Deputies left man trapped in a pillar to die, California suit says. ‘A tortured death’
A man died while trapped inside a pillar at a California supermarket after fleeing a group of deputies, including one accused of bragging about how they abandoned the man and lied about not being able to find him, a new lawsuit says.
The ex-girlfriend of Aaron Tanner, a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, says he proudly told her about how he and his fellow deputies knew the man fell in the pillar at a Winco near Lancaster as they chased him in 2018 — and didn’t help him, according to the lawsuit.
They left Raymundo Rivera “to die a tortured death,” the complaint filed May 29 in Los Angeles Superior Court says.
Rivera’sdecomposing body was found inside the brick column at the grocery store on Aug. 11, 2018, after a manager smelled what he suspected was a sewer leak, NBC Los Angeles reported at the time.
Lt. John Corina, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, told the outlet in 2018 that deputies stopped Rivera over a fake license plate and he fled to the roof of a Winco before his fatal entrapment.
The lieutenant explained Rivera was likely trying to hide from the deputies in the pillar, calling the incident “one of those strange cases,” according to the news report.
The lawsuit recalls Corina’s statement, saying “it would not have been ‘strange’ if (he) had been pulled to safety by the deputies.”
Sean Kennedy, the chair of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, told McClatchy News on May 31 that he hopes the county district attorney “will conduct a serious investigation of this death to determine whether it was caused by deputy misconduct.”
Woman fears deputies ‘will murder her’
In addition to accusing Tanner and the other deputies of causing Rivera’s death, the lawsuit says they belonged to a “deputy gang” within the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department called the Rattlesnakes — and that they committed more crimes, including harassing and stalking Tanner’s ex-girlfriend.
Tanner was the gang’s “self-proclaimed ‘shot caller,’” according to his former girlfriend, who says he repeatedly abused her and has stalked, intimidated and threatened her with other “Rattlesnakes” to “silence her into not reporting their crimes,” according to the complaint.
She “reasonably fears that deputies from LASD will murder her,” the complaint says.
She’s suing Tanner and Los Angeles County under the name “Jane Doe” for her protection, as encouraged by sergeants working for the sheriff’s department as informants who are concerned for her safety, the complaint shows.
Tanner “separated from the Department on December 1, 2023,” the county sheriff’s department told McClatchy News on May 31.
In an emailed statement, the department said it hasn’t received Jane Doe’s lawsuit yet, “but emphatically does not condone any acts that violate the civil rights of others or undermines the incredible work performed daily by the majority of our dedicated personnel.”
The lawsuit, which seeks at least $5 million in damages, details how, for decades, there have been several deputy gangs — including “the Banditos,” “the Executioners,” and “the Cowboys” — active within Los Angeles County, resulting in the indictments of several deputy members.
The sheriff’s department said it “has been conducting several comprehensive deputy gang investigations that have never been done before and for the first time we have fired employees for violating the existing deputy cliques and subgroups policy.”
“The Department is actively addressing this issue of deputy gangs head on and establishing infrastructure for systemic reform.”
In response to a request for comment, Los Angeles County referred McClatchy News to the sheriff department’s statement.
Attorney Vincent Miller, who is representing the Jane Doe, told McClatchy News on May 31 that “back in 2019, Los Angeles County leaders admitted they had a deputy gang problem. But did nothing about it, and the County proved that it cannot police itself.”
Investigations into the former deputy
According to the lawsuit, Jane Doe started dating Tanner in 2020 and broke up with him in the fall of 2022.
Between 2021 to 2022, the complaint says Tanner repeatedly strangled his girlfriend until she became unconscious and committed other violent acts against her. He did this, according to the lawsuit, to assert his “dominance.”
Since their relationship ended, Tanner and others in the alleged Rattlesnakes gang have stalked Jane Doe by visiting her workplace, terrorized and intimidated her, the complaint says.
The sheriff’s department’s Internal Criminal Investigation Bureau launched an investigation into Tanner in 2023 and will be referring the investigation to the Los Angeles County District Attorney, according to the lawsuit.
McClatchy News contacted the district attorney’s office to ask whether the case has been referred as of May 31 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
The sheriff’s department’s Internal Affairs Bureau has also opened three investigations into Tanner, the complaint says.
One investigation, according to the complaint, involves how Tanner is accused of using a pocket knife to cut off a dead horse’s leg, which he made a trainee hold.
Though Tanner has been fired, “this does not provide any comfort for the Plaintiff who continues to be terrified,” the lawsuit says.
“Up through the filing of this complaint, Tanner continues to stalk her, parking his car next to hers at the supermarket and coming into her gym,” according to the complaint.
Kennedy told McClatchy News that the “LASD still doesn’t have a policy that prohibits deputies from participating in a law enforcement gang, such as the Rattlesnakes, even though a state law requiring such a policy went into effect over two years ago. “
He said Sheriff Robert G. Luna “keeps saying he has to ‘meet and confer” with the deputy unions before implementing” such a policy, and that “he is dragging his feet to appease the deputy unions at the expense of community members, who continue to suffer from deputy gang-related misconduct.”
Miller said that since the county hasn’t properly addressed deputy gangs, it “costs itself tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars to implement reform forced on it by the State Attorney General.”
“The lawsuit says that “the failure of the County to reign in deputy gangs endangered and continues to endanger the life of Jane Doe.”
This story was originally published May 31, 2024 at 11:17 AM with the headline "Deputies left man trapped in a pillar to die, California suit says. ‘A tortured death’."
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