Sheriff Alex Villanueva was born in 1963 and is 56 to 57 years old. Additionally, as former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa often pointed out during his long public service, the new sheriff says the old stereotype of straight Latino men disparaging LGBT people as weak is disappearing, even in law enforcement. No way," Brenes said. âIâll leave it at that.â. Itâs his trademark demeanorâa poised but prickly intransigence. McDonnell had the vastly superior resume: former police chief of Long Beach; former second-in-command at the LAPD under Chief William Bratton; coauthor of a searing report by a blue-ribbon county jail violence commission that critiqued a brutal culture inextricably linked to poor management and inadequate oversight. When they do wind up, unfortunately, in our jail system, we’re going to make sure they’re treated with dignity with respect. He is in many ways a product of the grievances he seeks to redress. As the parade in Long Beach wound down, the engine was already running in the sheriffâs Chevy Tahoe, and Villanueva was inching gingerly on his sore knee toward the passenger door, which an assistant held for him. The Emmy Award-winning multilingual journalist and UCLA grad, born in Los Angeles to immigrant parents from Mexico and El Salvador, adds a new media-savvy dimension to the sheriffâs hard-nosed entourage. He took his findings to a commander who encouraged Villanueva to stop pushing ‘the brown thing,’ according to the lawsuit. And we’re not going to harm them more than they’ve already put themselves in harms way. But that didn't last long. âWe gave them Jim McDonnellâs.â. Today he leads a department of nearly 10,000 deputies and 8,500 civilians responsible for public safety in an area of more than 4,000 square miles. Now, 33-year-old Johannes Jared Villanueva … âThey were happy with McDonnell because he did whatever they pleased,â he said. But since Mandoyan had sued the county for discrimination, much of the damaging evidence against him was a matter of public record. “I recognize LGBT people not only as individuals but as a distinct minority,” Villanueva says, a belief he picked up over the years, through a gay nephew and gay friends. “It’s a governance mess," said Yaroslavsky, who is director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs. When they do wind up, unfortunately, in our jail system, we’re going to make sure they’re treated with dignity with respect. That is a felony.” Villanueva then cited a government code. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. And I could go on for a long, long time about a long list of felony crimes and the consequences of them — and they're done by public officials. Copyright © What does he have to say to his disillusioned progressive allies? What’s often missed, she said, is that La Malinche had little choice but to obey. In the wake of the Mandoyan decision, it issued a unanimous rebuke of the sheriff, citing âgrave concerns over how this particular matter has been handled and the message it sends to law enforcement personnel, as well as victims of domestic violence and the public at large.â When Villanueva refused to budge, the county cut off Mandoyanâs pay and filed for an injunction to block the deputy from rejoining the department. A county spokeswoman said the Board of Supervisors has played no role in applying for or accepting the grant since 1999. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. But the shake-up wasnât limited to the top ranks. âThereâs a vocal group that basically wants his head on a platter,â Ingalsbee said, âbut thereâs a also a group of people that want to give him time to find his legs.â, Unbowed by the growing criticism, Villanueva has doubled down, arguing that most of the departmentâs problems were caused by McDonnellâs administration, which he says had put a thumb on the scale of internal investigation proceedings. But we’re going to treat drug addiction as the health problem that it is.”. In conversation Villanueva cited the research of Irving Janis, a psychologist from Yale University who studied leadership debacles like the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and who published early work on the phenomenon known as âgroupthink.â. He seems to have an intuitive grasp of the martial significance of the outfit. Despite civilian criticism, Villanuevaâs adversarial temperament and hard-driving leadership style have endeared him to the lower and middle ranks of the department. Though technically the elected position of Los Angeles County Sheriff is non-partisan, the long-held presumption is that anything to do with law enforcement is the political province of “law and order” Republicans. Soon after, without approval from the county counsel and in violation of the county Civil Service Commission, the sheriff reinstated Mandoyan and agreed to award him more than two years in back pay. Councilmember; City of La Habra Heights. Though technically the elected position of Los Angeles County Sheriff is non-partisan, the long-held presumption is that anything to do with law enforcement is the political province of, But the mega-turnout Nov. 6, 2018 election flipped that script, with dark horse retired sheriff’s lieutenant. As a candidate, he spoke frequently about reform, transparency, and public integrity. McDonnell was the first person from outside the department to occupy the office of sheriff in 100 years. “If we’re talking about people who are actually harming the Latino community, Sheriff Villanueva is at the top of that list.”, (Villanueva has said that little information has been released about Guardado, who was shot and killed by a deputy June 18 in Gardena, because the investigation is ongoing.