Lawyer in Lynwood Case Accuses Block of Slander

A lawyer who filed a federal class-action lawsuit charging Lynwood deputies with racially motivated brutality demanded Tuesday that Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and one of his captains retract statements about the case that he alleges were “bald-faced lies.”

Attorney George Denny III filed an administrative claim with the county Board of Supervisors against the county, Block and and Sheriff’s Capt. Doug McClure alleging personal injuries--slander and defamation of character--as a result of statements the two lawmen allegedly made to the news media. Denny is the lead attorney in a lawsuit filed in September in which 70 plaintiffs allege that the Sheriff’s Department engaged in a wave of wanton shootings, beatings and excessive force while working out of the Lynwood station.

Denny alleges that Block said during

a news conference last month that only a single citizen’s complaint had been filed with the Sheriff’s Department. However, Denny said that on April 30 he sent the sheriff a six-page letter outlining problems at the Lynwood substation and making complaints on behalf of six named and six unnamed people who appear as plaintiffs. In a news conference Tuesday, Denny distributed copies of a May 23 letter from Block acknowledging receipt of the lawyer’s correspondence.

Denny is also demanding that similar remarks made by McClure on a radio talk show be retracted. He said that if retractions are made, he will drop the county administrative claim.

A sheriff’s spokesman said the department will issue a statement later this week.