy’s security system.

Shortly after newspaper stories about his private security arrangements were published, Duffy announced he was pulling out of the race for reelection this year. He blamed the media for his problems.

“Because I came forward with the other information” about the racist memo, Lopez said, “I guess they assumed I would be vocal enough to come to the press” about the security at Duffy’s home.

“But I’m for freedom of the press, regardless of what the sheriff has said about it,” he said. “If we didn’t have it, a lot of truths would never be revealed.”