Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has agreed to testify before the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission about deputy gangs inside the department, according to a letter from his attorney to the panel.
The move comes after Villanueva resisted a subpoena from the panel for more than two years.
He had argued in court that the commission doesn’t have the authority to force a sitting sheriff to testify under oath. Villanueva left office in 2022. His change of heart follows a judge’s decision to schedule a hearing on whether to order him to testify.
Villanueva is “very willing to testify before the COC” and “will answer any questions you have under oath,” his attorney Linda Savitt wrote in the letter dated Dec. 13.
The letter did not state why Villanueva decided to testify now. He is currently running for county supervisor against incumbent Janice Hahn in the fourth district, which stretches from the Palos Verdes Peninsula east to Long Beach and north to Whittier.
Villanueva and Savitt were not immediately available for comment.
Deputy gangs: a ‘cancer’ or ‘hazing run amok’?
Commission Chair Sean Kennedy said he was “hopeful” Villanueva would testify but noted “he’s agreed to testify in the past only to cancel the night before.” Kennedy said the panel is particularly interested in probing allegations the former sheriff blocked investigations into deputy gangs during his four years in office — something Villanueva has denied.
Villanueva has either said deputy gangs don’t exist or downplayed their significance, describing their behavior as “hazing run amok.” In comments to the L.A. Times published…
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