LA County Deputy Misconduct Can Be Disclosed: CA Supreme Court

LOS ANGELES COUNTY -- The state Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department can disclose to prosecutors the misconduct history of deputies being called to testify in criminal cases.

The ruling overturns an earlier state appeals court decision.

The legal dispute stems from a ``Brady list'' -- named after a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case -- of names of about 300 Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies with misconduct histories. In criminal cases, prosecutors are required by law to provide defense attorneys with any information that might bring into question the overall credibility of law enforcement officials testifying in a
case.

But citing privacy and confidentiality concerns, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the union that represents deputies, sued to prevent the list -- compiled during the administration of former Sheriff Jim McDonnell -- from being turned over to prosecutors.

In 2017, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant found that providing the complete list would clash with state law, but he authorized the sheriff's department to turn over names of problem deputies who might be scheduled to testify in an upcoming criminal case to comply with disclosure rules.

The deputy sheriff's union appealed the decision, and in mid-2017, a state appeals court sided with the deputies union, blocking the revelation of any names to prosecutors, even in the case of a deputy set to testify in a criminal case.

This week, however, the state Supreme Court said state laws permit such disclosure and that the sheriff's department wouldn't violate state law.

City News Service contributed to this report.