25 Deputies Suspended for Partying While on Duty

In the broadest mass disciplinary action of its kind in recent memory, 25 Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies have been suspended without pay for partying in a park while they were supposed to be on special reserve duty for the Calabasas-Malibu wildfire.

Sheriff Sherman Block announced the suspensions Wednesday. The deputies, all from the Lennox station, were in uniform and on duty during the pre-dawn party in Alondra Park on Nov. 4. Among those who blew the whistle on the deputies were several homeless people encamped at the park, located in unincorporated county territory near Lawndale.

Block called the deputies’ conduct “unprofessional” and “inexcusable.” The sheriff, who has served for 37 years, added: “I can’t ever recall in my time in this department where we have disciplined 25 deputies for participation in a single event that involved misconduct.”

The stiffest punishment, a 30-day suspension, went to a deputy who fired his weapon into the ground near the park’s fire pit. Other suspensions ranged from five to 25 days. The most common punishment, given to 19 of those at the party, was a 15-day suspension. And five deputies were not disciplined at all because they were found to have done nothing wrong during the gathering.

Names of the suspended deputies were not released.

Block said the length of the suspensions varied because the offenses varied.

“Some had consumed beer, some were disciplined because they brought wood to the fire, which certainly showed them to be active participants in this event,” the sheriff said. “Some of them were disciplined for witnessing some of these things and failing to report it.”

However, Block said, each of the deputies “admitted exactly what they did in this” and none has contested the suspensions.

“One of the unique aspects of this entire case was that all of these people came forward, admitted their culpability, accepted the discipline without the usual appeal process and all of the other things that usually entail such an action,” he said.

The suspensions are being staggered. “If we put them all off at the same time, it would wipe out our force at the Lennox station,” Block explained.

The party has become the stuff of legend among homeless people at Alondra Park.

None of the four people gathered around a table there Wednesday had witnessed the party, but all had heard of it. And opinion was divided about the deputies’ punishment.

“I don’t think they deserve that strict a discipline,” Gary Newcomb said between bites of the coffee cake he was sharing with the others. “They’re human beings like everybody else and they’re entitled to mess up. They didn’t hurt anybody.”

Another man, who said he had heard shots the night of the party, was not so forgiving. “They got to learn from their mistakes,” he said. “There’s a limit to goofing off. There’s a time to party and a time to be serious.”

The man, who declined to give his name, said that after the party, sheriff’s deputies cracked down on the homeless, towing their vehicles from the parking lot and driving them from the park.

But Frank Bounds and the fourth person at the table, a woman, had friendlier experiences to recount. On Christmas Day, Bounds said, a deputy had given them a ride across the sprawling park to catch a van to an Inglewood shelter. The deputy joked that he was “the Lawndale Trolley. He was happy to do it,” Bounds said. “Really a nice fellow.’