At least eight Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies have been fired amid a federal investigation into the beating of a transgender man in a 7-Eleven parking lot last year, according to law enforcement officials.
Last week, nearly two years after the incident, Deputy Joseph Benza III agreed to plead guilty in federal court to one felony count of civil rights violation. In his plea agreement, Benza admitted to lying to the FBI about the incident and claimed that numerous other deputies and sergeants helped obstruct the investigation and cover up the wrongdoing.
After confirming Benza’s firing on Dec. 18, the next day the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced that “multiple” other deputies had also been fired.
Sheriff’s officials did not say how many employees were taken off duty, but six department officials told the Times that eight people were taken off duty, including several sergeants. That’s what it means. The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
After news of the criminal case against Mr. Benza, 36, was announced last week, he made his first appearance in federal court and was released on $50,000 bail, a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson told the Times.
Benza is scheduled to return to court on January 17, when he is expected to plead guilty to one count of unlawful deprivation, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. It will be done.
His lawyer, Tom Yu, previously told the Times he supported his client’s decision to take responsibility and planned to ask the court for probation.
The incident that sparked the federal lawsuit occurred on February 10, 2023. That morning, 23-year-old Emmett Bullock was leaving his job as a high school teacher when he spotted the congressman in what appeared to be a heated conversation with a woman. side of the road.
In 2023, 23-year-old Emmett Brock was driving home from his job as a teacher when he was punched by his co-teacher outside a 7-Eleven.
(Irrfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Bullock previously told the Times that as he drove by, he gave the deputy the middle finger, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
Seconds later, he said, he spotted a patrol cruiser following closely behind him with no lights or sirens on, mirroring him in every direction.
Benza’s attorney initially said the person Bullock passed on the street was not his client, but perhaps another officer from another agency. He said Benza never saw Bullock betray him. And Benza’s own incident report made no mention of it.
In a court filing last week, prosecutors said Benza abandoned responding to a domestic disturbance call after seeing Bullock berate him. At one point, Benza called another prosecutor and said he was going to stop the person who had betrayed him and would use force, prosecutors said.
Block drove nearly two miles with the deputy following him, then stopped at a 7-Eleven and got out of the car. Video of the incident shows the deputy approach him and say, “I just stopped you,” without offering any explanation as to why.
“No, I’m not,” Bullock replied, according to audio recordings from the deputy’s body camera. Federal prosecutors said Mr. Benza then “violently tackled” Mr. Bullock to the ground.
For the next three minutes, Mr. Bullock struggled and screamed as the deputy pinned him down and punched him in the head.
“Are you going to kill me?” he cried. “Help! Help! Help! I’m not resisting!”
Bullock was then taken to a locked room at the Norwalk Sheriff’s Station, where she claimed staff asked her to look at her genitals before deciding which holding cell to send her to. He was initially charged with three felonies and one misdemeanor, but was later released on $100,000 bail.
When Benza compiled his incident report, he said he asked several sergeants if he should mention the real reason he started tailing Bullock, but was told to omit it under the plea agreement.
The deputy said in his report that Benza struck first because Bullock appeared to be “about to throw a punch.” During the struggle, Bullock bit repeatedly and “attempted to rip the skin from my hand,” according to the deputy’s report. However, medical reports from the scene and later from the hospital did not mention any signs of bite marks.
According to federal prosecutors, days after the Times and other news outlets reported on the incident in July 2023, Benza sent a group text to two other members of Congress about the media coverage, and three others responded to the text. They said they discussed the need to delete the messages. Banning personal cell phone use in light of anticipated federal investigations.
Three days after the initial group message, one of the other deputies sent a text message to the group relaying the sergeant’s instructions to “throw the phone” against Benza. Federal prosecutors claimed this was an instruction to delete data from the device.
Prosecutors say the sergeant and Benza lied to authorities to explain messages about orders to “throw away” the sergeant’s phone before another deputy was questioned by federal agents this year. They said they talked about it.
When federal agents interviewed Mr. Benza, he claimed he had never seen anyone get angry and wrote an incident report, again claiming that Mr. Bullock had bitten him. In the meantime, he said he had not substantively discussed the matter with anyone else.
Benza admitted in his plea agreement that he lied. He discussed the contents of the report and admitted that the sergeant actually wrote “substantive portions” of the report on his behalf.
Authorities announced last week that the FBI was still investigating.
Since the Times first reported the case, Los Angeles prosecutors have dismissed the case against Bullock, and a judge has agreed to declare Bullock innocent. This year, he filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging false imprisonment, civil rights violations and assault and battery. The lawsuit is pending.
