A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy was sentenced Monday to a year in prison for submitting a false search warrant application to obtain information on a private client’s estranged husband during her contentious divorce proceedings.
David Anthony Rodriguez, 45, of La Verne, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to a count of conspiracy against rights. He left the sheriff’s department in October.
In a search warrant application to a state court judge, Rodriguez lied that he needed GPS tracking information on a robbery suspect’s cell phone, when it was really to monitor a private client’s estranged husband during contentious divorce proceedings, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A.
Rodriguez is among a handful of current and former deputies who have been charged tied to their work for private clients — primarily for Adam Iza, a cryptocurrency businessman known as “The Godfather.” Iza, who has been in federal custody since September 2024, has pleaded guilty to a slew of charges in California and Connecticut and awaits sentencing.
In a statement, the sheriff’s department said the “criminal actions outlined in this case are unacceptable and inconsistent” with its “high standards and expectations.”
“The overwhelming majority of our employees serve our communities with integrity, professionalism, and distinction every day, and they deserve to work alongside individuals who uphold those same standards,” the statement read.
While working as a sheriff’s deputy, Rodriguez began working for a private security company owned by a colleague, Eric Chase Saavedra, around 2021, according to his plea agreement. Through the company, Rodriguez began working at least twice a month as a security guard for a wealthy L.A.-based woman who had an ongoing dispute with her husband. Rodriguez received cash payments in exchange for his shifts.
Through his employment, according to the plea agreement, Rodriguez learned that his client was concerned for her safety and believed her husband — identified only by his initials T.F. — possessed valuable goods that she said belonged to her. After learning that his client couldn’t locate her husband, Rodriguez admitted to obtaining a warrant in July 2022 under false pretenses in order to find him.
In an affidavit, Rodriguez falsely said that a detective contacted him and asked for help from LASD’s gang surveillance team in connection with a robbery that occurred three days prior in Cudahy, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A. Rodriguez falsely indicated that the victim’s cell phone number was associated with the robbery suspect.
After serving the search warrant on the phone provider, Rodriguez obtained GPS location pings associated with T.F.’s cellphone that showed he was in Utah. Rodriguez admitted in his plea agreement to sharing that information with Saavedra and later learning that LASD deputies towed the victim’s vehicle while he was in Los Angeles and that co-conspirators placed a tracking device on the victim’s vehicle in Utah and sent a threatening text message to the victim.
“This was not impulsive conduct or a momentary lapse in judgment,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memo. “It was a calculated abuse of authority carried out with full awareness of its significance.”
As part of his employment, Rodriguez also worked as a security guard for Iza, 25, who resided in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach. Among those charged tied to their work for Iza are Saavedra, Scott Simkins, Christopher Michael Cadman and Michael David Coberg.
Earlier this month, a federal judge sentenced Simkins to a year and a half in prison for obstructing the investigation into Iza by lying that he never witnessed him threaten and extort $25,000 from a party planner at his Bel Air mansion. Coberg is serving a more than five-year prison term for conspiring with Iza to extort and falsely arrest rivals. Cadman pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy against rights and subscribing to a false tax return and is awaiting sentencing.
Saavedra pleaded guilty last year, in February, to conspiracy against rights and making and subscribing to a false tax return. He is set to be sentenced in the coming months.
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