A year after Los Angeles police officers from an anti-gang unit in the San Fernando Valley were accused of illegally searching vehicles and stealing from people they pulled over, an internal department email shows three face termination, reports the Los Angeles Times. Interim Chief Dominic Choi called for the firing of a captain, a lieutenant, and a sergeant in the LAPD’s Mission Division. Other officers have been implicated in the still-unfolding scandal. Senior Mission Division Capt. James “JT” Townsend, Lt. Mark Garza and Sgt. David Gomez were each relieved of duty and have been directed to a disciplinary hearing, known as a board of rights. Such a move typically indicates that the chief believes there is enough evidence to justify firing an officer.
Townsend was responsible for most of the division’s daily operations, which included oversight of the so-called Gang Enforcement Detail. The unit came under scrutiny last August when an LAPD internal investigation reportedly found misconduct by officers, including the theft of a knife with brass knuckles on the handle. Garza was the lieutenant in charge of the gang unit, while Gomez was one of his supervisors. A probe deemed that the allegations against the station’s then-junior captain, Matt Plugge, were unfounded, An attorney for Garza said his client followed procedure by alerting his supervisors as soon as he learned of potential wrongdoing by his officers. The scandal broke into public view last summer after The Times reported LAPD investigators had taken the rare step of searching lockers at the Mission Division station, seeking evidence amid the officers’ personal belongings. The probe is still unfolding, with the department now looking into allegations of poor management and supervision in the neighboring Foothill area, where some of the Mission officers were stationed previously.
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