RANDY ECONOMY: MY WORLD: Sheriff Lee Baca Guilty Plea Brings Back a Flood of Memories, beginning in 1981

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Sheriff Lee Baca Guilty Plea Brings Back a Flood of Memories, beginning in 1981

Happier times...with Sheriff Lee Baca here in Cerritos (at Chipolte for GOD SAKES!) eons ago.

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is a guilty man today.

In a downtown Los Angeles courtroom today, Lee Baca admitted to lying twice about his involvement in hiding a jail inmate from FBI investigators.

I have reported on Lee Baca since 1981 when I was the City Editor of the Norwalk Herald American Newspaper and he was working as the Watch Commander over on Civic Center Drive and Manuel Salinas Avenue.

I consider Lee Baca to be a wonderful friend of mine.

So today I find myself in sort of a news fog.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that..... "Baca also admitted that he lied when he said that he was unaware that his subordinates planned to approach an FBI special agent at her home. Baca directed the subordinates to approach the agent, stating that they should "do everything but put handcuffs" on her, the agreement said.

As part of the plea deal, Baca appears that he will indeed have to do some jail time. What? Jail time? Seriously?

This Lee Baca isn't like the Lee Baca, I have known since I was 21 years of age and fresh out of Journalism school from Utah State University and Cerritos College.

The Lee Baca I know is a deeply religious, compassionate "Man of God."

Lee and I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours together over my lifetime, so today I am saddened by his guilty plea, but I am also reminded that no one is ABOVE the LAW...especially those who carry a badge and who are charged with keeping the bad guys in hand cuffs and not the other way around.

I have been with Lee eating Mexican food on Claretta Avenue in one of the most dangerous barrios in Southern California. I have seen him on his worst days of his career as well as some of his happiest moments like the night he was elected as Sheriff of Los Angeles County.

Baca had that "thing" that so many in law enforcement strive to grasp .. a "star quality" that is rare to find these days across America.

I will be more than glad to share my thoughts with ANY MEDIA outlet in the WORLD about Lee Baca, and while I am stunned about his guilty plea. I am NOT SURPRISE this took place.

Thoughts?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Meet Randy Economy

You may know me from my role as the Senior Advisor and Official Media Spokesman for the Recall Gavin Newsom campaign that established a worldwide blitz of interviews. I conducted more than 2,200 media interviews on behalf of “The People’s Recall” during a 10-month period from November 2020 to September 2021. The iconic magazine Mother Jones in a dramatic feature article called me “A ‘Superhero Pirate’ Radio Host, (and) Gavin Newsom’s Strangest—and Most Dangerous—Threat. Meet Randy Economy, the man behind the effort to recall California’s governor.” I appeared on more than 330 media outlets around the world in my capacity with RecallGavin2020. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax, NBC Nightly News, ABC News, as well as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and dozens of other media outlets aired featured reports on my work on behalf of “The People’s Recall.” I am and will always consider myself to be a journalist. Sometimes I think I bleed ink. My talents as an Investigative Journalists in California earned me FIVE top awards from the prestigious Los Angeles Press Club in 2013, 2014, and 2016. I am tenacious. My reporting over the years has led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California. While working for a tiny community newspaper in Southeast Los Angeles County, I worked doggedly to expose the biggest public corruption case in Los Angeles County history when I unearthed a massive pay to play scheme inside the Assessor’s Office that led to the arrest of then Assessor John R. Noguez and four others. However, politics has been in my DNA since I was a child. I have worked on more than 300 political campaigns as a consultant and advisor since 1982 for candidates from all sides of the political spectrum including Democrats and Republicans, and even Libertarians. I am also a small business owner, serving as the President and CEO of Hot Water Studio & Production, LLC. My company works with media outlets across the state, nation, and world exposing public corruption via several new media platforms. I have also overcome personal challenges. I am legally blind with zero vision in my right eye and only 40 percent vision remaining in my left eye. I sometimes wear an eyepatch due to my failed vision. (Hence the nickname of “America’s Political Pirate.”