WITNESS
Michael J. Gennaco serves as the Chief Attorney for the Office of Independent Review. The OIR's mission is to ensure that allegations of misconduct by members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are investigated and reviewed in a fair, thorough, and impartial manner. In the three years of its existence, OIR has reviewed hundreds of internal investigations and has made numerous policy recommendations implemented by LASD. Most recently, Mr. Gennaco was appointed by a federal judge as an expert consultant for the court to assist in designing an oversight body for the California Department of Corrections.
Mr. Gennaco served for over six years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California. As Chief of the Civil Rights Section, Mr. Gennaco was responsible for overseeing all investigations and allegations of federal civil rights violations and has prosecuted judges, police officers, and white supremacists. Prior to that, Mr. Gennaco was a federal prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Mr. Gennaco is a graduate of Dartmouth College and received his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from Stanford Law School. He has also taught at American University Law School, the National Law Center at George Washington University, Loyola Law School, and Chapman College of Law.
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STATEMENT
"On April 20, 2004, inmate Raul Tinajero was killed in his cell in Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail, the largest county jail in the United States. The Tinajero killing attracted notoriety for two reasons: (1) it was a bold, elaborately premeditated killing of a witness by a murderer he had just testified against; and (2) it was the fifth inmate-on-inmate homicide in the downtown jail complex within a six month period.
"Shortly after Tinajero was killed, Sheriff [Lee] Baca held a news conference to report not only about the inmate murder of Tinajero, but to provide detailed preliminary facts regarding the four additional inmate homicides that had occurred in Los Angeles County jails since October 2003. In addition, Sheriff Baca opened his jails and conducted a personal tour of the facilities for both the media and local elected officials so that they could view first-hand the current jail environment… and the Sheriff became personally engaged in steering the investigations of these murders to ensure accountability of his employees.
"The Sheriff's Department's handling of the inmate murder cases demonstrates an approach to addressing violence and misconduct in the jails that should be replicated elsewhere: namely, one that incorporates the concerns, perspectives, and contributions of outside entities. Too often in similar scenarios, issues such as employee misconduct, safety failures, and violence have been addressed, if at all, behind closed doors and with a 'circle the wagons' mentality."
Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission
Download the complete written statement
Note: Some witnesses submitted documents in addition to the written statement they prepared for the hearing. In most cases, those documents are not available on the Commission's web site.
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