LOS ANGELES (KNX) — A COVID-19 testing firm has requested that a Los Angeles County judge allow them to conduct some discovery of Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s mobile devices and to depose him on a limited basis for purposes of considering whether to sue him for defamation.
Fulgent Genetics Inc. and its subsidiary, Fulgent Therapeutics LLC, alleged in a petition filed Friday in L.A. County Superior Court that Villanueva falsely claimed that the FBI warned him against using Fulgent’s services because of “concerning information” that the firm might share DNA data of county employees with China.
Villanueva was accused of making the allegedly defamatory remarks in a Nov. 29 letter to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. In it, the sheriff claimed he was informed of the possibility of data-sharing with Beijing by Fulgent in a briefing with the FBI just prior to Thanksgiving 2021.
The FBI has not publicly accused Fulgent of wrongdoing, nor alluded to any evidence that it provided or planned to provide test-subject health data to China.
"I suspect Fulgent wants to find out what the FBI said about it," Villanueva’s attorney, Linda Miller Savitt, told City News Service.
Savitt insisted the sheriff did not share the letter publicly, nor did he authorize its publication to the LASD home page. The sheriff’s IT department has been investigating whether its website was hacked or accessed by someone without proper authorization.
According to Fulgent’s petition, Villanueva allegedly knew that the statements the department published were false as quickly as five days later. The company alleged the county emailed its employees stating, "The county has no evidence from any law enforcement agency or any other source that any County employee data has been or will be shared with the Chinese government.”
Villanueva's statements were shared widely on social media, including by some anti-vaccine activists. They reportedly sparked a protest against Fulgent in December, according to the petition. The company said a window was shot out at Fulgent's Temple City head offices.
Fulgent sought a court order directing the sheriff to produce any personal and sheriff’s department-issued cell phone text messages and/or emails related to Fulgent, the letter to the Board of Supervisors, and the FBI briefing. The company also wants Villanueva to sit for a four-hour deposition.
The company expressed concerns that if Villanueva loses his re-election bid later this year, he may "erase, lose, or otherwise destroy all information, including whether and when he acted outside the scope of his office.”
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