Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca went missing Sunday afternoon from his home in San Marino, authorities said.
Baca, 82, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The Times previously reported.
Officials said the former police sergeant was last seen leaving his home around 4:30 p.m. He was wearing a red long-sleeved shirt and black pants, according to internal department sources. Sources said he was supposed to wear a metal medical alert bracelet.
“His family, friends and co-workers, as well as members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, are concerned about his well-being,” a Sheriff’s Department spokesman told The Times on Sunday night. “We are in contact with his family to offer our help and support during this difficult time.”
The department said it will provide additional resources to assist the San Marino Police Department in the search.
Raised by his grandparents in East Los Angeles, Baca dropped out of community college and was hired by the Sheriff’s Department as a patrol officer. He worked his way up, eventually earning a PhD from the University of Southern California. He worked for the department for decades before becoming the county’s top cop in 1998.
Toward the end of his tenure, the department was engulfed in a scandal that ultimately landed him and several others in federal prison. he Step down Year 2014.
His reputation as a reformer was tarnished by a 2011 scandal that involved inmates hiding an FBI informant and then threatening to arrest the agents who investigated. All 10 of the department’s officers who faced charges in the case have pleaded guilty or been convicted, including former Deputy Sheriff Paul Tanaka, who was sentenced to five years in prison after a jury found he helped lead the scheme. .
Several other deputies were convicted of civil rights violations for beating inmates and prison visitors.
At trial, federal prosecutors focused on Baca’s efforts to obstruct the investigation, saying Tanaka took the lead in obstructing the investigation and keeping Baca apprised of its progress. Baca’s attorneys argue that he never authorized wrongdoing and there is no conclusive evidence linking him directly to the obstruction plan.
Baca briefly planned to reach a plea deal, but a federal judge said it was too lenient, and the case went to trial twice. After a mistrial, he was convicted and jailed in 2017 Sentenced to three years in federal prison.
He spent several years fighting his conviction in court. After losing his appeal, he began serving his sentence at the Latuna Federal Correctional Institution in 2020.
He was released in January 2022, according to federal prison records.
