Los Angeles Times - 26.08.2019

A12 MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019 LATIMES.COM

disappointed,” Sheriff Alex
Villanueva said in an inter-
view with The Times on Sun-
day. “We intend to hold the
individual responsible for
breaking the law and most
importantly for betraying
the community.”
The dramatic twist in the
case came after days of fruit-
less searches for a gunman,
which focused largely on the
apartment building from
where Reinosa claimed the
bullets had come.
When Reinosa put out
the call for help, there was no
choice but to assume he was
telling the truth and set in
motion the massive re-
sponse that included lock-
ing down the apartment
building overnight to con-
duct a thorough, door-to-
door search, the sheriff said.
Although it soon became
clear that the deputy’s story
did not add up, investigators
couldn’t jump to conclu-
sions, the sheriff added. On
Saturday, he said Reinosa
confessed when investiga-
tors confronted him with the
evidence that indicated the
shooting was bogus.
“He admitted to cutting
the holes in his shirt,” Vil-
lanueva said. “We know the
‘what’ and the ‘how.’ We
don’t know the ‘why.’ ”
Reinosa’s motive for fak-
ing an assassination at-
tempt remained unknown,
but Lancaster Mayor R. Rex
Parris said in an interview
that the deputy had been
struggling in his first year in
the field — a probationary
training period that all dep-
uties must complete before
becoming full-fledged depu-
ties.
“He was not advancing
through the training pro-
gram at an adequate pace,”
Parris said. “There had been
a lot of attention on him.”
Parris declined to elabo-
rate further on Reinosa’s
performance, citing police
privacy laws, but said the
deputy was scheduled to be
transferred from the Lan-
caster station and specu-
lated that he had been un-
happy about the pending
move.

Word that one of their

own had gone from shooting

victim to fraud brought an-

gry responses from different

corners of the Sheriff ’s De-

partment.

“Angry. Embarrassed.

Furious. Unbelievable.

Ashamed. These are some of

the words circulating our

station’s hallways since last

night as our deputies try to

wrap their minds around”

the news, read a message

posted Sunday morning on

the Facebook page of the

Lancaster sheriff ’s station.

“Not only does it bring

discredit to the department

and our deputies, it jeopar-

dizes the trust and good

faith we ask for from the

public and elected officials,”

union officials representing

deputies wrote in the state-

ment. “Worst of all, it’s a slap

in the face of deputies who

have been shot in the line of

duty.”

Reinosa had been with

the Sheriff ’s Department for

a year and joined the Lan-

caster station in May for pa-

trol training.

On Wednesday, the depu-

ty made a radio call from the

helipad at the sheriff ’s sta-

tion’s parking lot and re-

ported that two shots had

been fired at him from a

nearby apartment building,

authorities said. Reinosa

then went back to the sta-

tion purportedly to receive

medical help.

Reinosa was taken to a

hospital, where doctors

found no obvious injuries

that backed up his claims of

having been shot. A small

wound to his shoulder and

the holes in his shirt were

unconvincing.

Nonetheless, the story

took hold that Reinosa had

been shot and his vest saved

his life.

“He is doing great, thank-

fully,” Sheriff ’s Capt. Todd

Weber said at the time. “The

wound was minor and he’s

been treated and he’s doing

well, in high spirits.”

The incident drew a mas-

sive police presence, with a

SWAT team and armored

vehicles called to the area.

Deputies blocked off the

apartment building, believ-

ing the shooter to be trapped

inside.

The message posted

Sunday on the sheriff ’s web-

site was unapologetic about

the response.

“Our deputies responded

to a cry for help and did ex-

actly what they have been

trained to do to protect our

civilian staff, residents and

community. Our community

and other first responder

partners worked side by side

with us to move quickly, ef-

fectively and efficiently.

There is no shame in that,”

the statement read.

The case will be turned

over to the Los Angeles

County district attorney,

and Reinosa could face

charges of filing a false re-

port about a crime, Vil-

lanueva and other sheriff ’s

officials said. Reinosa has

been relieved of duty, a sher-

iff ’s spokeswoman con-

firmed.

“Of course we’re all em-

barrassed. There’s no doubt

about that,” Parris, the Lan-

caster mayor, said Sunday.

“At the same time, I’m grate-

ful we don’t have a sniper

running around. And I’m

really proud of how the Sher-

iff ’s Department handled it.

There was no attempt to

cover it up.”

Parris said a sheriff ’s offi-

cial called him about 9 p.m.

Saturday to tell him investi-

gators had confirmed that

night that the shooting was

a hoax. Sheriff ’s officials

then hastily arranged an un-

usual 11 p.m. news confer-

ence to announce their find-

ings.

“Rather than delay re-

porting what we learned for

another day, I felt that it was

urgent that we share the

truth with the public,” Vil-

lanueva said in a statement

released by the department

Sunday. “After investigators

were able to establish the

facts, we were compelled to

share the disappointing

truth in our wish to be trans-

parent with the public.”

Parris said he was “unre-

pentant” about comments

he made in the immediate

aftermath of the apparent

shooting about the apart-

ment building from which

Reinosa claimed the sniper

had shot.

The building, which over-

looks the sheriff ’s station

parking lot and is used in

part by a nonprofit organi-

zation to house people with

mental illness, is a safety

hazard, he said.

Parris said he expected

the building’s landlord

would “work with us” either

to install bulletproof win-

dows that cannot open or to

erect a barrier blocking the

view of the station.

Deputy admits to faking shooting

A ROOKIEdeputy’s claim that he had been shot by a sniper in Lancaster prompted a massive manhunt for the would-be killer.

