Part 118: Publishing the LA Fed Papers – Trial and Error Justice in the Digital Age

Published October 9, 2024.

Yvonne Wheeler, President of the Los Angeles County of Federation Labor, AFL-CIO, addresses the “Break The Curse” rally on October 6, 2024, by author (GoPro Hero 11 Black).

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Link: Kevin de León vs. Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez.pdf (Case No. 23STCV24461)

Link: Gil Cedillo vs. Santos Leon, Karla Vasquez, and LA Fed.pdf (Case No. 23STCV24442)

Two years ago, Los Angeles was rocked by the biggest political scandal perhaps ever in its history. Outside of valuable reports from Los Angeles Magazine journalist Michele McPhee and this publication, there hasn’t been much other coverage of the two civil cases pending in Los Angeles County Superior Court since they were filed a year after the October 2022 scandal in October of 2023. So I’m pleased to be able to make the complete case files for the lawsuits filed by current Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León and former City Councilmember Gil Cedillo fully available. To date, although these records have been quoted by both McPhee and myself, they haven’t been fully published to show the full proceedings. As recent controversy has reminded us, court records are public records, and the publication of such records is essential for a free and transparent press. Spend enough time in Los Angeles, and you’ll come to realize that working together to investigate gets you much further and faster. 

Kevin de León’s lawsuit has progressed much faster than Cedillo’s, which has an additional party beyond the two publicly accused leakers of the LA Fed Tapes, Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez, both former employees of the LA Fed, short for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. The LA Fed remains a potent force of union power in Los Angeles politics, even as other unions such as the Service Employees International Union have made gains. In suing the LA Fed itself, Cedillo’s lawsuit is even more of a gamble than Kevin de León’s filing. The LA Fed is no longer led by former president Ron Herrera. Instead, it’s now led by Yvonne Wheeler, who is a veteran of the labor movement and Baton Rouge, Louisiana native. Herrera, along with former Council President Nury Martinez, De León, and Cedillo, were infamously clandestinely and quite illegally recorded on October 18, 2021, meeting in a conference room at the LA Fed’s headquarters for what critics call a backroom meeting.

The spying operation, believed to have been conducted using computer software that compromised the conference room computer as well as Herrera’s laptop, would later record Herrera, Democratic consultant Hannah Cho, and Justin Wesson, Chief of Staff to Herrera. The son of former LA City Council President Herb Wesson, the younger Wesson would join the discussion of endorsements via telephone and be recorded on September 30, 2022, according to the District Attorney’s Charge Evaluation worksheet. Fears remain that even more meetings may have been compromised, although this lesser-known discussion, alongside the more infamous discussion about redistricting of LA’s City Council Districts, continues to dominate public discourse and headlines in Los Angeles even as national interest has faded with time. 

The internal investigation launched by the LA Fed following the scandal that has identified both Karla Vasquez and her spouse, Santos Leon, remains a complete secret. The LA Fed has refused to comment on the report, which does exist in some format according to one source close to the investigation, and in the court papers, it’s also not present. The Los Angeles Police Department, which would use the private investigation report as its foundation of the first referral to District Attorney George Gascón, has similarly refused to release it in response to a California Public Records Act request. Despite the clear public interest in releasing this document, which is not present in the court files, although discussion revolves around its meaning in court, LAPD maintains that this document is exempt from disclosure. It’s unknown by what process it was determined that LAPD would yield to private investigators versus its own Major Crimes Division in the investigation launched weeks after the scandal broke by former Chief Michel Moore. 

