By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Expect more craziness in coming days and weeks in the scandal brewing in Los Angeles where the FBI paid a sheriff’s deputy a bribe to sneak a phone into the county jail for an inmate in what turned out to be a sting.
Sheriff Lee Baca is fuming that he was not notified about the FBI probe into inmate abuse, and the fact a phone was smuggled into the jail. The sheriff is investigating the matter and had scheduled a meeting Tuesday with U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr.
Meanwhile, a source tells ticklethewire.com that two sheriff’s deputies on Monday went to the home of the FBI case agent in the probe to speak to her and indicated they have plans to arrest her. She was not arrested that night.
It’s considered a crime to sneak a phone into the jail. The sheriff’s deputy Gilbert Michel, 38, who snuck the phone into the jail has resigned after being put on leave, the LA Times reported. The paper reported that he has not been charged with a crime, but is the subject of an investigation by the sheriff’s department.
The paper also reported that the deputy took the $1,500 from the FBI as part of a sting and did not know that the inmate he was sneaking the phone into the jail for was actually an FBI informant.
Whether the sheriff’s department can charge the FBI’s case agent is another question.
Stay tuned.
FBI headquarters and the Justice Department are expected to take a keen interest in the matter.
OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST
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- Man Charged After 4,000 Pounds of Explosives Found (AP)
- DEA Arrests 53 of 104 Targets (BND.com)
- U.S. Fugitive Hid in Portugal Hamlet (AP)
- Judge to Mull Extension of Loughner’s Treatment (AP)
- -Year-Old 96 Wheelchair Bound Woman Charged With Fatally Shooting Nephew (NY Daily News)
- IG Finds Justice Dept. Takes Too Long to Review Pardons, Causing Backlogs (Main Justice)
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