Sheriff Block Proposes LAPD-Style Reforms : Law enforcement: Molina says he’s trying to avoid a wider review and calls for an independent inquiry.

In a surprise announcement, Sheriff Sherman Block told Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday that he has appointed a panel of community leaders to advise him on how to implement Christopher Commission reforms in the Sheriff’s Department.

Block said the reforms are part of his ongoing effort to identify problem officers in the wake of several controversial shootings by deputies and a money-skimming scandal that has resulted in the suspension of 30 deputies and criminal indictments against 18 of them.

“There have been small groups who have shown themselves to be corrupt,” Block said at an unprecedented hearing into his department’s operations. “We have had individuals who have shown themselves to be overly aggressive. There have been some who have engaged in activities that in my estimation are just plain stupid. But we as an organization have been very active in rooting out those individuals who do not meet our standards.”

However, many blacks and Latinos in the crowd of more than 800 that packed the boisterous hearing called for an independent investigation of the Sheriff’s Department, similar to the Christopher Commission’s examination of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Supervisor Gloria Molina said Block’s formation of a citizens advisory committee is a maneuver to head off a more sweeping review of his department after a rash of slayings of minorities by deputies.

“I think the sheriff is a great choreographer,” Molina said. “In order to assure that there is going to be full confidence in our law enforcement, I think it is quite evident that we need to have an independent investigation. . . . If they have nothing to hide, they should not mind.”

Molina said she was angry that Block did not consult her before forming the advisory panel.

Block said that with the creation of his panel, he sees no need for an independent commission to investigate his 8,000-member department. He said he had his staff working around the clock so he could deliver at Tuesday’s hearing a 70-page study of ways the Christopher Commission report could be applied to the Sheriff’s Department.

A majority of the supervisors have resisted creation of an independent commission. Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who represents heavily black and Latino South Los Angeles, joined Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana in praising Block even before the first speaker took the podium Tuesday.

Block, seated alongside the supervisors, listened impassively as dozens of residents accused deputies of using excessive force against poor, inner-city minorities. The emotion-charged hearing was frequently punctuated by loud outbursts and cursing from the audience and the shaking of fists and signs.

During the hearing, which lasted more than nine hours, cheers occasionally arose from Sheriff’s Department supporters, including dozens of off-duty deputies and elected officials from more than a dozen suburbs served by the department.

The hearing was called by Molina after the Aug. 3 slaying of Arturo Jimenez by a deputy at the Ramona Gardens housing project. Since then, three more people have been shot to death by sheriff’s deputies under circumstances disputed by witnesses.

The incidents have called into question the policies of the Sheriff’s Department regarding the use of force, and have prompted calls for a broad inquiry similar to the Christopher Commission’s examination of racism and brutality in the Los Angeles Police Department after the March 3 beating of motorist Rodney G. King.

“A serious lack of confidence in the Sheriff’s Department currently exists in the community,” Molina said.

Block will chair the 21-member citizens advisory panel, whose members will include feminist attorney Gloria Allred, school board member Leticia Quezada, former Los Angeles School Supt. William J. Johnston, retired FBI official Lawrence Lawler, and Julian Nava, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico.

“I ask people to reserve judgment until they see the product of our efforts,” Block said. Responding to Molina’s complaint that she was not consulted before he created the committee, Block said: “I didn’t consult with anybody. This is my prerogative. I am an elected official in this county. It is my department that is under scrutiny. It is my reputation that is under attack.”

Block said he has assured all committee members that they will have full access to department personnel and records.

Despite Block’s announcement, a wide range of groups and individuals, from feminists and gays to civil rights organizations such as the ACLU, pleaded with the board to establish an independent commission.

“The time is now for the board to establish a commission from the community . . . of people from the minority community, not people from the classy part of town” to investigate the Sheriff’s Department, Carlos de la Cruz said.

Gloria Romero, chair of the Hispanic Advisory Council to the Los Angeles Police Commission, said the Sheriff’s Department would benefit from an independent investigation, not just the reforms proposed for the Los Angeles Police Department.

“You don’t fix a Mercedes with a BMW manual,” she said.

Romero told supervisors that the Sheriff’s Department has no civilian review. “The police police themselves,” she said.

During the hearing, some speakers recounted personal horror stories alleging abuse by deputies. An attorney who has sued the Sheriff’s Department showed the supervisors grisly photographs of people who have been bitten by dogs in the sheriff’s K-9 unit.

Debbie Ortiz, mother of 15-year-old David Angel Ortiz, who was killed by sheriff’s deputies Aug. 28 in Artesia, said: “He was just a boy. My son was not a criminal to be shot that way.” Her comments drew a standing ovation from critics of the department.

Deputies said Ortiz had been driving a stolen car. They said he was running away when shot and they believed that he was reaching for a gun in his waistband.

Fighting back tears, Ortiz’s mother told Block and the supervisors, “just because they are Latino and in the ghetto does not give you the right to shoot and kill them.”