Both Santos Leon, who served as Director of Finance, and Karla Vasquez, who served as Ron Herrera’s assistant, maintain their innocence. Leon served as the internal union steward for employees of the LA Fed since 2015, according to the filings, and originally it was suggested, according to the reports from McPhee in Los Angeles Magazine, that his alleged motivation was jealousy because Herrera was badmouthing him to his wife, Vasquez. This claim has not appeared in court as of date, with the case instead revolving around the DA’s Charge Evaluation Worksheet. On August 2, 2024, in seeking to pursue the matter, Kevin de León, Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo, and Ron Herrera all submitted sworn declarations. Herrera’s declaration states, “I have personal knowledge of the facts stated herein and, if called upon to testify, could and would testify completely to those facts under oath. Martinez’s needlessly states, “Lastly, I did not record the October 18, 2021 conversation.” Many have suggested without any basis that the participants had done it to themselves, or alternatively that the LA Fed itself was responsible. 

Kevin de León is represented by two attorneys, Kimberly Casper and Mark Geragos, owner of the firm Geragos & Geragos for which Casper works, as well as co-owner of Los Angeles Magazine. The truth is in Los Angeles that so often money talks, and most especially in the courtroom, and so even though De León has no actual evidence in hand, he’s able to get the best attorneys to go to bat for him. Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez have capable representation, but without even having a copy of the investigation report public, much less a criminal prosecution, De León has been able to secure a jury trial on the basis of their termination and a document, which didn’t actually result in charges being filed yet. De León is scheduled back in court, barring mediation, in June 2025. Cedillo will be back in court much sooner on October 29, provided his status management conference isn’t rescheduled as it was in August. Cedillo’s attorney requested a change of counsel conference before canceling. 

For his part, Mark Geragos writes in his August 2 filing: “Based on my extensive experience, there are many reasons why the District Attorney’s Office, City Attorney’s office, or any prosecuting body for that matter, may decide not to pursue prosecuting charges which are unrelated to whether there is a sufficient amount of evidence available to prove the charges.” He continues in conclusory fashion, “Simply because a prosecutorial body decides not to pursue charges against a suspect does not mean the suspect did not commit a crime.” In the preceding item, Geragos claims that the DA’s worksheet is unclear on this point, when in fact it states pre-emptorily after concluding that “one or both of these individuals” must be somehow guilty on the basis of the workplace investigation before declaring: “However, it is unclear how the unlawful recordings took place, the device used to do so, or who uploaded the recordings online and created the anonymous accounts on Reddit, Twitter, and Gmail.” In short, the DA’s charge evaluation worksheet does not represent a conclusive investigation that can be relied upon. 

Shamefully, no one in the press, despite the Los Angeles Times having won Pulitzer Prizes for covering the aftermath, has questioned this legal logic. How can they be guilty on the basis of having their internet protocol (IP) address tracked apparently by LAPD and/or private investigators? By this logic, the civil case should not be moving forward ahead of potential prosecution that would establish such facts, and a civil court is de facto being turned into a criminal court despite having different standards. There’s simply no evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Santos Leon, much less Karla Vasquez, assumes responsibility for the leak that’s been presented in court. IP addresses can be easily spoofed by trained hackers, who could also use phishing methods to compromise LA Fed’s computer system, and fully execute the leak. In a criminal case, the standard is beyond a reasonable doubt; in a civil case, it’s a preponderance of evidence.

There isn’t that present though, and so it seems that by mere virtue of having such representation, alongside declarations from others that offer no further substantive evidence, Kevin de León has secured the order of Judge Stephen F. Pfahler, who was first appointed to the bench in 2006 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In his ruling striking the anti-SLAPP motions (strategic lawsuits against public participation), Judge Pfahler dismisses such concerns, noting that he’s simply making a “preliminary” finding that “illegal conduct occurred,” citing case law, before further concluding that “the court declines to engage in factual consideration given the lack of address and submission of said argument at the time of oral argument.” He then concludes, “The court otherwise finds no basis for challenging the probability of success on the merits.” Santos Leon’s attorney’s sadly make no case that electronic deception has occurred, instead relying on an unnecessary free speech argument, often discussed after the leak. 

