Los Angeles County Sheriff Searches Home Of Supervisor Sheila Kuehl

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s executed a search warrant on the home of Supervisor Sheila Kuehl on Wednesday, in what they said was part of an ongoing corruption investigation.

But Kuehl, a critic of Sheriff Alex Villanueva, blasted the action, calling it a “sort of a bogus, non investigation.”

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The Sheriff’s Department confirmed that search warrants also were executed on the home of Patti Giggans, Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight commissioner, as well as the office of non profit she runs, Peace Over Violence, and offices at the Hall of Administration and Los Angeles Metro headquarters. The office said that the investigation was being conducted by the department’s Public Corruption Unit.

“The investigation has been shared with a federal agency and they continue to monitor,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. According to the Los Angeles Times, the warrant was signed by Superior Court Judge Craig Richman and had to do with an investigation into Peace Over Violence and how it was awarded a county Metro contract. The contract was to provide on hotline for reports of sexual harassment on public transit, according to the Times.

Media outlets were present at the time that the warrant was served, catching the moment that a deputy said at Kuehl’s green front door, “Sheriff’s Department. We have a warrant. We demand entry.”

Outside of her home, Kuehl told reporters that one of the sheriff’s deputies “presented a warrant to search the house, which has no information in it at all, signed by a judge who is a friend of a sheriffs. But this strikes me as being part of a sort of a bogus, non investigation. There is no investigation going on that would support this warrant.”

She told Fox’s Los Angeles affiliate that “the only thing they are going to find inside my house is maybe a few cat videos and those kind of things that regular people have.”

She also denied having anything to do with the awarding of the contract. “I did not even know that they had such a contract,” she said.

Kuehl is a former child actress who has been a supervisor since 2014. She previously served in the California State Assembly and State Senate.

A Metro employee, Jennifer Loew, filed a labor lawsuit against Metro in 2020, alleging retaliation after she claimed misconduct, including the way that the Peace Over Violence contract was awarded. Court records show a settlement was reached in the case, and Loew’s husband told the Times that the agreement was for more than a half million dollars. The settlement has not yet been made final, according to court records.

Villanueva is facing re-election in November against retired Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna.

Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin called the search a “vindictive, politically motivated witch hunt by a corrupt sheriff with a track record of abusing his power and trying to silence and intimidate his critics.”

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