An attorney is urging the state to decertify the second-highest-ranking official in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, accusing her of committing perjury last year during a civil trial when she denied the existence of deputy gang activity at the Compton sheriff’s station.
Alan Romero, who represented sheriff’s Lt. Larry Waldie in a failed $26 million whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department, filed a petition this week with the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training seeking decertification for Undersheriff April Tardy.
Waldie alleged in a Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that he was targeted and demoted while serving as acting captain at the Compton station after speaking out against the undue influence of a deputy subgroup there known as the Executioners. The jury found Waldie engaged in whistleblowing activity, but that it was not a substantial factor in how he was treated.
The decertification petition submitted to POST on Monday alleges Tardy committed perjury when she untruthfully testified at Waldie’s trial that there was no deputy gang activity at the Compton station or a deputy work slowdown in 2019 led by alleged Executioners’ “shot caller” Deputy Jaime Juarez.
Tardy’s court statement contradicts sworn testimony she provided in 2022 to the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, which is investigating the existence of deputy gangs within the Sheriff’s Department, Romero alleges.
There, Tardy attempted to portray herself as a reform-minded candidate for undersheriff, testifying in an “inapposite, irreconcilable and mutually exclusive manner” that she had moved Juarez from the Compton station because he was the leader of the Executioners, the petition states.
However, after Sheriff Robert Luna appointed her as undersheriff, Tardy allegedly disavowed and began to “unwind” her COC testimony about deputy gangs at the Compton station, Romero said.
“What offends me the most is the total impunity and her lack of hesitation to lie in court,” Romero said Thursday. “I am seeking to impose some (sanctions) on an undersheriff who lies in court.”
Luna refused to address the petition.
“Out of respect for the process, the Sheriff will refrain from commenting on the specific allegations of the petition while the administrative process runs its course, but he reiterates his confidence in the ability and character of Undersheriff Tardy,” the LASD said in a statement.
Claims she misspoke
During the trial involving Waldie, Romero repeatedly questioned Tardy about her oversight commission testimony regarding the work slowdown at the Compton station involving the Executioners.
“As you sit here today, is it your testimony that you transferred Juarez from Compton to Industry because of the slowdown?” he asked Tardy, according to a court transcript.
“I never transferred him to Industry Station,” she replied. Tardy went on to testify that she misspoke to the COC about the slowdown. “What I meant to say was I confirmed that there was an allegation of a work slowdown at the station,” she said.
Department ‘wanted her to lie’
Romero claims that after Tardy was appointed undersheriff in December 2022, she knew the Sheriff’s Department would face civil liability if she stuck with her COC testimony acknowledging the existence of a deputy gang at the Compton station.
“She is a smart, intelligent person who does her homework and didn’t misspeak at the COC hearing,” he said. “The sheriff’s department wanted her to lie in court and that’s exactly what she did. Nothing happened to her.”
The petition submitted to POST states, “the change in testimony and refusal to materially explain the discrepancies in her sworn testimony before two different tribunals was the product of hubris and belief in total non-accountability.”
Climb through the ranks
Tardy, who has worked for the Sheriff’s Department since 1994 and is the agency’s first female undersheriff, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tardy has risen steadily through the ranks since she began her career at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women, where she served as a line deputy and training officer before transferring to Temple sheriff’s station in 1999.
In 2001, Tardy was promoted to gang investigator and transferred to the Operation Safe Streets Bureau at the Compton station. Five years later, Tardy became a sergeant and, in 2011, was promoted to a lieutenant at Men’s Central Jail, where she remained for two years before moving to the Carson station.
She has also served as captain of South Los Angeles station and as chief of the LASD’s Central Patrol Division.
Capital & Main reported in March 2023 that Tardy has a tattoo on her ankle that signifies her dedication to a station she was assigned to early in her career. However, several Sheriff’s Department sources told the publication the tattoo signifies membership in the V Boys deputy gang.
POST, which is responsible for setting minimum selection and training standards for California law enforcement, declined to comment this week on whether the agency has received the petition.
“All complaints we receive are reviewed in due course, and investigations into matters that are referred to the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Advisory Board with a recommendation for decertification become public at that time under state law,” spokesperson Meagan Poulos said.
In 2021, the state Legislature gave POST additional authority to certify peace officers and suspend and decertify officers for serious misconduct.
The Civilian Oversight Commission did not respond to a request for comment.
Deputy gangs probe
In March 2022, the COC launched an investigation of deputy gangs that included interviews with former and current LASD employees along with a review of court filings, deposition transcripts, public statements by department representatives, reports relating to prior investigations, and media reports. The COC has also conducted numerous public hearings, most of which involved witness testimony under oath.
In February 2023, the COC released a sweeping 70-page report detailing the history and proliferation of Los Angeles County deputy gangs that have purportedly existed since at least 1973.
Gang members work at various patrol stations, bureaus and jails, and, in addition to the Executioners, identify themselves by names such as the Banditos, Regulators, Spartans, Reapers, Rattlesnakes, Cowboys, Vikings, Wayside Whities, 3000 Boys, and 4000 Boys, according to the report.
Recent media reports also have revealed the existence of a new gang known as the Indians, who allegedly operate out of the City of Industry sheriff’s station.
Deputy gang members allegedly often have matching and sometimes sequentially numbered tattoos and use language and gestures associated with street gangs.
Some deputy gangs have engaged in acts of violence, placed fellow deputies at risk of physical harm, celebrated officer-involved shootings, and created a climate of fear and retribution to those who speak publicly about the misconduct of members, the report says.
Villanueva downplays gangs
The COC places much of the blame for deputy gangs on former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who trained at the East L.A. Station and is believed by the panel to have shown favoritism toward the station and its deputies.
Villanueva, during testimony before the COC earlier this month, denied that he had been untruthful about the existence of deputy gangs. He also defended his decision not to judge deputies based on any tattoos they might have.
“There are a lot of deputies with tattoos, and if you try to eliminate all the deputies with tattoos with no evidence of misconduct, you are going to create a gargantuan public safety crisis,” he told the COC.
City News Service contributed to this report
