Former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca found safe after being reported missing
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has been found safe after going missing from his home in San Marino on Sunday afternoon, according to authorities.
Baca, 82, was found just after 12:30 a.m. Monday at a restaurant in El Monte, San Marino Police Chief John Incontro said in an email. The former sheriff has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, The Times previously reported.
He was identified Monday morning through an ID bracelet he was wearing, Incontro said.
“Mr. Baca was found safe and in good health in the City of El Monte. He was promptly returned to his residence and reunited with his family,” the department release said.
The former sheriff was last seen leaving his home Sunday around 4:30 p.m.
“His family, friends and colleagues along with members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department [are] concerned for his well-being,” a Sheriff’s Department spokesperson told The Times on Sunday evening. “We are in contact with his family, offering our assistance and support during this difficult time.”
The department had said it would provide additional resources to assist the San Marino Police Department with the search. Along with the Sheriff’s Department, Pasadena police provided air support while Arcadia and Claremont police provided search dogs, San Marino police said.
Raised by his grandparents in East Los Angeles, Baca dropped out of community college and was hired as a beat cop with the Sheriff’s Department. He worked his way up the ranks, eventually earning a doctorate from USC. He worked for the department for several decades before becoming the county’s top cop in 1998.
Toward the end of his tenure, the department was engulfed in a scandal that ultimately landed him and several others in federal prison. He stepped down in 2014.
Alfred “Al” Labrada, a onetime assistant chief, was found guilty of seven charges, including lying to internal investigators, sources say.
The 2011 scandal that tarnished his reputation as a reformer involved hiding an inmate who was an FBI informant and then threatening to arrest the agent who was leading the investigation. All 10 of those in the department who faced charges in the case either pleaded guilty or were convicted, including former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who was sentenced to five years in prison after a jury found he helped lead the scheme.
Several other deputies were found guilty of civil rights violations for beatings of inmates and jail visitors.
At trial, federal prosecutors focused on Baca’s efforts to impede the investigation, saying Tanaka had spearheaded the obstruction and kept Baca in the loop about its progress. Baca’s attorneys argued that he never authorized wrongdoing and that there was no hard evidence directly linking him to the obstruction scheme.
At one point, Baca planned to take a plea deal, but a federal judge said it was too lenient and the case went to trial — twice. After one mistrial, he was convicted and in 2017 he was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
He spent several years fighting his conviction in court. After losing his appeals, he began his sentence in 2020 at the Federal Correctional Institution La Tuna in Texas.
He was released in January 2022, according to federal prison records.
Times staff writer Joseph Serna contributed to this report.
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