Six Current and Former Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies Sentenced to Federal Prison

By Stefani Camille
WWW.STREETGANGS.COM Staff Writer
September 29, 2014

LOS ANGELES – Last week six sworn deputies who were working in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department were sentenced to federal prison terms for interfering with a federal civil rights investigation into misconduct at the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail.

The six defendants received prison terms of up to 41 months from United States District Judge Percy Anderson. Judge Anderson issued the sentences after a federal jury determined that the defendants, including two lieutenants, attempted to influence witnesses, threatened an FBI agent with arrest and concealed an FBI informant who should have been turned over to federal authorities.

All six of the defendants were convicted of participating in a broad conspiracy to obstruct justice, a plot that began in the summer of 2011 after they learned that a jail inmate was an FBI informant and was acting as a cooperator in a federal investigation into corruption and civil rights violations at the jail.

The following names are the defendants who were sentenced last week:

– Gregory Thompson, 54, a now-retired lieutenant who oversaw LASD’s Operation Safe Jails Program, who was ordered to serve 37 months in prison and to pay a $7,500 fine
– Lieutenant Stephen Leavins, 52, who was assigned to the LASD’s Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau, who received a 41-month prison sentence
– Gerard Smith, 42, a deputy who was assigned to the Operation Safe Jails Program, who was ordered to serve 21 months in prison
– Mickey Manzo, 34, a deputy who was assigned to the Operation Safe Jails Program, who received a 24-month sentence
– Scott Craig, 50, a sergeant who was assigned to the Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau, who was sentenced to 33 months
– Maricela Long, 46, a sergeant who assigned to the Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau, who received a sentence of two years in federal prison.

After their prison terms are served, each defendant will serve one year of supervised release. If their convictions are upheld in appeals court, these felonies would prevent the six deputies from ever serving in law enforcement again.