Former L.A. sheriff’s deputy avoids jail for ticket-fixing scheme
A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice by fixing traffic tickets was sentenced Tuesday to probation and community service, avoiding jail time under a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Edwin Allan Tamayo, 44, was accused of fixing tickets for a driver who paid him $1,000, and for someone who paid for the Sheriff’s Department to enter a team into a golf tournament, which Tamayo played in. He pleaded no contest earlier this year to one felony count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
As part of Tamayo’s plea agreement with the district attorney’s office, Superior Court Judge Robert C. Vanderet sentenced Tamayo to three years of probation and 400 hours of community service.
The judge expressed concern that Tamayo could seek to have his felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor after 18 months.
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FOR THE RECORD
Nov. 4, 6:25 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said that Tamayo could seek to have his felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor after 180 days. He can after 18 months.
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Vanderet did not believe that was appropriate in a corruption case, he said, but he did not have the legal authority to prevent the former deputy from seeking the reduction.
Tamayo had faced a maximum of more than nine years behind bars if convicted on all nine felony counts, according to the district attorney’s office.
A spokeswoman for the office said prosecutors required Tamayo to resign from the department and noted that he doesn’t have a criminal history.
“He had to give up his career in law enforcement, and we felt that was an appropriate sentence,” said Jane Robison of the district attorney’s office.
In a report to the court, a probation officer recommended that Tamayo “complete a suitable period of time in custody or some type of work program and complete community service hours.” The officer called his conduct a “disservice and embarrassment to law enforcement” and said his “actions obviously cast a pall over all of law enforcement.”
A sheriff’s sergeant who spoke with Tamayo described him to the probation officer as remorseful and said he “knows he made a huge mistake,” according to the report.
As part of the plea agreement, eight other counts, which included accepting bribes and preparing false documentary evidence, were dismissed.
Tamayo’s attorney, Jacob Glucksman, said his client was pleased with the outcome of the case and doesn’t have plans to return to law enforcement. As Tamayo walked out of court, he thanked his lawyer and gave him a fist bump.
Tamayo, a former employee of the department’s Lost Hills station, was accused of accepting $1,000 in cash in exchange for fixing three traffic tickets in 2012. Prosecutors said he also fixed a ticket for a person who donated $500 to sponsor a Sheriff’s Department group at a golf tournament held by the Malibu Chamber of Commerce in 2011, according to a copy of the charges provided by the district attorney’s office.
Tamayo was charged with fixing a total of eight tickets. In addition, the complaint said, Lt. Vance Duffy gave Tamayo the name of a woman fighting a citation at a Chatsworth courthouse. Prosecutors said that Tamayo monitored locations in the Lost Hills station in an attempt to intercept the court’s notice to the deputy who had issued the ticket.
According to a district attorney’s memo, the lieutenant put the woman, whom he’d met on a dating website, in touch with Tamayo. A few weeks later Tamayo emailed him about the status of the speeding ticket.
“I will let you know when it comes in then your friend will get their $ sent back. Which also takes awhile (LOL) …Have a great holiday Sir!” Tamayo wrote.
Duffy sent a follow-up email two months later asking, “Do you know if this happened?”
The district attorney’s office concluded that the emails were not enough to prove Duffy knew Tamayo would unlawfully dispose of the woman’s citation.
For more news from the Los Angeles County criminal courts, follow @marisagerber
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