Cerise Castle uncovered months-long law enforcement surveillance of her. Originally published by LA Public Press

In the following piece, Cerise Castle, a journalist known for her incisive investigations, reveals the extensive and troubling surveillance she faced after publishing a comprehensive history of deputy gangs within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD). 

Originally published by LA Public Press, Castle’s article exposes the systematic monitoring and harassment tactics used by LASD against Castle and its broader implications for press freedom. Women Press Freedom has previously documented press freedom violations against Castle, including being shot and injured by rubber bullets and facing editorial interference.

In 2021, I wrote the history of deputy gangs inside of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD). Email records released by the sheriff’s department confirm how the LASD began surveilling me immediately after publication. This surveillance has been widely condemned by local, national, and international advocates for press freedom.

In response to my reporting on LASD’s surveillance, the department denied that they surveil journalists. They said in a statement that “we are not monitoring your social media accounts. Since taking office Sheriff [Robert] Luna has expressed the importance of transparency and the freedom of the press.” 

These emails were all sent by LASD personnel when former sheriff Alex Villanueva was the sitting sheriff. The department has declined to release any further communications that I could use to verify LASD’s above statement. 

Since Sheriff Robert Luna was sworn into office, I have noticed department employees regularly engaging with Instagram account – including the department’s official account, @lasdhq. 

Words spreads in LASD

Many of the emails released document individual employees sharing my work and other information with other department employees, and others outside the department. 

On at least two occasions, senior information systems analyst William Catron sent articles written by me concerning deputy gangs to two sergeants and two listservs, including the entire unit responsible for tracking license plates. Catron has since retired, according to LASD, and declined to respond to a request for comment for this piece. 

One employee of the Major Crimes Bureau sent links to ‘A Tradition of Violence’ five different sheriff’s department employees and two list-servs within the Major Crimes Bureau. Dr. Matthew R. Schumacher, a clinical psychologist who was then part of the Major Crimes Bureau, insisted in his messages that the reporting “does seem to present a potential officer safety concern.”

He also sent links to the reporting to Joanna Mendelson, then the associate director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The ADL advocates for the state of Israel, and has worked to silence critics of the assault on Gaza in recent months. Mendelson has since left the ADL, and did not respond to a request for comment.

By September of 2021, Schumacher had subscribed to the newsletter of Knock LA, which originally published ‘A Tradition of Violence’. He described it as part of the “anti-LASD platform(s) we’re tracking.” Schumacher declined to comment for this article. 

The following month, deputy Einer Rivera of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau submitted a tip to the Sheriff’s Intelligence Unit reporting me as a “Suspicious Activity – Person.” 

Rivera wrote in his report that I am “the reporter… responsible for pushing out the LASD gangs narrative.” The report was forwarded to several other members of the department, including Lieutenant David A Infante, an alleged associate of the Banditos deputy gang whom I previously reported on. Infante has since retired, according to LASD. Rivera and Infante did not respond to a request for an interview.

Deputy unions and attorneys step in

At least one alleged deputy gang associate contacted the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association (PPOA), the union representing deputy sheriff’s and district attorney investigators, regarding my work.

The sergeant, whose name is redacted, received an email from an intake representative at the union, who instructed them to send over the reporting. The sergeant writes back and includes a link to an article on the Banditos, and said it is “the story my name is mentioned in.” 

PPOA did not respond to a request for comment. 

Days after PPOA was made aware of my reporting, another email documented discussion of Spectrum News story on my reporting between two outside attorneys following a phone call they referenced in writing. James Touchstone, a partner at law firm Jones & Mayer who drafts policies for and provides general legal advice to policing agencies according to his LinkedIn, sent a link to the story to then sergeant Brandon A. Epp and attorney Cory Salzillo. 

Salzillo is a partner at WPSS Group who, according to the firm’s website, “provides public policy analysis, legislative advocacy, and strategic business consulting for our clients on matters before the Governor’s Office, California State Legislature, and various state and local administrative agencies.” 

Epp is now a lieutenant, and is registered as a lobbyist on behalf of the sheriff’s department. He has lobbied for several bills in the California legislature on the department’s behalf this year.

Salzillo and Touchstone claimed that they “don’t recall” what was discussed in their meeting. LASD declined to comment on the meeting. 

The dragnet expands

Following the publication of the final installment of ‘A Tradition of Violence’, LASD began to expand their surveillance to various social media accounts promoting the reporting. 

On April 5, 2021, then public information officer deputy Joana Warren emailed the Sheriff’s Information Bureau crime analysts and sergeants requesting that they monitor a Twitter/X account of Knock LA. A redacted email address responded to that request stating that they had already been monitoring a different account, @scvforchange, on a daily basis. 

Jess, an organizer with SCV For Change, said they were “not really surprised” to hear that their group had been monitored by the sheriff’s department. Members of SCV for Change had documented patrol vehicles at their events consistently throughout 2020 and 2021. Jess recalled an incident in July of 2020 when deputies visited his house and threatened him with felony vandalism charges.  