The hearing was marked by noisy demonstrations by critics and supporters of the Sheriff’s Department. Just seconds after the hearing opened, deputies ousted members of the Revolutionary Youth Brigade from the room after they began chanting “ Basta ya! ,” Spanish for “Enough already!”

Inside the hall, counterdemonstrators held up signs reading “Support Our Sheriff” and boos and cheers were traded by the two sides.

During a tense moment, a line of sheriff’s deputies in helmets stood between the supervisors and the crowd. One man was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of disturbing a public meeting.

Hahn, a supervisor for 40 years, said, “I have never seen such a large audience except once when we had rent control.”

Block told the crowd, “I certainly can understand that recent events have caused the community to be rightfully concerned. But I think it is absolutely essential that people understand that the more violent the community becomes, the more frequent we can expect violent encounters between law enforcement officers and violence-prone persons.”

Block, who was reelected last year, dispelled any thoughts that he might retire before his four-year term ends, saying, “I have every intention of completing my term of office and maybe seeking another one.”

It was clear, even before the first person spoke, that a majority of the board stood firmly behind Block.

Hahn, a liberal, praised Block as “the most intelligent sheriff in America.”

“Clearly, this is a war raging in our county. And like in any war, there are casualties,” said the conservative Antonovich, a South Pasadena reserve police officer. “While I would be the first to say that those who abuse their responsibility to uphold the law should receive the sternest discipline, I also would caution against any actions which implicate the thousands of good deputies who risk their lives daily to protect the public.”

Dana said Block “is anxious to rid his department of any deputy who is a bigot, abusive or a criminal.”

Most of the supporters were elected officials from the cities that contract with the county for Sheriff’s Department law enforcement services.

Jorge Gonzales, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Lynwood deputies, called their testimony “a little lesson in how to be bored out of your gourd.”

Gonzales said the list of department supporters was “nothing but a bunch of elected officials . . . paraded in to talk about how good this department is. I think it was shameless. I’m not at all surprised that in their little white communities of Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, that they have no problem. What a contrast to our communities to Lennox to East Los Angeles to Lynwood.”

The supervisors meeting room was filled to its 704-person capacity by the time the hearing began and fire marshals barred any more members of the public. The overflow of more than 100 people filled two other chambers in the County Hall of Administration, where the hearings were broadcast.

About a dozen sheriff’s deputies were stationed around the chambers and an unspecified number of plainclothes officers bolstered their ranks for security, according to Gene Shelton of the county’s building management department, who helped organize the hearings.

Block’s staff review for the most part agreed with Christopher Commission recommendations on the LAPD. It noted that the Sheriff’s Department already reviews all civil claims for evidence of misconduct, and it said the department monitors mobile computer transmissions. “To date, while there have been some minor problems involving inappropriate language and unprofessional comments, there has been no evidence of messages” like the racial and sexual comments found in the review of LAPD, the report said.

The review by the sheriff’s staff disagreed, however, with a recommendation that officers should be retested every three years to uncover psychological problems. The review panel said: “Since psychological evaluation is an inexact predictor of behavior, resources would be better expended in developing a voluntary, confidential wellness program utilizing self-assessment and incentives combined with tracking . . . of early warning signs. . . .”

CHARGES RECANTED: A woman recanted charges linking deputies to the slaying of a man who was suing the Sheriff’s Department. B1

Citizens Special Advisory Committee

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block has formed a citizens watchdog committee to encourage Christopher Commission-like reforms in his department. Block will serve as chairman. Here are the 21 business, civic and community leaders on the panel: GLORIA ALLRED: Civil rights attorney. JAMES BALE: Retired Whittier police chief. JOHN D. BREWSTER: Pastor, First Christian Faith United Church, Long Beach. TERRY COOPER: USC School of Public Administration professor. DENNIS COURTEMARCHE: Pico Rivera city manager. WINSTON DOBY: UCLA vice chancellor of student affairs. MAX GREENBERG: Attorney, former L.A. police commissioner. WILLIAM J. JOHNSTON: Former L.A. Unified School District superintendent. ROBERT M. JONES: Retired executive director, National Conference of Christians and Jews. LAWRENCE G. LAWLER: Retired special agent in charge of FBI in Los Angeles. ELWOOD LUI: Retired appellate court justice. ELEANOR R. MONTANO: Member of L.A. County Human Relations Commission. JULIAN NAVA: Cal State Northridge professor, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico. GONZALO (CORKY) PEREZ: Associate publisher, Southern California Community Newspapers. LETICIA QUEZADA: L.A. Unified School District trustee. JAMES M. ROSSER: Cal State L.A. president. ROBERT SANCHEZ: Antelope Valley Union High School assistant superintendent. HERMAN SILLAS: Former U.S. attorney; former state DMV director. PETER F. SMITH: Retired Superior Court judge. LARKIN TEASLEY: Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co. president, chief executive officer. DON TOKUNAGA: Retired special agent in charge of FBI in Washington state.