LA County Sheriff's Official Resigns Over 'Deeply Troubling' Emails Making Fun of Mexicans, Muslims and Others

By Mark Berman, The Washington Post

02 May 16

senior official with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department resigned Sunday after a series of emails he sent mocking Muslims, Mexicans, black people and women during a previous job were released publicly.

Sheriff Jim McDonnell said he had accepted the resignation of Tom Angel, the department’s chief of staff, after learning that Angel “shared inappropriate and unprofessional emails” while working for the Burbank, Calif., police department.

“This incident is one that I find deeply troubling,” McDonnell said in a statement Sunday. “Chief Angel has offered his resignation, and I have accepted it. I thank him for his many years of service, and wish him and his family well.”

Angel had spent more than three decades with the county sheriff’s office before he joined the Burbank police force in 2010. After serving as assistant chief in Burbank, he returned to the sheriff’s office last summer, coming back to the agency at a time when it was being scrutinized by the Justice Department for unsafe conditions in its jails.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times obtained and published emails that Angel had sent while he was working in Burbank. Angel’s messages, sent in 2012 and 2013, included emails he forwarded that listed jokes making fun of a number of groups.

One message he forwarded in May 2013 contained a series of these comments, including this line: “I took my Biology exam last Friday. I was asked to name two things commonly found in cells. Apparently, ‘Blacks’ and ‘Mexicans’ were NOT the correct answers.”

A different email mocked concerns about racial profiling, while another he forwarded with the comment “You need to share this one too !!!!” contains what are described in the original message as a list of reasons “why Muslim Terrorists are so quick to commit suicide.” This list contains comments about Islam as well as lines like “your wife smells worse than your donkey” and “constant wailing from some idiot in a tower.”

Attempts to seek comment from Angel through the sheriff’s office were unsuccessful. He told the Los Angeles Times last week that he did not mean to offend anyone and said it was unfortunate his work emails had been publicly released.

The controversy over Angel’s emails evoked similar anger prompted by racist emails and messages made public after being sent by authorities in Ferguson, Mo., and San Francisco. When the Justice Department released its scathing report on the Ferguson Police Department, it highlighted several racist emails that ultimately led to three people being removed from their jobs. Police in San Francisco are also being criticized after a set of racist text messages were released, at least the second such situation there.

McDonnell said Sunday he had learned about Angel’s emails “very recently” and said he hoped to use the episode as a chance for the sheriff’s office to improve, vowing to meet with different groups to understand the cultures, ethnicities and religions in the county.

The sheriff’s office will begin randomly auditing the email accounts of people working for the department, according to McDonnell, adding that officials also intend to do other work “ensuring accountability and enhancing cultural and ethnic sensitivity and professionalism among our personnel.”

In his statement, McDonnell mentioned how the department had been working to improve both the public’s trust as well as its own accountability and transparency.

The Justice Department and Los Angeles County last year reached an agreement meant to protect prisoners at county jails after a civil investigation found poor mental-health care for people in the jails. Earlier in the year, the Justice Department and the sheriff’s office announced an agreement requiring reforms in certain stations after a federal investigation found patterns of biased policing practices and excessive uses of force.

In addition, last year the former second-in-command at the sheriff’s department, Paul Tanaka, was indicted along with a man who oversaw internal criminal investigations there on obstruction of justice charges. They were charged with being aware of claims of rampant abuse of inmates at county jails and poor internal investigations into those allegations. Tanaka was found guilty by a jury last month.