Page 6 - aruba-today-20170513

A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 13 May 2017

Judge hammers ex-LA sheriff with 3-year term for corruption

By BRIAN MELLEY suit, delivered a scattered
Associated Press address from hand-written
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A notes outside the court-
federal judge repeatedly house after the sentenc-
rebuked former Los An- ing in which he thanked
geles Sheriff Lee Baca for the people of Los Ange-
bringing shame on his de- les, his lawyers and his wife
partment as he sentenced standing by his side, who
him Friday to three years in he couldn’t immediately
prison for obstructing an FBI locate.
investigation into abuses at “I love life no matter where
the jails he ran. I am,” Baca said.
In exceeding the two-year He was ordered to surren-
sentence prosecutors rec- der to federal prison au-
ommended, U.S. District thorities July 25. He was
Court Judge Percy Ander- convicted in March of ob-
son said Baca’s fall was structing justice, conspiring
tragic, but it was his own to obstruct justice and lying
doing and that his role to federal authorities.
atop a corrupt department Baca abruptly resigned in
where deputies brutalized 2014 after underlings were
inmates had ruined lives charged with plotting to
and done lasting damage. hide an inmate informant
“Your actions are an em- Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, middle, waves as he walks with his attorneys, David from his FBI handler. Depu-
barrassment to the thou- Hochman, left, and Nathan Hochman, third from left, as they federal court in Los Angeles, Friday, ties had discovered the
sands of men and women May, 12, 2017, after Baca was sentenced to three years in prison for obstructing an FBI investiga- inmate was a snitch after
who put their lives on the tion into abuses at the jails he ran. finding a contraband cell-
line every day,” Anderson (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) phone the informant was
told the longtime lawman. ruption scandal that led to public service and because was an insult to millions of supposed to use to com-
“Blind obedience to a cor- the top of the department. he’s in the early stages of others suffering from the municate with his handler.
rupt culture has serious In addition to Baca and his Alzheimer’s disease. The condition who have not The crimes tarnished Ba-
consequences.” top lieutenant, 19 others judge, however, took ex- committed federal crimes. ca’s reputation as a soft-
Baca was the final and were convicted of crimes ception to a defense con- “Alzheimer’s disease is not spoken, rail-thin, Zen-like re-
most prominent defendant ranging from assaults to ob- tention that Alzheimer’s is a a get-out-of-jail card.” former who promoted edu-
in a case that blossomed structing justice. sentence of its own. The sentence was a blow to cation and rehabilitation
from a civil rights investiga- Anderson said he would “As awful as Alzheimer’s the 74-year-old, who had behind bars and preached
tion of beatings by guards have sentenced Baca to disease is, it’s not a criminal been seeking probation tolerance and understand-
in the nation’s largest jail five years in prison except penalty,” said Anderson, and home confinement. ing between people of dif-
system into a broader cor- for his nearly half-century of who said the suggestion Baca, dressed in a light blue ferent cultures and faiths.q

Head of NYC jails resigns after flap over ethical lapses

By JAKE PEARSON correction employees for Ponte spent 90 days out of officials of using internal af- city’s jails are safer, more
Associated Press their work “to bring about state last year in his depart- fairs officers to eavesdrop rehabilitative, and more
NEW YORK (AP) — The head meaningful reform and ment SUV. About a third on conversations between humane as a result of Com-
of New York City’s troubled build a culture of safety at of those days away came Department of Investiga- missioner Ponte’s work,” he
jail system resigned his the department.” during the workweek. tion investigators and in- said.
post Friday, after he was “I’m confident that all the City officials generally mate informants at the jail. Rikers, a former dump near
criticized for using his city- hard work we’ve accom- aren’t allowed to use their Mayor Bill de Blasio had de- the runways of LaGuardia
owned SUV to repeatedly plished has positioned the taxpayer-funded vehicles fended Ponte, saying peo- Airport, is accessible only by
drive to vacations in Maine. department for even more for personal trips out of the ple were “missing the forest a narrow bridge between it
Department of Correc- meaningful reform in the region, the report said. through the trees.” and Queens. For decades,
tions Commissioner Joseph days ahead,” he said. The report said other of- On Friday, the mayor said the city has sent its inmates
Ponte, who led Maine’s His departure comes after ficials at the agency used in a statement that he there while they await trial.
state prison system for weeks of criticism over al- their vehicles for trips to would look for someone Violence, mismanagement
three years before he was leged ethical lapses. Cape Cod, the Hamptons with the same experience and corruption have been
hired to reform New York’s New York’s Department of and other destinations. and “progressive commit- the subject of intense scru-
Rikers Island jail in 2014, an- Investigation, an anticor- Ponte promised to repay ment” as Ponte. tiny by the media and fed-
nounced he was retiring in ruption agency, released the city, but a subsequent “While much work remains, eral prosecutors in recent
a statement that thanked a report last month saying report accused corrections there is no doubt that our years.q