LOS ANGELES (AP) – Former Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca was indicted Friday on charges of obstructing justice and conspiring with underlings to derail a federal investigation into corruption and beatings in the nation’s largest jail system.
The charges that carry up to 20 years in prison come just days after Baca withdrew a guilty plea to lying to investigators and said he would go to trial to “set the record straight” before he is incapacitated by Alzheimer’s disease.
Baca, 74, made the decision knowing federal prosecutors were likely to bring stiffer charges, but his lawyers said he didn’t have much choice when negotiations collapsed after a federal judge rejected a plea deal as too lenient. That agreement called for no more than six months behind bars.
Defense lawyer Michael Zweiback said it appeared the judge was seeking several years in prison, and Baca needed certainty because his condition has already started to deteriorate.
“We have a very, very small window of time that we believe Mr. Baca’s life will be normal,” he said Monday. “If there was a possibility that he was going to go beyond his good years in prison, then he should go out and fight.”