In June of 2021, the sheriff’s department began creating dossiers on people loosely affiliated with me and my reporting. Ricci Sergienko, a member of the leftist political organizing group People’s City Council, widely shared ‘A Tradition of Violence’ online, and referenced the reporting frequently while interacting with sheriff’s deputies in the course of his organizing work. 

Katrina B. O’Donnell, a crime analyst in the Records and Identification Bureau, sent a 29 page dossier on Sergienko to several high ranking members of the sheriff’s department, including then lieutenant, now captain Geoffrey R. Deedrick of the Community Partnerships Bureau. At the time, Deedrick oversaw the LASD’s Homeless Outreach Services Team, which was instrumental in former sheriff Alex Villanueva’s push into LAPD’s jurisdiction in order to remove unhoused people from the Venice Beach boardwalk. 

The dossier on Sergienko included his social security number, records with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, home address and personal phone number, as well as those of his relatives and roommates. 

It mapped out his life from his childhood in Massachusetts to his college baseball career in Compton, and on to his current employer and professional pursuits. It included his various social media profiles, comments he had given to local press, as well as various GoFund Me’s and public records requests he had created in the course of his organizing. 

Sergienko said he was not surprised to learn of the dossier. 

“This just shows the pattern and practice of harassment and intimidation by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department towards anyone that challenges them, or they deem a threat,” he said.

Shortly after the dossier with his information circulated within LASD, Sergienko began receiving threats. The evening that the email with his information was sent, he received a text message containing his sibling’s name and the street they live on. The following day, he said saw a sheriff’s department patrol vehicle outside of his home. Sergienko lives within LAPD jurisdiction, and it is unusual for LASD vehicles to be in the area. 

In addition to the dossier, Sergienko was also the subject of a Facebook ad run by former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s campaign. The ad contained a picture of his face, and condemned him as a “paid activist”. 

“[Villanueva] is signaling to his followers that I am a threat to him,” Sergienko said. “It is not hyperbole to say that they are literally trying to get their targets killed.”

LASD did not respond to questions about why the dossier on Sergienko was prepared, or who gave the instruction for it to be created. 

This is not the only time that the sheriff’s department made public statements equating activists and journalists engaging in First Amendment protected with criminals. 

Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva held a press conference where he accused Los Angeles Times reporter Alene Tchemediyan of committing a crime while reporting on jail abuses. Villanueva also hosted an hour-long radio show where he accused me of falsifying my reporting on deputy gangs.

Gossip & Chatter

Besides sending out reports categorizing me as a potential criminal and instructing units to surveil me, many members of the sheriff’s department sent links of my reporting to each other to chat or as playful banter. The messages were sent across ranks: one captain, four sergeants, 6 lieutenants, one crime analyst, one operations assistant, five deputies and one security officer each sent links of the reporting to other LASD personnel. 

Several people who received the communications have ties to deputy gangs. In September of 2021, deputy Alexander J. Ostrowski, a deputy at Men’s Central Jail, emailed a link to the series to 8 deputies and one custody assistant, including alleged 3000 Boys associate deputy Anthony J. Lascano. Just a few days later, lieutenant Laura P. Barron of the Facilities Planning Bureau emailed two redacted email addresses and Eric Barron, an Internal Affairs investigator and alleged member of the Regulators, an attachment containing my reporting on LASD Gangs.

Within days of the first parts of ‘A Tradition of Violence’ publishing, special assistant district attorney Daniel Felizzatto emailed a link to the reporting to two lieutenants, including Brandon Epp, and Matthew Siverling, a lobbyist for the Association for LA County Deputy Sheriffs. On the final day of publication, a crime analyst, whose name is redacted in the records, sent a link to the series to a lieutenant and captain “due to the potential for doxing.”

Sergeant Ryan M. Bodily sent Captain Ronald T. Shaffer, who was later featured in my podcast on deputy gangs, two links to my reporting. In his message, he writes that I sound “like another reporter trying to make a name for herself.”

Discussion of the deputy gang reporting was not limited to intra-department chatter. A few weeks after the final installment of the series published, an investigative intelligence analyst at the Santa Monica Police Department sent then deputy Clayton Stelter a link to “A Tradition of Violence.” Stetler was named as an alleged associate of the 3000 Boys in a civil lawsuit as well as my reporting. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2023. 

Glendale police sergeant Ernesto Gaxiola emailed lieutenant Oscar A. Martinez a link to the reporting, saying Martinez probably heard about it already at the “Death Star,” an internal nickname for the department’s headquarters. Martinez responded by sending a link to a Superman Wikipedia article saying the webpage is about Gaxiola. 

The LASD’s monitoring of me has been condemned by several press freedom organizations, including the International Women’s Media Foundation and PEN America. 

David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, said the actions were “truly alarming.” 

“I do not think that law enforcement has any business creating dossiers or on journalists or subjecting them to any sort of data gathering or surveillance.”

At this point, it is unclear whether LASD personnel continue to discuss or monitor me at this same frequency. I’ve made several records requests on the matter, which are pending. 

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