LOS ANGELES (AP) – Following nearly two weeks of testimony, jurors will hear closing statements Monday in the federal corruption trial of former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.
Baca, 74, is accused of obstructing justice and lying to investigators in what federal prosecutors have said was an attempt to stymie an FBI probe into guards who savagely beat inmates in the jails he ran and deputies who smuggled contraband to prisoners.
If convicted, Baca faces up to 20 years in prison.
Baca, who headed the nation’s largest sheriff’s department for 15 years before he resigned in 2014, is accused of a 2011 conspiracy to derail the FBI probe after jail guards discovered an inmate with a contraband cellphone was acting as an FBI informant.
An undercover FBI agent had bribed a guard to give the phone to the inmate so he could stay in touch with the FBI and shoot photos and video of beatings.