L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl's home searched by sheriff's investigators

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-14/l-a-county-supervisor-
sheila-kuehls-house-search-by-sheriffs-investigators

Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators searched the house of County 
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl on Wednesday as part of a criminal investigation 
into a county contract awarded to a nonprofit organization.

“Sheriff’s Department. We have a warrant. We demand entry,” a deputy 
shouted from outside the front door of the supervisor’s Santa Monica 
property a few minutes after 7 a.m. Kuehl appeared shortly after and was 
handed some paperwork. Several deputies went inside.

A barefoot Kuehl was escorted away from the house and her phone was taken 
from her. Inside, sheriff’s investigators could be seen opening and 
closing doors. One deputy appeared to be taking photos or videos.

A copy of the warrant, signed by Superior Court Judge Craig Richman, 
showed that the search was tied to an ongoing probe into Peace Over 
Violence, a nonprofit run by Patti Giggans, a member of the Sheriff 
Civilian Oversight Commission and a close friend to Kuehl. Both Kuehl and 
Giggans have clashed fiercely with Sheriff Alex Villanueva and called for 
his resignation.

Sheriff’s investigators also searched Giggans’ house, her nonprofit’s 
offices, offices at the L.A. County Hall of Administration and the 
headquarters of the county’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which 
awarded contracts to Giggans’ organization. The warrant to search Kuehl’s 
house authorized investigators to seize any documents or electronic files 
“related to the Peace Over Violence contract acquisition.”

In a brief statement, the Sheriff’s Department announced the searches but 
declined to provide details, citing the ongoing criminal investigation. 
Later, in an unusual move, the department posted to its website detailed 
statement about the case that investigators submitted to Richman when they 
sought the warrants. In it, investigators claimed an array of bribery and 
other crimes related to the contracts may have been committed, including 
“bribery of a county supervisor.”

The warrants marked a dramatic escalation of the long-running Sheriff’s 
investigation into the non-profit. The investigation stems from 
allegations by a Metro employee, Jennifer Loew, who has alleged she was 
targeted for retaliation by supervisors after making claims of misconduct 
against the agency. The employee has claimed among other things that Kuehl 
improperly helped Giggans’ nonprofit win the contract to operate a hotline 
for reporting sexual harassment on public transit.

In an interview outside her house while the search was underway, Kuehl 
denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations “totally bogus,” saying 
she “didn’t know anything about the contract” and that the Board of 
Supervisors did not vote on whether to approve it.

“This whole thing is drummed up I think by a very disaffected ex-
employee,” Kuehl said. Kuehl also said county lawyers alerted her Tuesday 
night to the impending search.

Court records show Loew reached a settlement in a lawsuit she filed 
against Metro. Her husband, Adam Loew, said Wednesday that the settlement 
agreement was for more than a half million dollars.

As the search of Kuehl’s house was underway, another team of deputies were 
in and out of Giggans’ home a few miles away, carrying away a computer and 
flash drives. Giggans said they had a warrant signed by the same judge, 
Richman, to look for technology and took her computer.

Her attorney Austin Dove said the investigation was driven by the 
sheriff’s contempt for oversight.

“These are Third World tactics,” Dove said. “Vladimir Putin would be 
impressed.”

When a tow truck prepared to take away her car, Giggans angrily objected, 
saying the warrant did not authorize seizing the vehicle. “This is a 
lawsuit in the making,” Giggans said, adding, “Bullies.”

The investigation into Giggans’ nonprofit and others conducted by a 
secretive public corruption unit inside the Sheriff’s Department has 
fueled angry claims from critics that Villanueva is using his 
investigators to target political enemies and others who have crossed him. 
Villanueva has denied the claims, saying he has recused himself from the 
unit’s work in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

George Gascón, the county’s district attorney, had decided he wanted 
nothing to do with the unit after sheriff’s officials proposed the two 
agencies create a task force to collaborate on public corruption 
investigations.

“He’s only targeting political enemies,” Gascón told The Times last year 
about Villanueva. “It was obvious that was not the kind of work I wanted 
to engage in, so we declined.”

Shortly after Gascón refused to partner with the Sheriff’s Department, 
Villanueva came out as a strong supporter of a Gascón recall campaign that 
ultimately failed to kick the district attorney out of office.

The slow pace of the unit’s investigations and its apparent lack of 
results have only deepened suspicions.

“These highly publicized criminal investigations have never resulted in 
charges being filed, suggesting an ulterior motive,” Sean Kennedy, a 
Loyola Law School professor who sits on the commission, said in a 10-page 
memo calling for an investigation into whether Villanueva is abusing his 
power.

Sheriff’s investigators have already served warrants related to the 
hotline contract allegations.

Last year, a member of the public corruption unit showed up to Peace Over 
Violence’s offices and introduced himself as a sex crimes investigator. 
The investigator, Sgt. Max Fernandez, was given a tour of the office and 
left his business card.

A week or so later, Fernandez showed up again with a warrant, Giggans said 
at the time.

Fernandez was looking for records about contracts the group has with 
public agencies, including one with Metro to operate the hotline. The 
warrant also demanded records on communications the organization’s staff 
had with various county officials, including Kuehl.

The Sheriff’s Department served similar warrants at the time on Metro 
officials and on Metro’s inspector general.

Giggans complied with the warrant served on her nonprofit. Meanwhile, 
attorneys for Metro and Metro’s inspector general filed papers in court 
asking a judge to throw out the warrants served on those agencies. For 
more than a year, attorneys on all sides have been in and out of court 
litigating the matter. A judge determined that the original warrants were 
too broad, and just earlier this month, the parties were in court to 
narrow the scope of the warrants served last year.

A lead investigator of the sheriff’s public corruption unit is Mark 
Lillienfeld, a retired homicide investigator with a decades-long 
relationship with Richman, the judge who approved the warrants served 
Wednesday.

They have known each other since at least 1996, when Richman was a 
prosecutor handling an attempted murder case Lillienfeld investigated. The 
detective would later visit the judge’s home to get warrants signed. 
Lillienfeld’s wife worked in Richman’s courtroom, transcribing hearings as 
an official court reporter.

Their relationship came under scrutiny several years ago when there was an 
internal Sheriff’s Department inquiry into whether Lillienfeld tried to 
help Richman out of legal trouble.



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