Baca acts to fire deputy caught in Internet sting

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca acted this week to fire a deputy arrested earlier this year during a sting targeting Internet child predators, his spokesman said Friday.

The move to terminate Joseph Carlos, 31, was made after sheriff’s officials Wednesday acquired videotape of the sting filmed by a Court TV production crew.

Carlos, who has been on paid leave since his arrest March 31, allegedly made arrangements to meet a 13-year-old girl he had contacted on the Internet, said Hawthorne Police Lt. Mike Ishi.

The “girl” he planned to meet at a community park was an undercover police officer assigned to a task force made up of eight South Bay police departments, Ishi said.

Carlos, a seven-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department assigned to the Carson station, was booked on two felony counts and released on bond. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is reviewing the case, but no charges have been filed.

The sting resulted in the arrest of 15 men over a three-week period between March and April, authorities said. After sheriff’s officials viewed footage of the sting, Baca said he believed it to be definitive enough to fire the deputy, said his spokesman, Steve Whitmore.

The tape, scheduled to be aired in December, includes phone conversations between a man authorities say is Carlos and the female officer posing as a minor. The man on the tape at one point expresses concern that the 13-year-old is part of a sting, Whitmore said. He asks her if she is law enforcement, and when she replies that she isn’t, he asks her, “Do you promise?”

“The sheriff was clear,” Whitmore said. “His resolve was apparent that we needed to begin termination proceedings.”

Sheriff’s officials Thursday sent the deputy a letter of intent to terminate his employment. Carlos has 15 business days to appeal.

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andrew.blankstein@latimes.com