LOS ANGELES (AP) – Two former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies are accused of violating the civil rights of skateboarders in 2020 and creating a cover-up, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
A grand jury handed up the indictment last month, and two former deputies surrendered to authorities there when it was unsealed.
Miguel Vega and Christopher Hernandez are accused of throwing a skateboarder — identified as “JA” in court papers — into the back of a cruiser and holding him without cause in 2020 in Compton. He was still in the patrol vehicle when they gave chase and crashed into the car, injuring the skateboarder. Prosecutors said the two men then conspired to cover up the unlawful arrest of the 23-year-old.
Vega, 32, and Hernandez, 37, were charged with conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, witness tampering and falsification of records. Vega was charged with another record falsification. The attorney did not respond to an email request for comment Thursday.
Ex-deputies were involved in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old man later that year during a foot chase. Authorities say Vega shot Andres Guardadofive times in the back after deputies chased him on foot. Guardado’s murder sparked protests, and his family settled a lawsuit with the county for $8 million.
The federal indictment was first reported Thursday by the Los Angeles Times. Vega and Hernandez are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon.
The deputy remains active until December 2020, the LA Times reported.
“The indictment alleges that the two deputies violated the young man’s constitutional rights by willfully and illegally detaining him without cause,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a press release. “Officers who abuse their power must be held accountable, and my Office is committed to prosecuting civil rights violations by those who violate their oaths and sacrifice those they are sworn to protect.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately comment after the indictment was unsealed.
On April 13, 2020, Vega and Hernandez approached two black youths outside a Compton skate park. JA, who was in the closed park, yelled at the deputies to leave them alone.
The deputies pulled JA through an opening in the fence and threw him into the back of the cruiser, prosecutors said.
“Vega and Hernandez did not handcuff JA, did not secure JA’s seat belt, did not inform JA that JA was under arrest, and did not inform JA of her rights at any time,” according to the indictment.
Vega, the driver, told JA that they would put the dead in the alley area as Hernandez, from the passenger seat, told the skateboarder that he would be beaten, prosecutors said. Then Vega – with JA still in the back seat – began to chase the bicyclist down the alley, where the deputy collided with the vehicle.
JA suffered a cut above her right eye as a result of the collision, according to the indictment. Vega was pulled out of the cruiser and told to leave, but deputies later reported that the suspect with a gun – describing JA’s clothes – had fled the area. Deputies have not said whether the skateboarder was inside the patrol vehicle during the crash.
Vega then told the sergeant that JA was suspected of being under the influence of a controlled substance, prosecutors said. He said Hernandez then directed another deputy to write him a citation for being under the influence of methamphetamine after JA was taken to the hospital for a cut.
Prosecutors also alleged that Vega and Hernandez falsified an incident report that month, inaccurately claiming, among other things, that JA had threatened to harm someone at the skatepark.