Such an argument is irrelevant and antecedent; it’s after the fact. We all agree that the LA Fed Tapes revealed corruption and that protecting such disclosures has free speech value. Judge Pfahler addresses this question directly, writing, “While the subject argument may find application for a situation involving the situation created by Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and Wikileaks, the public policy considerations are somewhat incongruent when applied to instant action.” In short, Judge Pfahler concludes this has nothing to do with free speech arguments, much less a whistleblower defense, with the Judge instead giving credence to the idea that it was an “October surprise,” an attempt to influence the outcome of the election. However, the question remains: if Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez aren’t the guilty parties as they say, then who is? I’m afraid that the pair are simply victims of bad lawyering to date in failing to strike Kevin De León’s lawsuit on free speech grounds. Interestingly, Judge Pfahler is a double-graduate of the University of Southern California and the author of The Whole Truth for Lawyers: A Complete Guide for Flourishing in Your Life and Career (2022). 

His book starts out with an anecdote about how he forgot his work pants, instead wearing gym shorts, before scoring any pair of pants before making his way to his first trial. He then tells a story about witnessing another lawyer, who “was a mess.” Judge Pfahler, in recalling the incident, concludes, “From that moment on I started paying closer attention not only to the parties but also to the lawyers who were serving their clients, contemplating how I might help so many struggling lawyers.” It seems that the attorneys for Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez, William Bloch and Martin Berman for Santos, and Jeffery Zinder for Karla Vasquez, may have realized that they had screwed up because they filed answers after the Judge ordered the case to trial in an attempt to avert it. Santos Leon goes as far as accusing Kevin de León of “fraud,” but without clear evidence. All around, the entire case file comes off as nothing but fairly bad lawyering, a matter moving faster than the investigation that underwrites it, and without any disclosure of the actual facts, which are completely in dispute as to what was found and its meaning in any concrete, 21st century terms. The entire affair is thoroughly, baselessly reactive. 

At the time of the leak, many hailed the act without basis as that of a brave whistleblower. The truth here is not evident, but what is clear is that Los Angeles is increasingly political, including in the courtroom, and that Kevin de León, unlike Nury Martinez and Ron Herrera, did not want to resign. For his part, Gil Cedillo was a lame duck at the time of the leak, defeated already by Councilwoman Euinsses Hernandez in the primary, which left him bitter. Again, the lawyers for Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez fail on this front; the Los Angeles Times coverage is entered into evidence, but not the La Opinion article where Gil Cedillo ascribes the act of the leak to the Democratic Socialists of America—Los Angeles and Nika Soon-Shiong, the daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong. Cedillo is in De León’s corner, and they fail to pull the stool out from underneath him. The truth is that De León doesn’t have evidence in hand. 

Last Sunday, October 6, the campaign for candidate Ysabel Jurado, the opponent of Kevin de León for Council District 14, held a “Break the Curse” rally and canvass at the Highland Park Recreation Center. The event featured the DSA-LA, among other parties, including the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the California Working Families Part, SEIU 721, and even the “LA Labor Fed,” the LA Fed. The event included Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martinez, and Nithya Raman, as well as Controller Kenneth Mejia. Speaker after speaker lambasted the LA Fed Tapes as racist and corrupt, but a single speaker questioned where they might have come from, even as it’s been insinuated that Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez were acting on behalf of the DSA-LA without evidence by De León in debate with Jurado. The candidate herself had come down with COVID-19, forcing Saturday’s planned debate hosted by the Boyle Heights Beat to be rescheduled to Wednesday, October 9.

The rally’s title referred to the supposed curse of Council District 14 being represented by corrupt politicians such as former Councilmember José Huizar, who reported to begin a 13-year federal prison sentence in Lompoc, CA, on Monday, October 7. The tension was obvious as some cheered on Kamala Harris for President; others appeared uncomfortable with the Democratic candidate, who’s out of alignment with the position taken in favor of an immediate ceasefire for the war in the Middle East. Eunisses Hernandez referred to the candidacy of De León as “Trumpian” without further context. Soon LA Fed President Yvonne Wheeler took the stage, condemning the Tapes and declaring her desire to move forward. Wheeler didn’t stay for the group photo before the canvass after delivering what almost came off like a stump speech. I watched as she walked away laughing about skipping the picture, “Does anyone want to be in that? No!” she cackled. The truth is that for the LA Fed, the most important thing just might be making the scandal go away versus finding out what actually happened in their labor hall. 

