Knock LA Wins Lawsuit to Unseal LA Sheriff’s Department Search Warrants

This was published in May 2023 for Knock LA. It is republished here for archival purposes.

Knock LA, along with the First Amendment Coalition, won a lawsuit against the LASD. The lawsuit unsealed the department’s search warrant and statement for probable cause to search used during the protests in August 2020, following the killing of Dijon Kizzee at the hands of LASD deputies. LASD used the warrant to search journalists’ and protesters’ phones and other property. For the past two years, Sheriff Alex Villanueva fought in court to prevent the search warrants from being unsealed. Now, newly elected Sheriff Robert Luna stopped fighting the lawsuit and allowed the documents to be released. 

During the four consecutive days of protest in late August and early September 2020, LASD attacked protesters and journalists outside the Compton Sheriff’s Station using flash bangs, pepper balls, and 40 mm foam rounds. On the fourth night, after LASD had called an unlawful assembly, several protesters, who were fleeing the protest as deputies shot and injured them with 40mm foam rounds and pepper balls, were arrested and cited with failure to disperse. They were also charged with conspiracy to riot and conspiracy to commit assault on a peace officer. The district attorney later rejected the charges.

LASD filed a search warrant for the seized property of the 16 protesters and journalists arrested that night. The search warrant requested permission to search the arrestees’ phones including contact lists, messages, photos, and GPS data related to the alleged crimes. LASD also requested to search protesters’ browser histories, search terms, and financial information. 

The statement for probable cause to search includes the term “rioters” to describe those arrested that night, even though authorities provided no evidence of riots occurring on any of the four nights of protest. Written by a detective assigned to LASD’s Fraud and Cyber Crimes Bureau, the statement cites the possession of commonplace items found at protests such as bullhorns, cellphones, helmets, and first aid kits as items that differentiate rioters from peaceful protesters. According to the statement, “rioters” used phones and bullhorns to coordinate attacks on “high-value targets'' and “law enforcement.” 

Photos of items taken from protesters are included as evidence in the search warrant. The images depict sunglasses, a plastic container with various first aid supplies, protest signs, and a deputy holding up a foam shield covered in black duct tape. The press pass of a journalist who was arrested and assaulted that night is also among the items pictured. 

Journalist Pablo Unzueta is cited in the search warrants, and his phone and camera are listed as evidence to be searched. LASD stopped and arrested him six blocks away from the protest as he was walking back to his car to leave the protest. It took several weeks for his camera and phone to be returned. When the camera was returned, it was missing its memory card, and with it, all the photos from that night’s protest. LASD also searched Unzueta’s phone. 

Pablo said it was no surprise after seeing his name in the search warrant, and said it speaks to a larger issue, “which is the lack of accountability and integrity within our police system…It could also set a precedent for a violation of our first amendment and an invasion of privacy. Those unsealed documents are invasive”

Unzueta sued the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department, and the county agreed to settle his case for $90,000, while the sheriff denied any wrongdoing. 

With the documents unsealed, the public can now see the problematic rationale used to justify the sheriff’s searches of personal property. David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, said of the warrant’s unsealing: “While we are grateful the public can finally see these documents, they should have been able to do so long ago. There can be no real accountability without knowledge — what did the police tell the judge who issued this warrant? Now this crucial question can be answered, and accountability for any unjustified arrest and seizure can at long last begin.”

The unsealed documents are available to the public thanks to the efforts of the First Amendment Coalition and Susan Seager, who represented Knock LA in the lawsuit. Knock LA will continue to publish records to provide more transparency to the public about its institutions. 

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