A review panel created by Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva concluded that a deputy fired for allegedly harassing a woman had acted irrationally and unprofessionally and brought “discredit to himself and the department,” and yet should be rehired, according to a report obtained by The Times.
The document offers the first clear account of how the sheriff’s “truth and reconciliation” panel came to conclude that Caren Carl Mandoyan was dismissed unfairly, paving the way for his rehiring, a decision that has thrown the department into weeks of chaos and set up an unprecedented power struggle between Villanueva and the county Board of Supervisors.
The supervisors have gone to court to reverse the sheriff’s hiring of Mandoyan, citing claims that the deputy had abused, harassed and stalked a woman. The department’s review of the evidence in the case prompted his firing under then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell in 2016, a move that was later backed up by the Civil Service Commission.
But the new panel took a radically different view of Mandoyan’s case in a Dec. 27, 2018, report addressed to Villanueva. The panel was assembled shortly after Villanueva was sworn in in early December and tasked with redressing wrongs by the department, including claims made by the public.
Read the full story at LATimes.com.