The Los Angeles Police Academy is located in Elysian Park. Gina Ferazzi is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
The gun-stealing scheme was relatively easy before it all came crashing down. He couldn't go on vacation.
The manager of the gun store at the Los Angeles Police Academy had been reprimanded for being late but never took time off. He was the store's closing supervisor and he was there every night to count the inventory.
If someone else had been assigned that count, they might have found out that Duenas was stealing guns and selling them for cash, according to the memo. The Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club was not aware that he was there.
This went on for a long time because of a lack of oversight and safety protocols that are considered standard in other gun stores.
In February 2020 Duenas' bosses told him he had to take time off and he had accrued the maximum allowable leave hours. The manager made the startling discovery that the boxes were empty.
Duenas was arrested after the investigation led to his arrest. The clientele for Duenas' stolen weapons included cops.
Interviews with The Times show that the investigation into Duenas has spiraled into a larger scandal, with allegations of criminal activity, malfeasance and corruption on the part of officers and commanders.
Some of the accused officers claim that they have been scapegoated by overzealous investigators despite doing nothing wrong and being victims themselves, while others claim that they have been negligent in their management of the gun store.
The claim against the city was brought by an officer who said that the police department had known for years of "prior negligent and mismanagement issues related to the sale, tracking, and documentation of firearms and firearm transactions" by gun store personnel.
The case raises questions about the ability of the LAPD to investigate its own officers. It also gives an insight into the gun culture within the LAPD and the degree to which police officers have special access to guns that are unsafe for sale in the state.
According to internal police records, investigators alleged that several officers, including several who are still on the job, knowingly purchased stolen weapons from Duenas, bought and sold larger numbers of firearms in questionable ways, and dangerously stored loaded guns in places accessible to children.
The captain who oversaw the investigation of the case accused top commanders of helping those in their crosshairs, including by forcing investigators to interview a high-ranking captain whom they suspected of wrongdoing before they were prepared to do so.
In an April email to other top officials, Capt. Carranza wrote, "The facts speak for themselves." There have been attempts to stop the investigation.
The investigation has been handled with the utmost integrity, with detectives following every lead and their work undergoing multiple levels of review.
Several officers have had criminal cases against them, but no one has been criminally convicted. The investigations are still going on.
The account of the investigation that began with the gun store thefts is based on dozens of internal documents reviewed by The Times from sources, including emails between top officials, investigative notes and case summaries, and court records in the case against Duenas. Duenas was sentenced to one year of supervised release in August after pleading no contest to a felony and a single count of illegally transferring a firearm.
It is based on interviews with attorneys for the accused officers and police officials who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the case. The Atty. is an Atty. George Gascn has an office.
Some of the missing firearms were traced to a group ofLAPD officers who were in regular contact with Duenas and made cash deals to obtain weapons from him, including substantially discounted prices and without proper documentation.
In an email to commanders, Carranza described text messages between two of the involved officers that were obtained by investigators, in which one asked the other about the cost of obtaining a certain handgun and was told the gun normally sold for nearly $4,000 and sometimes $5,000 online.
How much do you think my price will be? The interested buyer is said to have responded to Capt. Steve Embrich.
"Cash out the door", said aLAPD detective. According to Carranza's email, Victor Brown replied.
Five law enforcement officers, four of them from the LAPD and one from the LA County Sheriff's Department, were found in possession of some of the stolen weapons, internal LAPD records show.
34 of 44 firearms that were stolen have been recovered, with the whereabouts of the remaining 10 unknown. Several of the recovered weapons came from the five law enforcement buyers after they were confronted about the thefts.
The cases were presented to prosecutors in Gascn's office by investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department. According to the prosecutors' memo, investigators presented evidence that two of the officers had loaded guns in their homes and that children were present.
The prosecutors cited insufficient evidence to file charges against three of the officers, who were found with one of the stolen guns.
The D.A.'s office said that the cases against Embrich and Christian Maciel are still pending.
The commander of the Los Angeles Police Department's West L.A. station was charged with criminal storage of a firearm in Long Beach after investigators found an unlocked, fully loaded handgun in a closet.
Tom has denied any wrongdoing on his part, including in statements that one of his attorneys provided to The Times and in a notice of claim for damages that he has filed against the city.
Tom's attorney said that the gun in question in the Long Beach case was in Tom's wife's possession at the time it was discovered, and that his son never had access to or even visual reference of the weapon itself.
In his claim with the city, Tom called the accusation that he would steal a firearm "patently ridiculous" and said he had filled out all the proper paperwork to register the weapon in his name.
Duenas has resolved his case and does not want to speak, according to the office of Alex Kessel.
In L.A., the city attorney's office is considering a similar unsafe gun storage charge against Murra after a search of his home allegedly revealed a loaded 9 millimeter handgun unlocked in a bedroom, accessible to his young daughter. The case is being reviewed by the city attorney's office.
There are still more allegations under review within the LAPD as part of internal affairs complaints related to the gun investigation.
One officer is accused of tipping off another that his locker was about to be searched, while another is accused of issuing a veiled threat to investigators working on the gun case.
Carranza wrote in an email that the comment was received as a threat and an attempt to intimidate investigators.
Police officials said that all of the officers were aware of The Times' interest in speaking with them.
Duenas could not be reached for comment. Gascn's office wouldn't say how his case was decided.
Muna Busailah, an attorney representing Tom, Embrich and Morrison, said that they had been ordered not to discuss the case because of pending criminal and administrative investigations.
She said that they deny all allegations against them and that they look forward to the day they can speak about it.
The prosecutors in Gascn's office had differing reasons for not prosecuting Tom, Brown and Murra.
