On Thursday, July 18th, civil attorney Bradley Gage held a press conference in his office in the San Fernando Valley. His stated purpose of the presser was to provide an update on his efforts to sue the County of Los Angeles and the Sheriff’s Department for the deputy-involved shooting that took the life of Naini Finlayson back in December of 2023.
Accompanying Gage were activists Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM-LA, and Waunette Cullors, from the Antelope Valley based Cancel the Contract, which is an organization dedicated to cancelling the law enforcement contract between the AV and the LA County Sheriff’s Department. The mother of Finlayson, Tracie Hal was also in attendance.
As part of his presser, Gage reported that he had filed a civil lawsuit against the County and the deputy involved in the shooting incident, Deputy Ty Shelton. To most everyone’s surprise, Gage then announced that Shelton had been fired as a result of the shooting. Gage then deferred to Cullors who said she and Abdullah had recently spoken with Sheriff Luna, who personally told them that Shelton had been fired from the Department.
Personally, this information was particularly surprising, in that I knew for a fact that Shelton had not been discharged from the Department as reported by Gage and his associates. Shortly after the presser, however, I received a news article that had been posted by FOX11 Los Angeles, reporting as fact that Shelton had been fired from the Sheriff’s Department.
At this point, I had seen enough, and called out FOX11’s false reporting, insisting that they remove their post and issue an apology to the deputy and the Sheriff’s Department. To their credit, while they did not remove the posting, FOX11 corrected the post to relate that Shelton had not been fired and had instead been relieved of standard duty back on March 26th and assigned to his home during working hours.
As a side note here are my personal observations regarding the decision to relieve Shelton of duty in the first place. During the course of my career, I have personally investigated hundreds of administrative investigations involving the actions of deputies. I have assisted on hundreds, if not thousands of others. I know what an administrative investigation looks like, and I know a thing or two about when to make the decision to relieve someone of duty. The decision to do so in this case is murky at best.
The facts of the shooting, as vividly shown on the video footage obtained from the body-worn cameras of the deputies involved, do not, in my opinion, justify sending someone home for months and months. Reassignment is an obvious option if the Department wanted to let things cool off for a while. This decision smacks more of trying to “send a message,” not only to Deputy Shelton, but also to the left-wing activists who want to destroy law enforcement.
Now let’s roll back to the initial false reporting of Bradley Gage and the statements he made at his press conference. As a licensed attorney, you would think that he would have at least attempted to confirm the information he had been given by the anti-cop activists. Apparently, he did not. This isn’t particularly surprising, given the fact that he has previously alleged outrageous, yet completely fictional, actions on the part of the deputies who were at the scene the night Finlayson had been shot.
Of even greater concern are the statements from Cullors and Abdullah, who reported falsely that Shelton had been fired from the Sheriff’s Department. If, in fact, Luna told them that Shelton had been fired from the Department, he had clearly been lying or seriously misinformed. Additionally, IF he gave them protected information regarding an on-going administrative investigation into a sworn law enforcement officer, he had committed an outlandish violation of the Peace Officer’s Bill of Administrative Rights (POBAR). So, which is it? False statements or incompetence? Or both?
Beyond this, where was Luna after this false reporting had been made public? Why wasn’t he calling Bradley Gage to set the record straight? Why wasn’t he contacting FOX11 news and demanding that false reporting be taken down? Why wasn’t he going directly on air to stick up for one of his people? Why would he provide ANY information to civilians, actively involved in a lawsuit against the Department no less? That’s what the Department’s County Counsel is for.
Once again, and sadly an all too common occurrence, the Sheriff of Los Angeles County has proven that he is not fit for the office he holds. He has proven that he is more interested in placating cop haters than he is in standing up for what is right. Think back. When was the last time, IF EVER, have you seen Luna stand up for one of his people? His employees deserve better. The people of the County of Los Angeles deserve better. How many more blunders will we be forced to watch? How many more leadership failures?
So many questions.
So few answers.
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