Part 83: Secrets of the LA Fed Tapes Scandal – Leak Investigations and Political Corruption

Published February 29, 2024

Mar 01, 2024

Photo of garden trees with blooming flowers and building lights in Downtown Los Angeles by author (GoPro Hero 11 Black).

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Two days ago, I was surprised to learn from one of my now many routine check-ins with the Los Angeles Police Department Media Relations Team that the investigation into the source of the LA Fed Tapes has again been sent to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office of George Gascón for “review.” The prior case presented by LAPD sometime early last October more than year after the shocking audio tapes leaked chocked full of racist conversation between Nury Martinez, Kevin de León, Gil Cedillo and the former President of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the LA Fed, a powerhouse of an organization come election time in local politics.

The District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman soon confirmed that the case had been received. It’s unclear what exactly the charges are, and if former LA Fed Director of Finance Santos Leon, and his spouse Karla Vasquez are again the target(s) of the investigation as previously suggested by the LAPD press release after reporting last summer by Los Angeles Magazine journalist Michele McPhee identified Leon as the culprit having sought to spy on his former boss Herrera for speaking negatively of him. It’s still unclear if the person that made the recording, presuming it’s in fact Leon was the person who leaked it, even as civil cases have been brought by KDL and Cedillo against the couple decrying a lack of law enforcement action in defending their reputations.

Today is also the last day for LAPD Chief Michel Moore, who announced his retirement alongside Mayor Karen Bass. It was Moore who initiated the investigation into the source of the Tapes following their widespread distribution across the media on October 9 contingently by Knock LA and the Los Angeles Times, after a threatened lawsuit from the LA Fed to prevent their publication. LAPD’s investigation would not begin until October 25, with Chief Moore saying beforehand on October 10 via press release: “Although the work of Council Members involved over the years are not reflective of these racist remarks, I am conflicted as to a path forward.”

LAPD’s investigation began after according to Moore in interview at the time, at the request of “individuals that were present at that meeting.'' The investigation was conducted by the Major Crimes Division with Moore promising that “we will bring our results to the appropriate prosecuting agency upon completion of that investigation.'' It’s unclear when exactly LAPD re-sent the investigation, but last October when it did so following the reported discovery of deleted recording software on Santos Leon’s work laptop the LAPD executed search warrants on the couple’s Eagle Rock home. Also unknown is who the LA Fed private investigator was, with the LA Fed previously declining to comment or disclose its findings.

According to records secured today using the California Public Records Act, Chief Moore and Captain Kelly Muniz of LAPD Media Relations Division discussed the media response regarding the October 10, 2023 update to the original press release. She replies in apparent response, that “I spoke with Tiffany Blackwell at the DAs [sic] office and she is already fielding calls on the matter.” Muniz notes that “We typically do not put the phone number for [sic] and other agency [sic], as it is implied to media on the news release. If you still want it I will add it.” Moore then responds, “Please refer questions to the LADA” before Muniz answers simply: “Got it.” The first release in 2022 was discussed the day before the original statement on October 9, 2022 at 8:41 pm with two senior officials copied on the email chain: Assistant Chief Daniel Randolph of the Office of Support Services and Harry Eddo, LAPD Liaison to the LA City Council. “It is a dark day for our City of Angels,” Chief Moore would declare in his written statement. It’s unclear what non-public record discussion precede its drafting.

Centering a criminal case around private investigation findings is perhaps not unheard of, but the LA Times described it as being among “shortcomings” in the case presented in a report by Times journalists Julia Wick, Richard Winton, and James Queally filed October 12, 2023. That’s “according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation,” which raises some serious questions about what exactly the decision-making was at the time, and why the case was not escalated to federal law enforcement. Important to note is extensive discussion of former Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso on the recording, and in the note posted with it on Reddit.

The leaker “Honest-Finding-1581” in his brief statement writes: “If Rick Caruso wins the Mayor's race, he will clean house at City Hall, including making sure Nury Martinez is out.” Caruso is a former President of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners and received the backing of the Los Angeles Police Protective League before the June primary during, which Caruso would place 2^nd behind current Mayor Karen Bass with KDL coming in a distant 3^rd place and making no endorsement before the audio tape leaked. Cedillo endorsed Caruso, and Nury Martinez alongside Senator Alex Padilla announced her support for Bass.

About the son Justin of Martinez’s predecessor Herb Wesson, who held the post of Chief of Staff at the LA Fed at the time, the leaker wrote: “That would put [Justin] Wesson out of a job” So, the LA Fed is putting all it's [sic] money in Karen Bass's campaign.” The note also describes the political history of the LA Fed, and that of labor more broadly at its outset with the leaker starting by insinuating that it’s corrupted before stating: “All you have to do is look close and listen to the recording I just received of LA Fed President Ron Herrera and Nury Martinez (no relation, lol).” The leaker then writes: “Someone helped me connect the dots earlier this month.”

