An L.A. County sheriff's deputy is being investigated after a sex act was recorded on a hot mic
According to officials, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is investigating a deputy for allegedly engaging in a sex act during a break and broadcasting the tryst over her radio.
A short audio recording first made public by TMZ captured part of the alleged encounter. A woman in it laughs and exclaims, "You're going to rip my underwear!" A man responds, and a common police radio beep sounds.
According to a source familiar with the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss the ongoing investigation, the woman's voice belongs to a rookie deputy assigned to the downtown jail complex, which includes the Men's Central Jail, and she met her paramour in a parking structure during a break period.
Investigators are looking into whether the man is also employed by the Sheriff's Department.
Sex on the job is a serious, though not uncommon, offense for law enforcement agencies, and the incident provides newly elected Sheriff Robert Luna with an early and unwelcome opportunity to observe the department's disciplinary system in action. If investigators discover that the deputy violated the agency's conduct rules, she could be suspended or fired.
"The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is aware of a potential incident involving personnel possibly involved in inappropriate behavior," the agency said in a statement. "The Department is inquiring and investigating further. The department does not tolerate inappropriate behavior and has an expectation that each department member will conduct themselves in a professional manner consistent with our values."
The unnamed deputy is not the first in the sheriff's department to be caught in the act by a hot mic.
Earlier in the pandemic, a male deputy inside a closed Universal Studios theme park transmitted the soundtrack of an amorous recording with a woman. The couple were reportedly near the set of the Bates Motel from the film "Psycho," according to TMZ. As the radio captured moaning and panting sounds, a dispatcher tried to interrupt the pair to inform the deputy his radio was on.
"95 Ocean, you have an open mic, take care of the mic," the dispatcher snapped in an angry tone when the sounds of the frolicking grew louder before suddenly cutting off. The deputy was relieved of duty, and the department moved to fire him in 2021 following an internal investigation, according to law enforcement sources. It is not known whether the deputy ultimately lost his job.
In 2018, Jorge Villegas, an assistant chief in the Los Angeles Police Department and one of Chief Michel Moore's closest advisors, retired suddenly after a department surveillance operation caught him engaging in conduct that sources said may have violated the department’s policy against intimate relationships with lower-ranking officers.
Villegas left a bar with the woman and got into a car with her, according to several sources. The undercover officers then witnessed the pair engaging in what appeared to be a sexual activity, the sources said. The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.