FBI to Probe Alleged Jail Cross-Burnings by Sheriff’s Deputies

Allegations that Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies twice burned crosses on floors of the Central County Jail where gang members are kept will be investigated by the FBI, The Times has learned. The Sheriff’s Department already has launched its own investigation.

Federal sources said agents plan to investigate whether white deputies violated the civil rights of black inmates by burning crosses in the quarters of members of the Crips and Bloods gangs about a year ago.

Limited Investigation

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the investigation currently is limited to the alleged cross-burning incidents. Additional accusations of excessive use of force on one gang floor led Wednesday to the reassignment of four deputies and a sergeant from the jail.

Capt. Dick Walls, head of the sheriff’s information bureau, said Wednesday afternoon that the FBI had not notified the department of its intention to investigate the alleged cross-burnings.

“We have our own internal investigation going of that alleged incident,” Walls said. “And, until we have notification from the FBI, then we’re just going to continue our investigation, and we won’t have anything else to say until that has been completed.”

Deputy’s Testimony

The allegations of cross-burnings first became public on Jan. 6 during a deputy’s testimony in an unrelated county Civil Service hearing. Capt. William Hinkle, who commands the Central Jail, confirmed on Monday that an investigation is being conducted.

At the time, Sheriff Sherman Block declared that he, like other department officials, first learned of the allegations as a result of the hearing. “If it did occur,” he said, “who knew about it? Why didn’t it make its way up the chain of command as it should have?”

In a related development Wednesday, attorney Laurence B. Labovitz made a formal request that the Los Angeles County Grand Jury investigate “very serious instances of misconduct” by jail deputies. Labovitz represented Sheriff’s Deputy Eugene Harris, a black, at the Civil Service hearing in which another deputy made the cross-burning allegation.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” Labovitz said, “in that there appears to be an organized group of deputies whose white racist activities are actively condoned and approved by their sergeants while on duty at the Central Jail. Such actions are both repugnant and blatantly illegal, and this type of conduct by these public employees must not be tolerated.”