The lawsuits from Cedillo and De León both describe the leak as being “October Surprise” designed to upturn the political establishment and most critically turn the tables in favor of Rick Caruso, a major real estate developer fresh off a stint as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the University of Southern California. News coverage has almost single-mindedly often centered on the racist parts of the recording in contrast to the rich picture it paints of Los Angeles politics alongside a still unresolved investigation by State Attorney General Rob Bonta into whether the discussion heard about redistricting constituted illegal or unethical conduct by government officials. The Attorney General’s office has previously confirmed that this probe is ongoing.

Many people are unconcerned about the tapes, and it wasn’t uncommon to hear this described as being the act of a whistleblower, which raises an interesting question about the motive of Santos Leon provided this is the act of a single actor alone and not a wider political conspiracy. Leon along with his wife Vasquez has previously declined to comment to the Los Angeles Times last summer when the search warrants were executed and retained counsel, which similarly has stayed hushed in the face of an ongoing criminal investigation, and later two lawsuits. According to sources, Santos was generally combative as McPhee’s report described quite “macho” as well as a terrible bookkeeper with the LA Fed struggling to pay vendors after the discovery.

The issue of political corruption came up again in December, following a December 19 report by Los Angeles Times journalists Libor Jany and Richard Winton describing two whistleblower complaints made to the Office of the Inspector General, which reports to the Police Commission, by two Internal Affairs Detectives, one named Justin Turner, and the other concealed due to fears of retaliation for having come forward. Turner and the other detective allege that they were ordered by superiors to stop investigating Cory Palka and USC about his daughter’s internship with CBS television, and to instead investigate Mayor Karen Bass over her long ago received from the USC School of Social Work. Chief Moore would announce his retirement weeks later after denying the allegation made that he had acted on behalf of Rick Caruso in doing so.

The New York Attorney General investigation into Cory Palka was conclusive, with emails and text messages showing that Palka had betrayed his obligations in taking a report from victim Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, who passed away before the disclosure in November 2022. The LA City Ethics Commission recently voted 4-0 to decline automatic reductions in fines against Les Moonves, the former President of CBS, and his associate Ian Metrose and to instead seek the maximum fine of $15,000. LAPD cleared Palka due to an apparent lack of jurisdiction as Palka has retired after a year, and it’s unclear if Ethics is investigating Palka as well, or if there’s any larger probe. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the agency was involved.

The Times previously reported that U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins had become involved, who oversaw the successful prosecution of Mark Ridley-Thomas, the former LA Councilmember and Supervisor who would be sentenced the August following the leak to 3.5 years in prison. Ridley-Thomas is appealing the verdict, which centered around the USC School of Social Work and USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, and earned former Social Work Dean Marilyn Flynn just a little house arrest, probation time and a fine. Interestingly, Detective Turner is the cold case detective who solved the murder of Ridley-Thomas’s younger brother. Since that report, the LA Times has issued no further comment or report on the OIG complaints since Moore announced his retirement or the LA Fed Tapes since LA Fed case was returned for further investigation.

Turner is being represented by the firm of Attorney Gregory W. Smith, which has routinely secured multi-million dollar verdicts for employees of LAPD and LA City, including $4 million dollars for Lillian Carranza, an LAPD captain in a sexual harassment case including a sexualized leaked audio and a artificially created image. The source of the recording allegedly directly told Carranza at the time he had done it, and the source of the image remains unknown despite an LAPD investigation that identified it being distributed in the department on four occasions. Between the audio leak and image release, Carranza would sue LAPD for falsifying crime statistics and file a whistleblower complaint alongside another detective for retaliation after discovering alleged illegal gun sales at the LAPD Academy.

So there’s a long history of strange, odd and retaliatory things happening inside LAPD that has led to appropriate questions about the law enforcement response to the LA Fed Tapes, and particularly why it fell to a private investigator to discover potentially critical evidence in a Major Crimes Division investigation versus a law enforcement agency directly. Similarly, I personally had the most off experience of becoming suspicious of Rick Caruso’s close associate Sam Garrison at USC before the leak and even reporting it to a campus law enforcement official on August 26, 2022 that I thought a sensational audio leak was coming with the belief that it would inflame the community. Garrison appears in the recording at 13:44 after speaking with KDL before meeting.

“For the investigation. That what they’re doing has legs, just keep it going, just keep it going, just keep it going,” Kevin de León says about his conversation with Sam Garrison before the October 18, 2021 meeting at the LA Fed. Garrison served as Chief of Staff to Caruso at USC before rising to Senior Vice President for University Relations, a post he still holds, and previously worked for Caruso as a VP at his company and strangely enough for Martin Ludlow who the leaker Honest-Finding-1581 references: “ - Martin Ludlow gets multiple contracts with the LA fed. Remember him? He and Miguel Contreras were investigated for fraud and Contreras would have gone to jail if he didn't die first.” A former LA City Councilmember for whom Garrison served as Director of Communications, he got the post after both he and his father Jim whom Nury Martinez mentions immediately before in the conversation, made political donations to Ludlow before his 2002 campaign. Ludlow would be convicted of crimes related to that campaign in 2006 after resigning from Council to take the #2 role at the LA Fed under legendary labor leader Miguel Contreras before his death from a heart attack in a herbal medicine shop.

