Los Angeles County’s Civilian Oversight Commission is suing the county’s Sheriff’s Department, asking a judge to order the release of records related to two incidents in which deputies are accused of beatings and a third involving a controversial on-duty shooting.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, is the latest effort by the oversight body to compel the department to provide access to the records. The commission issued three subpoenas in February 2025, but according to the suit, the department has repeatedly declined to fully comply.
The department has maintained that it can’t release the documents without redactions because they are confidential. County officials have said they are legally required to first “meet and confer” with Sheriff’s Department unions before handing over the records. But the Civilian Oversight Commission says those arguments, which were first made by the office of county counsel, are not valid in light of recent developments.
“The Commission respectfully requests that the Court issue an order to show cause why the LASD should not be ordered to comply with the Subpoenas,” the oversight body wrote in a court document filed Monday.
The Sheriff’s Department provided The Times with an unsigned statement that said the “disclosure of otherwise confidential records, and how those records are to be maintained as confidential, impacts our employees.”
“As a result,” the statement added, “the better course is to complete the meet and confer process and ensure that all concerns are addressed.”
In 2020, county voters approved Measure R, which granted the oversight commission subpoena powers. In fall 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 847, which amended the penal code to allow oversight commissions to receive confidential sheriff’s department documents and review them in closed session. The law went into effect earlier this year.
In March, a state appellate court ruled that an oversight body in Sonoma County is legally authorized to subpoena the county Sheriff’s Office and directed the office to comply with the body’s subpoenas for whistleblower inquiry records.
In L.A. County, the Civilian Oversight Commission has said the March ruling, AB 847 and Measure R combine to affirm its subpoena powers. But the Sheriff’s Department has continued to deny the commission’s requests, citing the advice of the office of county counsel.
County Counsel Dawyn Harrison claimed in an emailed statement late Tuesday that the commission’s lawsuit “is not legally valid” because it “was neither initiated, filed through, or approved by this office, nor was it authorized by the Board of Supervisors.”
The oversight body, “like every other advisory commission created by the Board and all County departments, is not allowed to act independently of the Board,” the statement said.
Denying subpoenas for records related to law enforcement actions goes against state law, court rulings and the wishes of county voters, according to Hans Johnson, chair of the Civilian Oversight Commission.
“What doesn’t county counsel want the people of Los Angeles County to see?” he said in an interview. “I am going to ask that question repeatedly, because the law is clear and the people have been clear about this issue that we deserve to know, and we’ve enacted the policies that protect the public’s right to know.”
The subpoenas that the Civilian Oversight Commission is suing over concern three separate incidents.
In 2020, Joseph Perez was beaten and bloodied by sheriff’s deputies in the San Gabriel Valley. That same year, 18-year-old Andres Guardado was shot in the back and killed by sheriff’s deputies. In 2023, Emmett Brock, a transgender man, was beaten by a Norwalk deputy who later pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation for use of excessive force.
Last year, the commission subpoenaed the Sheriff’s Department for unredacted records associated with each of the cases. Perez, Brock and the loved ones of all three people are still waiting for the documents to be released.
Perez’s mother, Vanessa, has advocated for more transparency about her son’s case. On Monday, a written declaration by her was filed as part of the new suit against the Sheriff’s Department. Last year, her son explained that he supports the release of all the records related to his beating.
“They almost killed me. They didn’t really care if I was dead or not,” he told The Times. “I’m hoping to get some evidence to come to light to show more that I was in the right.”
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