Part 129: Mythology and Scandalism in Los Angeles – Do the Ends Justify the Means?

Published November 13, 2024.

Nov 13, 2024

Photo of Los Angeles Police Department officers removing an attendee after a dispute from the confirmation of Chief Jim McDonnell by author (GoPro Hero 11 Black).

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Gil Cedillo’s lawyer, Brian Kabateck, had stopped representing his client several months ago. After being announced with much media fanfare over a year ago in October 2023, the companion lawsuit to Kevin de León’s filing against the two alleged leakers of the much talked about LA Fed Tapes, short for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the filing, as lawyers say, spoke for itself. “I, the below-named Executive Officer/Clerk of the above-entitled court, do hereby certify that I am not a party to the cause herein,” signed Brian S. Kabateck of Kabateck LLP. The firm's website bills its namesake attorney as a “nationally recognized and respected consumer attorney.” In 2023, soon after filing the suit on behalf of Cedillo, a former City Councilmember who had participated in the illegally recorded conversation at Los Angeles’s most powerful labor union along with its President Ron Herrera, former LA City Council President Nury Martinez, and defeated Councilmember Kevin de León, Kabateck had donated $900 to the doomed Council District 14 re-election campaign of the latter.

Asked for comment, Brian Kabateck remarked, “I help my friends” regarding his representation of Gil Cedillo and donation to Kevin De León. Kabateck stated he had “investigated this case,” positing that “Kevin and Gil said nothing wrong.” Similarly, Kevin de León’s attorney, Mark Geragos, also donated to him before filing and again afterward in 2023. To be crystal clear, in making such donations relative to representation, neither Kabateck nor Geragos had done anything wrong. The California State Bar Association has yet to adopt the American Bar Association’s Rule 7.6, which would seemingly discourage political contributions, which states in the finest legalese: “Those factors may include among others that the contribution or solicitation was made to further a political, social, or economic interest or because of an existing personal, family, or professional relationship with a candidate.” So in short, even as one of the accused has alleged through his own attorney’s that this is "fraud,” at least on the money side of things, it’s fully legal. KDL attorney Mark Geragos didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Shortly before his loss to challenger Ysabel Jurado, "KDL,” as so many call him, had come under public scrutiny after it was reported that he was under investigation by the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Relatively, the FPPC also recently fined California Governor Gavin Newsom $13,000 over a lack of timely filings. Although De León remains under investigation, the number of potentially unlawful donations under scrutiny seems to be increasing as former Los Angeles City Ethics Commission nominee Jamie York digs into them. York had been rejected by the City Council 14-0 for a seat on the body, and it’s easy to see why; she’s publicly identified a number of questionable practices by De León’s campaign, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, “So many of his actions were wrapped in his own benefit.” Did KDL think no one would be checking his campaign paperwork? With this kind of heat on him?

Landing on the radar the FPPC isn’t always the end of the world, but it’s clearly not a great look for a career politician, with the complaint coming from an “anonymous” whistleblower. KDL will likely have to settle at a greater amount if the case continues to snowball. More precipitous for his post-City Council political career is his lawsuit against the two alleged leakers, former employees of the LA Fed, the executive assistant to Ron Herrera, Karla Vasquez and her husband Santos Leon, the former director of finance for the labor union. The case has been ordered to jury trial in June 2025, but clearly there’s got to be a question if that will actually occur, given that the couple have moved to appeal the decision. Both Karla Vasquez and Santos Leon have stated that they are innocent, and Leon has stated in filings that he believes a grander conspiracy is at work, including in relation to the investigation being conducted by Attorney General Rob Bonta. That the couple hasn’t spoken to the media, unlike KDL and Cedillo, has little meaning even if there's still a secret workplace investigation against them.

