Union Head Says Deputies’ Statements Not Condoned

The head of the union representing Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies told the county’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that his group did not condone the sexist statements written in an Internet chat room that was featured on a link from the union’s Web page.

“We had no idea that people would put cowardly [anonymous] messages there,” Bud Trice said as supervisors approved a motion calling for an investigation of sexism in the law enforcement agency.

Supervisor Gloria Molina, who proposed the investigation, told Trice that the union’s Web page link to the chat room was taken personally.

“I . . . feel that this is partly sexual harassment against us,” Molina told Trice. “I am very concerned when people don’t realize they are sexually harassing someone.”

The e-mail furor arose after Sheriff Lee Baca proposed promoting female deputies over their male counterparts in an effort to diversify the department. The sheriff withdrew the plan amid union opposition, and the union linked its Web page to a chat room on the subject on another Internet site.

The motion calls for the county’s affirmative action office to join the board’s counsel on the Sheriff Department and the sheriff himself in investigating sexism in the agency.