Second whistleblower claims she showed Sheriff Alex Villanueva use-of-force video herself 5 days after it happened
A second, high-ranking Los Angeles County sheriff's official claims Sheriff Alex Villanueva knew about a controversial use-of-force video five days after it happened because she showed it to him herself – and she says she was demoted over it in retaliation.
Until just a few weeks ago, Robin Limon was an assistant sheriff, part of the command staff just below Villanueva himself. She filed a claim Thursday, accusing him of trying to frame her and retaliating against her by forcing her to choose between retiring or being demoted four ranks.
The claim was filed over an incident that happened more than a year ago, but came to light just last month, in which an inmate punched a deputy, who then put his knee on the inmate for more than three minutes, the Los Angeles Times reported. Villanueva claims he didn't know about the incident until months later in October, then changed his timeline to say he found out about it in November.
Limon's lawsuit claims Villanueva knew almost immediately, because she is the person who brought him the video and watched it with him.
"Villanueva blocked a criminal investigation into the matter, lied about the incident and claims he did not watch the video until November 2021 to fit a fake timeline," the lawsuit alleged. She is now accusing Villanueva of obstructing justice and covered up the incident, then retaliating against her and others for blowing the whistle on illegal conduct, according to the lawsuit.
Limon's attorney, Vincent Miller, calls her account "a smoking gun."
"This is a person with first-hand knowledge who actually walked the tape in to him, and showed it to him, and watched it with him," Miller said. "It destroys his fake timeline and story that he had seen it in October or November or whatever other date he might change it to now."
This is the second whistleblower to come forward this week to say they had direct knowledge of Villanueva covering up the video and retaliating against those who exposed it.
Villanueva has called the first lawsuit false, and has since launched a controversial investigation into the Los Angeles Times reporter who broke the story, drawing national attention and scrutiny before he backed off.
CBS2/KCAL 9 has reached out to Villanueva for his reaction to the latest lawsuit.