I’m the last person in Los Angeles who's going to disagree with such a notion! Strangely, the press of Los Angeles, at least what’s left of it, not to mention the national media, have failed even giving Leon and Vasquez the chance to defend themselves. The Los Angeles Times trio of James Queally, Dakota Smith, and David Zahniser recently wrote in covering the decision by the City Attorney’s office not to prosecute them for a civil trial: “While civil suits by two of the participants in the conversation are pending, the latest development greatly reduces the chances of a trial that would unearth definitive answers about how and why the scandal was set into motion.” The entire slant of media in Los Angeles since the couple were named in July of 2023 has been a presumption of guilt, or at least knowledge, except given what’s actually said in the court filings by Leon and Vasquez that makes little sense, since the sole evidence against them, an internet protocol (IP) address, can be faked. This analysis is hardly forensic, plus, as the Times readily acknowledged, prosecutors had not offered any motive for the crime.

The investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department has dead-ended. It’s unclear if new Chief Jim McDonnell, confirmed by a City Council vote of 11-2 on Friday, November 8, will consider reopening the investigation in order to find the true culprits. Moreover, since the retirement of former Chief Michel Moore last winter, questions have continued to swirl about just what exactly goes on inside LAPD politically and to whose benefit. Friday’s 3-plus-hour hearing at City Council was preceded by a number of honorary presentations, including for Veteran’s Day and the K-Pop band Seventeen. Regular city council speaker Wayne Spindler encouraged McDonnell, aged 65, to reconsider the job for his own “sanity.” Many others questioned the long-time law enforcement officer over his stance on immigration. When asked who he had voted for in the November election, McDonnell declined to answer. The two no votes were from Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez and Eunisses Hernandez, the latter of whom McDonnel pleaded for cooperation with in seeking to address the increasingly bad conditions in the MacArthur Park area. Others spoke out against racism in the department and brutality.

Former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso had backed Jim McDonnell’s election to lead the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2024. A press release from the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce in 2014 highlights how the billionaire real estate mogul had worked with then LA City Councilmember Joe Buscaino to create the “L.A. Jobs PAC,” which “raised $260,000 from nearly a dozen donors to microtarget communications and persuade voters to support McDonnell.” The new LAPD Chief served as an Assistant Chief alongside defeated District Attorney George Gascón under former LAPD Chief William Bratton, who was hired by Rick Caruso, who had then served as President of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. Caruso had prominently opposed the re-election of Gascòn in favor of challenger Nathan Hochman, but a 501(c)(3) Los Angeles Community Policing led by “apolitical” journalist Bill Murray documents how the pair were once at the forefront of LAPD’s efforts to re-orient itself into a 21st century department. Asked for comment on whether new Chief Jim McDonnell would reopen the LA Fed Tapes investigation, LAPD’s Media Relations Division didn’t immediately respond. According to the District Attorney’s Office, George Gascón denies having met with Kevin de León or Gil Cedillo regarding the LA Fed Tapes investigation. A California Public Records Act didn’t return any evidence of emails between the three discussing the LA Fed Tapes investigation.

Critics such as Black Lives Matter Los Angeles (BLMLA) have argued that Jim McDonnell isn’t enough of a break from LAPD’s past failures in shooting a disproportionate number of African-American males. BLMLA wrote in an Instagram post about McDonnell that he “will unleash a new wave targeting, repression, and violence in our communities.” The post noted a 10:00 am start time that was seemingly moved back to avoid the bulk of the protests against the nomination. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson had even tried to avoid public comment, with ultimately approximately 85 people giving public input, both for and against. At one point, the meeting was disrupted over seating in the audience, with both individuals ultimately being removed from the meeting. McDonnell will earn $450,000 to serve as Chief of the LAPD and defended the salary as justly owed to him for performance of “the job.”

The relationship between the LAPD and BLMLA isn’t wonderful, and you certainly can’t blame BLMLA for that alone. In addition to having swatted BLMLA organizer Melina Abdullah in response to a fake call, which resulted in a lawsuit with the City prevailing. LAPD raided the home of BLMLA attorney Dermot Givens, taking photographs of legal filings, with a judge later ordering the images to be destroyed. Givens alleges that this action is the result of an organized group in LAPD led by former LAPD commander Cory Palka. A questionable figure at best, Palka was caught by the New York Attorney General’s Office orchestrating a cover-up of sexual assault on behalf of former CBS executive Les Moonves. Whether Cory Palka from retirement is in fact behind this remains unknown, but a hearing is scheduled for Thursday, November 14, at 8:32 AM at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, Department 54 (Case Number: 24STCV19188) before Judge Maurice Leiter. The City of Los Angeles has denied any claims of misconduct by LAPD in relation to the case. Although Les Moonves and his subordinate Ian Metrose were fined $15,000 each by the LA City Ethics Commission for the CBS case, Cory Palka evaded all accountability, despite being caught engaged in misconduct. Was this all simply pure politics?

