• Originally published by City News Service July 28, 2004 

Videotaped Beating

Sheriff Lee Baca says he will investigate allegations his deputies provided incomplete or misleading information to LAPD detectives probing the videotaped beating of suspected car thief Stanley Miller. The inquiry represents an expansion of the investigation into potential brutality during Miller's June 23 arrest, the Los Angeles Times reported. As many as eight deputies responded to the Compton neighborhood where Miller was chased by LAPD officers after abandoning the stolen car he was driving, according to The Times. TV news footage shows Miller, after he appeared to have surrendered, being repeatedly kneed and struck with a flashlight by an LAPD officer. Baca told The Times in an interview that he is particularly incensed by an LAPD report that a deputy assigned to the Compton station yelled, "No rats here!" at an LAPD detective working on the investigation. Baca said the remark, if true, reflects an unacceptable code of silence. "I will find out who made the remark," Baca told The Times. "If a deputy made such a remark, it reflects that individual should no longer be a deputy sheriff... It reflects a gang mentality. That is an insult to every member of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, and it is an insult to the public." Baca said he is ordering an investigation of what deputies saw and heard as Miller was apprehended. The testimony of deputies could help settle a number of inconsistencies in accounts by LAPD officers, including suggestions that Miller was beaten because he was thought to have a gun. No gun was found. "According to the LAPD, they feel the deputies are not telling what they should," Baca told The Times. "It is my obligation to investigate the conduct here and explain why there are discrepancies."

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