Did I connect the dots? Or did Santos Leon, and even his wife Vasquez, if the LAPD charges brought forward in October are to be believed execute the leak, or is there something else going on here with LAPD and Rick Caruso. Most interestingly, the Palka disclosure came only days after the leak of transcripts of Caruso being deposed by civil attorneys in a deposition related to deceased USC gynecologist George Tyndall revealed Caruso getting a call on his cellphone from an LAPD captain about the case. Tyndall would spend barely a month and a half in jail after his arrest by LAPD in June 2019 and his victims would never get a trial date more than 5 years after the LA Times broke the story. “Yeah, the son of Jim Garrison. He told me that a couple of reporters got Pulitzer Prizes,” KDL says to Nury Martinez.

The Times did win Pulitzer Prizes for their investigation into Tyndall, as well as former USC Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen Puliafito, and they would win Prizes again in the Breaking News category for covering the aftermath of the LA Fed Tapes scandal. Nury Martinez doesn’t like the Times just like KDL tells her about USC and their coverage of the troubled university, and most especially LA Times City Hall reporter David Zahniser. She loses at it the idea of KDL consorting with Caruso, snapping:

David Z. told me last week — I didn’t want to talk to him. I just was like, “I don’t want to get quoted on all this shit, but what do you want?” He’s like — you know the Feds are leaking shit to David, so that he could write about it. That fucking little piece of shit. And he’s like, “I just wanted you to know, or did you know that there was more incriminating evidence against Mark?” I said, “No, how would I know? As a matter of fact I don’t want to know. So I’ll talk to you later.” I’m uncomfortable with this conversation. I don’t know why you’re telling me this shit.

Strangely enough, I’m the only journalist in Los Angeles to write a word about the Garrison’s being on the Tapes, even as the Times ran a full-length profile on African-American publisher Danny Bakewell for having talked with Martinez before the meeting about redistricting entitled: “Who is Danny Bakewell, the Black L.A. power broker named in the Nury Martinez audio?”

One thing is for sure, more than a year plus has gone by without Los Angeles getting any answers about where the LA Fed Tapes came from and the motivations behind their release. If Santos Leon is responsible, and many won’t want to see him charged due to the racism the recordings exposed, even as the corruption discussed on the recordings, goes under analyzed and undiscussed. I still remember what I see Garrison mouthing with a snicker at the USC Community House on August 18, 2022: “Nobody gives a fuck what you think.” This came days after his assistant came to the USC Office of the Provost with a contract to hire a new President for KUSC asking me if I could be trusted with its contents. Wouldn’t you be suspicious too?

USC previously declined to comment for this series. I’ll follow the facts on this wherever they may lead, and we’ll have to see what the DA’s office does with the case. Could LAPD have turned up more evidence against Santos Leon? Certainly, but absent a full explanation the idea that our liberal democracy and public decency will move on and even advance in Los Angeles becomes a matter of faith, of determination to move beyond the scandals and corruption of the past and to create a better government in the city. Just what is going on in the City of Los Angeles, I hope we will find out soon, and it’s my pleasure to bring you this exclusive breaking news update in the interest of accountability journalism in LA, a most dangerous endeavor. No matter what, the public deserves to know the truth about where the Tapes came from and why. That’s how the public trust can be rebuilt: transparency.

The red flags that were raised by even the New York Times about potential interference in news coverage at the paper of record here, the vaunted Los Angeles Times is beyond concerning. If Patrick Soon-Shiong would literally try to kill a story about a billionaires dog biting a woman, what might he do to help a friend out at election time? The same has been asked about Michel Moore, and those allegations need to be fully investigated, and if there’s anything else happening here it needs to be disclosed. Doing a simple rug-sweep won’t end the speculation or questions.

Rick Caruso gets asked about his staff in the Tyndall deposition by attorney John Manley while serving as Chairman of the Board at USC, he responds: “At the time it would have been Sam Garrison, who was my chief of staff” blanking on the newly hired Elyse Levine’s last name, who previously served as Chief of Staff at the FBI Field Office in Los Angeles. Caruso gets asked “What happened to Mr. Garrison, Sir?” to which Caruso responds: “Well he did such a good job, he was promoted…” before denying he’s USC’s “lobbyist.” I don’t know, but we’re going to find out soon enough.

Link: EXCLUSIVE: LAPD Zeroes In on City Council Leaker

Link: LAPD Opens Probe Into Leaked Conversation That Sparked City Hall Racism Uproar

Link: Chief Moore’s Statement on the Public Accounts Attributed to Members of the Los Angeles City Council – NR22297ah & NR23707ne

Link: D.A. sends audio leak eavesdropping probe back to LAPD for additional investigation

Link: LA County Federation of Labor Scam

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

Link: LAPD captain was ‘gaslighted’ over fake nude photo, wants $8 million for hostile work environment

Link: Second LAPD officer alleges commander obstructed investigation into gun store thefts

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

Link: Detectives claim LAPD chief sought investigation of Mayor Bass over USC scholarship

Link: Who is Danny Bakewell, the Black L.A. power broker named in the Nury Martinez audio?

Link: Los Angeles Times Owner Clashed With Top Editor Over Unpublished Article