LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has opened a criminal investigation into whether Sheriff Alex Villanueva violated state law when he solicited campaign donations from deputies, a spokesman for the office said Tuesday.
Last week, as Villanueva and his challenger, Robert Luna, were in the final days of their race for sheriff, a video was sent to members of the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, in which Villanueva made a plea.
“This message is for deputies,” he said, speaking into the camera while dressed in civilian clothes. He went on to explain that the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the union that represents rank-and-file deputies, had left its members “high and dry” by refusing to spend money to support his bid for reelection.