Whether there is or not a “rogue police gang…to intimidate and silence members and supporters of Black Lives Matter, including their attorneys,” much less unlawfully subvert other investigations such as that of the LA Fed Tapes or the criminal investigation into deceased University of Southern California gynecologist George Tyndall, is an open question. To be certain, the apparent confrontational nature of the Los Angeles Police Protective League towards its outside critics and those within its ranks is deeply problematic. Ever since the leaked deposition of Rick Caruso in the Tyndall civil case was published in Knock LA by journalist Jonny Peltz, the question of whom the mystery “captain” is who calls Caruso on his cellphone about the investigation has raised red flags. The idea that such a grouping if it existed wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for law enforcement, with a tremendous amount of news coverage being directed towards the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The LAPD "gang,” were it to exist, just might make LASD with its station tattoos look like the minor leagues of corruption.

The linkage of race, politics, money, power, and corruption in Los Angeles has its own mythology in popular media. The scandalism of the Los Angeles Police Department—the idea of “focusing attention and publicizing information about scandals"—is nothing new with LAPD. From the real-life Rampart scandal to movies such as Training Day, the fundamental question of whether the ends justify the means is raised. Denzel Washington as Detective Alonzo Harris justified this mindset in the 2001 classic saying, “To protect the sheep, you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf.” The LAPD isn’t a movie though, but Cory Palka, known as “Captain Hollywood” for his hobnobbing, even did a little acting of his own. Palka didn’t respond to a request for comment from Los Angeles Times journalist Libor Jany. It might be easy for some to discount the claim of Givens, but granted what we already know about Palka, it could be possible. LAPD, like so many other institutions, is heavily self-consumed with its image.

Victims of George Tyndall have described to me how LAPD seemed to almost be purposefully wasting time in investigating their claims against Tyndall before making an arrest. That Tyndall never went to a criminal trial in more than 4 years after being arrested by LAPD, complete with a press conference, should be troubling to all of us without regard to our skin color or gender. How did the justice system fail so badly at delivering accountability? Moreover, why, for good reason, would LAPD raid the home of a respected attorney such as Dermot Givens, who has provided pro bono legal services to BLMLA since 2015 and is a past president of the National Association of Parole Defense Attorneys? Moreover, Givens is politically connected, having worked with the likes of former LAPD Chief and City Councilmember Bernard Parks, former City Councilmember and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Mayor Karen Bass in the past, as noted in LA Weekly back in 2008 by journalist Max Taves. In short, Givens is a credible figure in LA and clearly not a public safety risk, so why would LAPD have any justifiable reason to erroneously raid his home?

LAPD and the City Attorney’s office previously declined comment to the Los Angeles Times. In their September 6 filing, the City Attorney’s office under Hydee Feldstein-Soto offered ten affirmative defenses against the lawsuit, including that “Defendant City of Los Angeles and all defendants sued in their official capacities are immune from the imposition of punitive damages.” Attorney Erin Darling, himself a former LA City Council candidate who represented Melina Abdullah previously, assisted Givens in getting a judge to order LAPD to destroy the illegally obtained photographs. There’s no dispute that the raid occurred, and according to prior reporting by Los Angeles Times journalist Kevin Rector, LAPD has an “open internal affairs investigation.” Asked for comment on the status of this investigation, LAPD Media Relations Division didn’t immediately respond. LAPD claims that the January 25 incident was justified. Givens alleges that jewelry was missing following the search during which LAPD ransacked his home, as documented by pictures published in the Times. The case number is 24STCV19188.

