The warrant used to search Supervisor Sheila Kuehl’s home was ruled to be valid by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on September 22.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. announced that it had fought to uphold the legitimacy of the warrant in court through legal representation from Werksman Jackson & Quinn LLP.

Posting a copy of the approved warrant on social media, the LASD official account wrote:

“SEARCH WARRANT RULED VALID!  @LASDHQ thanks Alan Jackson and his remarkable team from Werksman Jackson & Quinn LLP for representing us at today’s court proceeding regarding the search warrant served by our Public Corruption Unit last week. This victory is validation for the Department’s actions and confirms our independent investigatory powers under the state Constitution in uncovering alleged public corruption.”

The search warrant was carried out in a “public corruption case,” connected to Supervisor Kuehl and Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight CommissionerPatricia “Patti” Giggans. The case alleges possible corruption in contracts awarded to the Peace Over Violence non-profit organization.

Both Kuehl and Giggans’ homes were searched on the morning of September 14, as well as the L.A. County Hall of Administration, the Peace over Violence headquarters and the Los Angeles Metro offices.

Soon after the court’s decision, Kuehl took to Twitter in a multi-post message, not only addressing the search of her home, but also the allegations that there may have been a crime committed when she was given early notice of the possible search by someone within the Los Angeles Times news publication.

“I want to cut through the BS coming from MAGA media,” Kuehl said in her opening tweet. “I first heard of the possibility of this bogus search warrant from The LA Times nearly a week before Sheriff’s deputies arrived at my door.”

Kuehl then went on to accuse the Sheriff’s Dept. of leaking information to news publications days before the warrant was executed. The Supervisor then said the investigators had no legal right to search through messages made through neither her county-distributed phone, nor her personal mobile device.

“I got some satisfaction from the fact that even though the Sheriff and his team were reviewing hundreds of texts that came to my personal phone after the raid, nearly all of them expressed some fairly strong, rude, and negative opinions about the Sheriff,” Kuehl said when concluding her Twitter statement. “I hope he enjoyed them!”

The Dept. of Justice (DOJ) said it was taking over the public corruption investigation while at the same time looking into the Sheriff’s concern that Kuehl may have committed a crime.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said the Sheriff’s Dept. was asked to hand over all evidence to the DOJ and “cease” its investigation on September 21.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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