LAPD Launch Criminal Investigation To Determine If City Council Members' RACIST Conversation Was Recorded ILLEGALLY
LAPD Chief Michael Moore
Oct. 26 2022, Published 8:55 a.m. ET
The Los Angeles Police Department has officially launched a criminal investigation to determine whether a racist conversation between four city council members was recorded illegally and without consent, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The shocking development comes just a few short weeks after the recording, taken in October 2021, was leaked online.
Nury Martinez
In the recording, Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, as well as Councilmen Kevin de León, Gil Cedillo and labor leader Ron Hererra, were heard using profanity, disparaging a fellow colleague and using racist rhetoric when discussing members of the Black community.
“Let me take him around the corner and then I'll bring him back,” Martinez said in the recording after referring to the adopted Black son of her colleague, Mike Bonin, as a “little monkey” who deserves a “beatdown.”
City Council President Martinez resigned shortly after the recording leaked online earlier this month, and labor leader Hererra followed suit Monday night when it was confirmed he also handed in his formal resignation.
“Last night, Ron Herrera resigned from his position as President of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor,” a statement released by the California Labor Federation said on Tuesday.
Gil Cedillo
“The Executive Board of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor also calls on those elected officials who were present to follow President Herrera's example by immediately resigning as well,” the statement added.
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore also released a statement on Tuesday confirming that a criminal investigation into the leaked recording has been launched.
“The department has initiated a criminal investigation into an allegation of eavesdropping,” Moore said.
“This [request] was done by the principals – this wasn't done through some intermediary or otherwise,” he continued, confirming that Martinez, de León, Cedillo and Herrera approached the LAPD on Friday to request an investigation into the legality of the October 2021 recording.
Kevin de León
“We'll also look, as far as possible, to understand how such a recording was made and identify, if possible, the person or persons responsible,” Moore added, although no suspects have yet to be identified.
According to California law, all parties need to consent to the recording of a private conversation. If the recording was made “unlawfully and surreptitiously,” as the embattled council members argue, the individual who made the recording could be liable for both criminal and civil penalties.
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The State of California has also since launched a separate investigation to determine how the L.A. council districts were drawn and whether the process was rigged by Martinez, de León, Cedillo and Herrera to disenfranchise the Black communities in those districts.
President Joe Biden has called on Councilmen de León and Cedillo to resign from their positions on the council, while protestors at City Council meetings have also pressured the two remaining members to step down.
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