Ironically, the LA Fed’s website declares that, “In a country that prides itself on ‘justice for all,’ the system has consistently been built upon a foundation of inequality and continually exploited by those who seek to benefit from it.” Wheeler had said to the crowd, “Everyone knows that I’m here as a result of the recordings; that was a dark place in Los Angeles history; that’s someone,” she stammered before finishing, “where we don’t ever want to go again, so we want, in labor, we trying to move past that, but that’s impossible,” she said, raising her hand. Wheeler further explained, “We don’t want to desensitize anybody who was affected by it and harmed by it, and when it first happened, I reached out to Mike Bonin; I reached out to everyone that was on those recordings that I knew how to, because we knew I had to take responsibility for what happened, and I took responsibility for it.” Wheeler then endorsed Ysabel Jurado. Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez have yet to file any claims against the LA Fed for wrongful termination after the internal investigation. The firm hired to conduct the investigation has not been identified. 

The LA Fed has previously declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation. So in short, my hope in publishing the complete lawsuits to date is to invite new scrutiny to this matter as displayed on these pages, 413 in Kevin De León’s filing and 65 in Gil Cedillo’s. The latter’s original complaint argues, “The individuals responsible for the recordings have never apologized and never been held accountable.” Cedillo’s lawsuit cites the search warrant executed against Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez’s residence in July 2023. That alone is not proof of a crime. Simply going to the judge and getting a permission slip doesn’t equate to full responsibility. It’s still not clear exactly what was found that caused Karla Vasquez to leave the LA Fed in March 2023 and Santos Leon subsequently in July 2023, or the course of events that led to their departure. Both were long-term employees of the labor union and, to date, have not been identified as having any known political leanings or given any public comment. The filings suggest that after the scandal, both Leon and Vasquez, like many others, were disappointed.

Link: L.A. prosecutors say recording of racist City Hall conversation was a crime but refer case to city attorney

Link: Geragos & Geragos

Link: DA Charge Evaluation Worksheet from Los Angeles Times

Link: DA Requests 'Further Investigation' Into LAPD's Case Against City Council Leaker

Link: Tale of the Tape: L.A. City Council Scandal Rooted in Love, Not Politics

Link: The Whole Truth for Lawyers:  A Complete Guide to Flourishing in Your Life and Career

Link: Gil Cedillo: 'The audio scandal was fabricated to disempower the Latino community'

Link: Inside the room: The entire L.A. City Council racist audio leak, annotated by our experts

Link: Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

Link: Gil Cedillo And De León Sue LA County Federation Of Labor Over Leaked Audio

Link: Break The Curse - A Rally and Canvas Launch for Ysabel Jurado 

Link: Police investigating City Hall audio leak search home of two labor federation staffers

Please support my work with your subscription, or for direct support, use Venmo, CashApp, PayPal, or Zelle using zachary.b.ellison@gmail.com

Zachary Ellison is an Independent Journalist and Whistleblower in the Los Angeles area. Zach was most recently employed by the University of Southern California, Office of the Provost, from October 2015 to August 2022 as an Executive Secretary and Administrative Assistant, supporting the Vice Provost for Academic Operations and the Vice Provost and Senior Advisor to the Provost, among others. Zach holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Policy and Planning from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. While a student at USC, he worked for the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, including in their newsletter distributed university-wide. Zach completed his B.A. in History at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, and was a writer, editor, and photographer for the Pasadena High School Chronicle. He was Barack Obama’s one-millionth online campaign contributor in 2008. Zach is a former AmeriCorps intern for Hawaii State Parks and worked for the City of Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation. He is a trained civil process server and enjoys weekends in the great outdoors.