On Wednesday, Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators executed a search warrant on the house of County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl in Santa Monica as part of a criminal investigation into a county contract awarded to a non-profit organization.
Now an investigation is being launched after Kuehl and another official, Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight Commissioner Patti Giggans, were allegedly illegally tipped off by other county officials of impending search warrants.
The LA times reported:
“Superior Court Judge Craig Richman, showed that the search was tied to an ongoing probe into Peace Over Violence, a nonprofit run by Patti Giggans, a member of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission and a close friend to Kuehl. Both Kuehl and Giggans have clashed fiercely with Sheriff Alex Villanueva and have called for his resignation.”
Kuehl was home at the time when investigators arrived around 7 a.m. Wednesday. They spoke to reporters outside shortly afterward where she admitted to knowing about the warrant. Kuehl said on-camera that LA County Inspector General Max Huntsman and an unnamed attorney who represents the county told her of the warrant.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva wrote a letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta where he accused the officials who warned Kuehl and Giggans of the warrants of “illegally alerting them.”
“I do not have to explain the alleged criminal, administrative and ethical laws which were broken by Mr. Huntsman and the currently unidentified person(s) employed by County Counsel,” Villanueva wrote.
“We are confident phone records will soon reveal any text messages received by Ms. Kuehl and Ms. Giggans, which illegally alerted them to the search warrant, as well as the intent behind their actions.”
“The illegal acts committed by Mr. Huntsman and County Counsel have potentially compromised the integrity of this criminal investigation including, but not limited to, the concealment or destruction of evidence,” he wrote.
Kuehl responded to the accusations and the investigation in a formal statement on Twitter saying:
“As a County Supervisor, I’ve done everything I could to bring appropriate oversight and supervision to the LA County Sheriff’s Department, a dept that has become more and more uncontrolled and troubled under the current @LACoSheriff, Alex Villanueva,” she wrote.
“Make no mistake. Today’s search warrant is not motivated by a desire to get to the bottom of a Metro contract that dates from 7 yrs ago. The process by which this contract was awarded never involved me & the first I knew of it was an invite to a Metro press conf announcing it.”
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