Sheriff Vows to Crush Sex Bias in Department

Despite sharp criticism that he is not acting quickly enough to stamp out sexual harassment in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Lee Baca told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that he will give county affirmative action officials access to his department to monitor complaints of gender discrimination.

The move is significant because in years past, the department has refused to open its doors to other county agencies. But Baca said the department has much to gain by working with affirmative action officials in rooting out gender and race-related problems.

“I personally rewrote our core values to clearly state that discrimination of any type is unacceptable,” Baca told the board. “We are in the process of creating a deputy leadership institute to inculcate proper values in our personnel.”

But Supervisor Gloria Molina, who at one point engaged the sheriff in a shouting match, scoffed at the proposal.

She said she was concerned that Baca and the county affirmative action chief intend to take years to implement a plan to rid the department of “pea brains” who harass and discriminate against female co-workers.

Since 1995, the Sheriff’s Department has paid more than $2.6 million to settle gender-related claims and lawsuits. Last year, the department paid $661,000 to settle such suits, which amounted to 40% of the county’s $1.7-million bill.

Legal experts complain that the department has been slow to comply with a federal order to correct the problem and may even be violating the federal Violence Against Women Act.

“I want to see some action,” Molina said. “I will be monitoring these cases like a hawk.”

Molina criticized the language in a report presented to the Board of Supervisors by special counsel Merrick Bobb, who was asked three months ago to investigate allegations that deputies had sent misogynistic messages about female colleagues to a Digital City Internet site.

In Bobb’s report, he noted that the department’s internal affairs unit had ascertained that 500 “hits” were made--via Sheriff’s Department computers--on the Digital City site that sought input on Baca’s March 26 announcement that he intended to bypass male deputies in an effort to transfer more women to patrol.

“Although [internal affairs] could ask LASD employees who accessed the site if they also sent messages, the process would be cumbersome and the policy violation--using a department computer on department time to access the Internet and transmit a message--would, in the final analysis, be trivial,” Bobb said.

Molina responded: “That’s how this is all being treated, as I see, trivial. That’s what angers me.”

Baca assured Molina that his department is taking the issue seriously.

“I hadn’t read [Bobb’s] report until now and I think you make a good point,” Baca said. “But the whole department should not be cast as some organization that sees this as trivial.

“This is not trivial,” Baca continued. “This is an important problem that I’m fighting for as sheriff. For the first time we have had a relationship with the affirmative action compliance officer. That’s action. That’s now.”

Molina said that in her review of cases, the department has failed to discipline deputies and supervisors accused of sexual harassment.

“Nobody disciplines anybody about it,” she said. “You don’t get caught. If you could roll through red lights and never get caught, we’d all be doing it pretty regularly.”

But Baca took issue with the supervisor’s comment.

“My predecessor did in fact discipline people and I am disciplining people who engage in these acts of misconduct,” he said.

After the exchange between Baca and Molina, other board members expressed confidence in Baca’s ability to solve the problems.

“If there’s one thing I’m impressed by with this sheriff . . . it’s his passion on the issue of discrimination of any kind,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. “I believe it’s coming from his gut and from his heart, in a way that I haven’t seen from a law enforcement chief.”

After the meeting, Baca sought to clarify his position.

Baca said that in addition to working closely with county affirmative action officials, his department is stepping up its internal investigations of sexual harassment complaints.

“I am fed up with this problem,” Baca said. “I will do everything as sheriff to bring the problem of sexual harassment to a screeching halt.”

*

Times staff writer Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this story.