Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he is opting out of the Los Angeles Times endorsement process amid reports that his office attempted to cover up an incident in which a deputy knelt on the head of a handcuffed inmate.
The sheriff accused the newspaper of “following in the footsteps of TMZ and focusing on clickbait stories with sensational headlines, and the public suffers,” in a letter published as a campaign advertisement.
“I respectfully reject your invitation to participate in your editorial board’s endorsement process for Sheriff. I defeated the incumbent four years ago without your endorsement, and I see no need to seek it for my re-election victory,” the sheriff wrote.
He added that the Times “is a card-carrying member of the Political establishment.”
The editorial board is completely separate from the newspaper’s newsroom.
Robert Greene, an editorial writer at the Times and member of the board, tweeted that the sheriff was, in fact, involved in the board’s endorsement process.
“The kicker is that he did participate. Sat with us for an hour. Tuesday at 9 a.m.,” Greene tweeted of the meeting, which allegedly took place the same day the sheriff’s letter was dated.
The Hill has reached out to Villanueva’s campaign and to the Times editorial board for comment.
The letter came just days after the newspaper reported that sheriff’s officials had attempted to cover up an incident in which a deputy knelt on the head of a handcuffed inmate for over three minutes.
Villanueva has denied involvement in the cover-up, with a spokesperson saying he did not find out about the March incident until October, when he ordered an investigation into it.
However, other officials say that he watched a video of the incident within days of it happening.