Baca is alleged to have accepted bribes from Lev Aslan Dermen
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is a convicted criminal. He is currently awaiting a Supreme Court decision on his appeal of the conviction and 3 year sentence. After serving 14 years in the role of sheriff, Baca stepped down in 2014 after investigators exposed a plot to interfere with an investigation into abuses at the county jail. Now, Baca finds himself in hot water yet again as a witness in an unrelated fraud case has implicated him.
The case involves the multimillion dollar fraud scheme by Lev Aslan Dermen. The witness, Jacob Kingston, is now cooperating with federal authorities — and has reported that Dermen was able to carry out his fraud in part because of the network of corrupt law enforcement officers on his payroll. Kingston alleges that Baca was part of this network.
According to a criminal defense attorney Los Angeles County, CA, bribery is defined differently based on how it occurs. In this case, if the allegations are true, then the bribery involved a public official. In this case, bribery is defined as a public official corruptly making a decision or doing something official in exchange for money or something else of value.
Under California law, it is a felony offense for any person to give an executive officer — which includes police chiefs — something of value with a corrupt intent to influence the officer’s decision in an official matter. A separate code section covers bribes of ministerial officers and other public employees. It is also a felony for an executive official, ministerial officer or public employee to receive something of value with a corrupt intent to influence their decision in an official matter.
Kingston has described seeing Dermen make a cash payment to Baca at a dinner. In return for the bribe, Baca allegedly protected Dermen as he committed massive fraud against the government. If these allegations are true, then they would likely be considered bribery under California law.
Bribery is typically charged as a felony under California law. Penalties for bribery may include imprisonment in county jail for between 2 and 4 years, fines, forfeiture of office, and disqualification from future office. As a criminal defense attorney Los Angeles County, CA can explain, there are potential defenses to a bribery charge. For example, if a public official did not have corrupt intent when accepting something of value, his or her lawyer could argue that they cannot be guilty of bribery under California law.
A bribery conviction has serious consequences, particularly for public officials. While it remains to be seen if former sheriff Baca will be charged with this crime, anyone who has been charged with bribery or a related crime will need an aggressive criminal defense attorney Los Angeles County, CA to represent them. The Chambers Law Firm can help. Contact us today at 714-760-4088 or dchambers@clfca.com to schedule a free initial consultation.