In Tom's case, they noted the one stolen firearm in his possession had been registered to his name, which they said "negates any intent to steal" on his part. They said he appeared to have purchased the gun from Duenas in cash at a lower price but had a receipt and invoice for the transaction and cooperated with investigators.
Brown's case was not proven "beyond a reasonable doubt" according to prosecutors.
The case against Brown was undermined because he made statements to investigators before he knew he was a suspect in the case.
The Times requested a public record of the decision not to bring charges against Brown, but the memo detailing the decision was redacted.
Prosecutors said that he surrendered three stolen weapons to investigators and that two more were found in his home after a search warrant was served there. Only one of the guns was registered to him. He didn't have a receipt for any of the weapons.
When investigators tried to interview him about the guns, he invoked the 5th Amendment and said he had no relationship with Duenas.
The issue is whether or not Murra knew the guns were stolen, and prosecutors decided they didn't have a case.
The officers thought they were buying legal firearms at a cash discount, and not buying stolen guns, according to prosecutors.
Tom, Embrich, Marrache, Morrison, and Murra were all active members of the LAPD. Brown retired in February. Maciel is currently assigned to the Century station, but the sheriff's department wouldn't comment on the investigation. Maciel could not be reached for comment.
It is not clear whether there are more investigations still ongoing at the federal level. There are many unresolved questions about the firearms transactions of the officers.
According to the internal records, Carranza and her team noticed that some of the officers in regular contact with Duenas were buying guns from him but also selling and consigning firearms in large numbers themselves.
Some of the guns that the officers had sold were "off-roster" and the investigators wondered if the officers were selling more guns than they should.
Older firearms that do not have certain safety features are not allowed to be sold in California. Law enforcement officers can still purchase those weapons, even though their sale is restricted, because of the law.
Five years ago, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent a notice to law enforcement agencies across Southern California, warning them that they could be breaking the law if they continued to sell such weapons. More recently, officers from other agencies have been charged for engaging in such sales without the necessary federal licenses.
Carranza sent an email to other officials that said the number of guns the officers were dealing in was "abnormal".
Embrich had 355 different firearms, had sold 36 of them in the last four years, and had 37 on consign, according to an April email from Carranza. She wrote that a number of the guns were "off-roster" weapons.
Tom had sold six firearms in the past four years, and had 14 on the verge of being sold. She said that when they searched Tom's home, they found 11 rifles and seven shotguns with no record of a registered owner and two guns that were registered to someone other than Tom.
They found that Brown had owned over 150 firearms, and sold 24 of them in the past four years, and that Murra had owned 49 and sold 20 in the past four years. She said that Maciel had sold 38 guns in the last four years.
The ledgers of the gun sales in question were provided to the ATF, and they would be reviewing them to make the determination of federal violations.
The status of that investigation is not known.
In his notice of claim to the city, Tom said that the weapons seized during the raid on his home were family heirlooms that he had received from his father prior to when California law began requiring such long guns to be registered.
His attorney said that his ownership of the rifles and shotguns pre-dates any of the registration requirements that apply to older transactions.
Tom said that the investigation of him by the LAPD was misguided and extreme, and that he was swept up in an ongoing and overly explorative investigation that has minimal connection with him.
Carranza's unit decided to surround his home and those of his neighbors with a team of officers in tactical gear while they knew Tom was at work in "an outrageous show of force and public demonstration." Carranza's unit decided to surround his home and those of his neighbors with a
He claimed that the investigation ruined his reputation and resulted in him being skipped over for a promotion to commander.
The direct actions taken by the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club, as well as other City of Los Angeles representatives, after Duenas was found to have taken funds were negligently planned, and subjecting the Claimant to maximum humiliation, judgment, and isolation from his neighbors.
Tom wants to recover $5 million in damages. Tom's claims were not commented on by the LAPD. The city attorney's office was looking at them.
According to prosecutors, the future of the store was uncertain, but the leaders of the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club did not respond to requests for comment.
The store had previously been cited by the Department of Justice for errors in their documentation of firearms, and prosecutors were unsure if the store's federal firearm license was in jeopardy or if the store would be investigated in relation to Due.
"LAPRAAC doesn't want to comment on your story at this time," Michael Kanne said.
It's not clear whether other overseers of the LAPD will conduct reviews of their own.
The inspector general's office of the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that it had received information from multiple sources regarding the investigation and was continuing to monitor the department's response to the allegations.
The office interceded in previous cases whereLAPD officers profited from the sale of firearms.
The FBI investigated if members of the SWAT unit had violated the law by buying large numbers of custom-made handguns and selling them for profit. TheLAPD inspector general found sales records that showed the unit had purchased as many as 324 pistols, which only had 60 officers assigned to it.
The inspector general found that officers in the Firearms and Tactics Section used their relationship with the gun company to purchase discounted pistols for members of the unit, a possible violation of city ethics rules.
Carranza briefed high-ranking officials on her team's work because she believed the investigation was being stymied internally by her direct bosses, according to internal LAPD records.
Carranza said that Kris Pitcher forced her investigators to interview Tom before they were ready to do so, and that since retired deputy chief Vito Palazzolo had escorted Tom into his home with his service weapon on him, officers were serving him.
Carranza said that she had been ordered not to discuss the gun case.
Police officials denied Carranza's claims.
Pitcher, who oversees the LAPD's detective bureau, including Carranza's unit, declined to address Carranza's specific claims about him, but said the investigation was thorough and the integrity of the work was unquestioned.
The facts of the case were reviewed and re-reviewed many times in discussions that included police personnel but also personnel from Gascn's office, Pitcher said.
The story was originally published in Los Angeles Times.