KTLA

[Sniper,from A1]

FORT LAUDERDALE,
Fla. — Defense attorneys
said Sunday that arrests are
expected shortly in the case
of a Florida nursing home
where 12 patients died after
its air-conditioning power
went out amid sweltering
heat following Hurricane
Irma in 2017.
Lawrence Hashish told
the Associated Press that
his client is one of three
nurses, in addition to an ad-
ministrator, expecting to be
charged in connection with
the deaths. Irma, which blew
through Florida on Sept. 10
of that year, knocked out a
transformer linking the
main air-conditioning unit
to the power grid at the Re-
habilitation Center at Holly-
wood Hills, sending temper-
atures soaring.

Hashish said the attor-

neys don’t yet know what

specific charges would be,

but he expected that they

probably would entail some

form of manslaughter of-

fense.

Twelve deaths at the cen-

ter had been ruled

homicides. Police in the city

of Hollywood have been in-

vestigating the deaths for

nearly two years, but no

charges have been filed.

A voice message and

email left by the AP for police

were not immediately re-

turned Sunday.

Hashish said his client

and the others are merely

scapegoats.

“The real crime is that

the state is looking to blame

selfless caregivers and the

evidence will show that no

crime was committed,” he

said in a telephone inter-

view.

His co-counsel, Ilham

Soffan, said their client was

turning herself in Monday.

The attorneys said they

didn’t have any further de-

tails about expected charges

and planned to negotiate a

bond agreement before an

expected hearing Monday

morning.

Patients began dying at

the rehabilitation center

days after the hurricane

struck Florida amid wide-

spread power outages. In-

vestigators said the center

did not evacuate patients as

temperatures inside began

rising, even though a fully

functional hospital was

across the street. The

home’s license was sus-

pended days after the storm,

and it was later shuttered.

Paramedic Craig

Wohlitka and other para-

medics from Hollywood’s

fire rescue department testi-

fied last year that they were

haunted by the deaths of pa-

tients there.

Fire Lt. Amy Parrinello

said one of the female pa-

tients had a temperature of

107.5 degrees, the highest she

had ever seen in her 12-year

career. Later that morning,

she said, another patient

topped that with a tempera-

ture so high it couldn’t be

measured.

Wohlitka testified that

the crew decided to start

checking other patients who

hadn’t been reported as ill.

He said they saw a woman in

a room who appeared sick,

though a nursing home em-

ployee said staffers had just

checked her and she was

fine.

In the aftermath of Irma,

the deaths made national

headlines and sparked a po-

litical backlash.

Months afterward, law-

makers passed a bill requir-

ing backup power sources in

Florida nursing homes and

assisted living facilities. The

legislation requires such fa-

cilities to have a generator

capable of keeping nursing

homes and assisted living fa-

cilities at 81 degrees or lower

for at least four days.

Hashish declined to iden-

tify his client by name, but

said she was a full-time

nurse at another facility and

was just picking up a shift

that day.

“They called her. They

said, ‘Can you come and

help? We’re short-handed,’

and look what she walked

into,” he said.

A WOMANis transported from the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, Fla., in Septem-
ber 2017 as patients are evacuated after the nursing home lost its air conditioning because of Hurricane Irma.

Amy Beth BennettSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel

Arrests expected in Irma deaths

Hurricane disabled air

conditioning, leading

to patient fatalities at

Florida nursing home.

associated press

NEW YORK — A lawyer

for former Rep. Gary Acker-

man on Sunday denied ac-

cusations that the New York

Democrat is a sexual preda-

tor who violated a teenager

at a Boy Scout camp five

decades ago.

In a lawsuit filed this

month in state Supreme

Court in Manhattan, Acker-

man, 76, is accused of abus-

ing a then-17-year-old —

identified only as “John Doe”

— while Ackerman was a di-

rector at the Ten Mile River

Camp near Narrowsburg, in

upstate New York. Acker-

man was 23 at the time.

“In over 30 years of public

service, there has never been

any accusation of this kind

or indeed of any wrongdoing

in the Congressman’s ca-

reer,” attorney Oscar Miche-

len said in an emailed state-

ment. He added his client

would “vigorously” fight the

charges and seek to get the

case dismissed.

In late 1966, according to

the suit, Ackerman lured the

teen into his car so he could

drive him to an abandoned

road, where he “attempted

to force Mr. Doe to perform

oral sex on him and force-

fully performed oral sex on

Mr. Doe.”

The suit, which seeks un-

specified damages, says the

plaintiff has suffered “seri-

ous and severe psycholo-

gical injuries and emotional

distress, mental anguish,

embarrassment and humili-

ation.”

A local chapter of the Boy

Scouts of America is also

named as a defendant based

on a claim that it failed “to

take any steps to keep the

dangerous predator away

from the young men of the

camp.”

In a statement Sunday,

the Boy Scouts said a check

of a database used to screen

volunteers found no record

of any allegation against

Ackerman.

“Had the national organi-

zation been made aware of

credible allegations against

Mr. Ackerman, we would

have acted to remove him

from scouting,” it said.

The suit is among hun-

dreds filed against a variety

of defendants, including the

Boy Scouts, since New

York’s recent enactment of

the Child Victims Act. The

law opened a one-year win-

dow for sex abuse suits pre-

viously barred by the state’s

statute of limitations.

Ackerman, a 15-term

congressman who repre-

sented parts of Queens and

Long Island, announced his

retirement in 2012.

Suit accuses former

N.Y. congressman of

sexual abuse in 1966

The 15-term Democrat

denies allegation that

he assaulted teenager

at a Boy Scout camp.

associated press

FORMER REP. Gary

Ackerman worked as a

camp director at age 23.

Bernat ArmangueAP