Former Los Angeles Sheriff Sentenced to 8 Years In Prison

Hat tip to Santiago.

In June of this year, we reported what happened to Gabriel Carrillo at the Los Angeles County Jail where he went to visit his brother. The beating done to Gabriel resulted in the city settling a case for $1.2 million.

On Monday, former Sargent Eric Gonzalez was sentenced to 8 years in a federal prison for overseeing the backroom beating of Gabriel. U.S. District Judge George King ordered Gonzalez into custody immediately after sentencing, telling him he had “abused his authority and corrupted the very system he was sworn to uphold.”

Gonzalez was a 15-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department. In June, he was found guilty of deprivation of civil rights, conspiracy to violate constitutional rights and falsification of records. Four other deputies have been convicted in the case and await sentencing, while a fifth was indicted last month and faces trial in December.

The convictions in Carrillo’s beating are part of a federal investigation of civil rights abuses and corruption at the nation’s largest sheriff’s department.

Yahoo news reports that nearly two dozen members of the department, including the former second-in-command, have been charged with crimes ranging from beatings to obstruction of justice; 15 of them have been convicted so far, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In arguing for a sentence of more than 11 years, federal prosecutors stated;

“An aggravated assault with serious bodily injuries is a grave offense. When such a crime is undertaken by a gang of law enforcement and then covered up as if the victim committed the crime, the harm to important societal interests makes the crime all the more significant.”

Gonzalez’s attorney, Joseph Avrahamy, argued that Gonzalez be sentenced to between 24 and 30 months in prison, saying his client is a good man who worked in a dangerous environment where it’s difficult to always get it right. Avrahamy also argued that Carrillo provoked the beating by using insulting and threatening language.  His argument however, did not impress the judge.