Black Lives Matter Los Angeles had vehemently opposed the re-election of Kevin de León to City Council because of his participation in the conversation recorded on October 18, 2021, as part of the LA Fed Tapes. De León along with Heather Hutt didn’t attend Jim McDonnell’s confirmation hearing for City Council, and now City Council is going on recess for a week to allow members to attend the National League of Cities Summit 2024 in Tampa Bay, Florida. Speakers will include journalist Soledad O’Brien as well as Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn. Man, life must be good to be a city official, much less a member of the LAPD brass who filled the gallery for McDonnell’s confirmation. LAPD Commissioner Maria Lou Calanche had questioned McDonnell’s initially proposed salary on the grounds of fiscal prudence, a rare act of independence in the city of Los Angeles that left Commission President Erroll Southers sputtering, “So your suggestion is to offer him less than [Interim LAPD] Chief [Dominic] Choi?”

Southers, like McDonnell selected by Mayor Karen Bass, has been a steady believer in the mythology of the LAPD while fastidiously avoiding the gorilla in the room: its runaway budget. There’s little sign yet that despite clear warnings from City Controller Kenneth Mejia that LA is moving to tackle its fiscal crisis, much less increase its anti-corruption efforts. Recently, in a profile highlighting the work of LAist journalist Nick Gerda in exposing Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, journalist Gustavo Arellano of the Los Angeles Times noted, “a 2013 Orange County grand jury report that said the lack of a vibrant press in O.C. was essentially an invitation for civic corruption, which has sadly proved true.” The same is true in Los Angeles. Ironically, Kevin de León in the LA Fed Tapes sought to distance himself from convicted former Councilmember José Huizar, an idea he again recently repeated. The unvarnished truth about the LA Fed Tapes is likely to be worse than even Huizar’s corruption: a deliberate attempt to manipulate the November 2022 elections and settle political scores by quite illegal means.

Business as usual in the City and County of Los Angeles. So it was almost refreshing to read the honesty in the request for leniency from Huizar deputy George Esparza, recounting how Huizar had sought to use his daughter’s leukemia to escape scrutiny over a sexual harassment scandal: “I guess there’s a silver lining in everything. Let’s do it. No one wants to come after a guy whose daughter just got leukemia.” No one feels sorry for José Huizar now serving a 13-year federal prison sentence, and no one should have similar thoughts about Kevin de León or Gil Cedillo when this is scheming fully exposed. It’s like KDL says on the LA Fed Tapes: “And it was very fascinating, to Nury’s point, the white folk cut you in a heartbeat.” Well, Gil Cedillo just got cut in his effort to extract himself from the scandal of a lifetime; what was he thinking? Man, the audacity of Gil and KDL: I guess not all attorney’s in Los Angeles are alike?

UPDATE: LAPD issued the following statement regarding its Internal Affairs investigation into the search of Dermot Givens residence: “The investigation remains ongoing, and the Department will have no further comment. Upon completion of the investigation, the complainant will be provided the final disposition.”

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

Link: Rule 7.6: Political Contributions to Obtain Government Legal Engagements or Appointments by Judges

Link: State watchdog agency is investigating donations to Kevin de León’s reelection campaign

Link: Amid outcry, L.A. City Council defends rejection of ethics nominee

Link: Newsom fined $13,000 for failing to report on time payments made at his request

Link: Who was behind the City Hall audio leak? The question may never be answered

Link: L.A. Jobs PAC, Rick Caruso and Joe Buscaino Team Up to Lift Jim McDonnell to Success in Sheriff’s Race

Link: Chief Bratton picks three for top posts: Jim McDonnell, Sharon Papa, George Gascón

Link: Black Lives Matters Los Angeles Instagram Post RE: Jim McDonnell

Link: Jim McDonnell sworn in as LAPD chief amid concerns over immigration enforcement

Link: Lawyer in Black Lives Matter ‘swatting’ case sues LAPD over search of home

Link: L.A. ethics panel approves fine for former CBS exec Leslie Moonves over interference with LAPD investigation