The Los Angeles Police Department has served search warrants in its investigation into the leaked conversation that led to the City Hall racism scandal to determine if the conversation was recorded illegally, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday, Nov 29.
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The Times, citing sources who spoke anonymously, reported that the warrants were for several social-media accounts, including the Reddit account on which the audio was originally posted.
No specific targets were identified.
More warrants were expected to be served, the sources told the Times. The warrants seek communications over the last few weeks.
Police Chief Michel Moore said last month that the Major Crimes Division launched the investigation at the request of “individuals that were present at that meeting,” which included former Council President Nury Martinez, the former president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Ron Herrera, and Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo. A spokesperson for de León has said he did not request an investigation.
It remains unknown who recorded the year-old, racism-filled conversation that took place at the offices of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, and who leaked it — triggering a series of events that led Martinez to step down as City Council president and then quit the council altogether, and de León and Cedillo to face relentless calls for them to resign as well.
In California all parties participating in a conversation are supposed to give their approvals for any recording. Violators could face civil and criminal penalties.
In the recorded conversation, Martinez belittled Councilman Mike Bonin, who is white and has a Black son, and criticized the child for his behavior at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade — saying Bonin’s son was misbehaving on a float, which might have tipped over if she and the other women on the float didn’t step in to “parent this kid.”
“They’re raising him like a little White kid,” Martinez said. “I was like, ‘This kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”‘
Martinez also called the child “ese changuito,” Spanish for “that little monkey.”
De León also criticized Bonin, saying “Mike Bonin won’t (expletive) ever say peep about Latinos. He’ll never say a (expletive) word about us.”
De León also compared Bonin’s handling of his son at the MLK Parade to “when Nury brings her little yard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag.”
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