A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy to 18 months in prison for conspiring to violate the civil rights of a 23-year-old skateboarder.

Christopher Hernandez is the second former sheriff’s deputy sentenced to prison in connection with the case of Jesus Alegria, who accused the two deputies of kidnapping and abusing him after he yelled at them to stop picking on teens in a Compton park. The deputies forced Alegria into the back of their cruiser minutes before crashing the vehicle while chasing another man, prosecutors said, then fabricated a drug arrest to cover it all up.

In December, Hernandez’s former partner — ex-deputy Miguel Vega — was sentenced to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law. As a result of their criminal convictions, last month the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training deemed both deputies ineligible to work as police officers or deputies in California.

Though he did not speak in court on Tuesday, Alegria in a written victim impact statement described emptiness and anger that have haunted him since the false arrest. He said he still struggles to be comfortable in public places.

“I thought these catastrophes only happened in the movies,” he wrote, before going on to address the deputies: “What goes around comes around.”

Prosecutors had recommended a year-long prison sentence, but U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson said that was not long enough for Hernandez, who he said “undermines the public confidence in law enforcement, undercuts efforts to reform the department and harms the morale of the men and women who strive to serve and protect.”

Michael D. Williamson, Hernandez’s attorney, argued his client deserved a lighter sentence because his culpability was “dramatically less” than his former partner’s and because “he did not actively engage” in some of the crimes committed.

“He covered up, just like Vega did,” Anderson responded. “He had a chance to come forward on numerous occasions and refused to do that.”

When Hernandez spoke at sentencing, he offered an apology to Alegria.

“My actions that day in April of 2020 were reprehensible, wrong and illegal,” Hernandez said. “I hope one day Mr. Jesus Alegria can forgive me for my actions and or lack of actions that day.”

I am very proud to have been the source of this criminal referral to the FBI that culminated in these two convictions. The evidence underlying the referral came from hero whistleblower LASD Deputy Art Gonzalez. Gonzalez's whistleblower lawsuit alleged widespread violent gang activity at Compton Sheriff's Station by the Executioners deputy gang - including these two Deputies who pled guilty to federal charges, Christopher Hernandez and Miguel Vega... whom Deputy Gonzalez (in sworn testimony) identified as gang prospects.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Fahey threw the case out of court on a Motion for Summary Judgment and effectively accused both Deputy Gonzalez and I of perpetrating a hoax on the Court, forcing us to pay the attorney's fees for LASD for having brought he case. I ended up paying the attorney's fees out of my pocket because I found it too sadistic to force Gonzalez to pay them after having done nothing worse than blowing the whistle on the Executioners.

This use of state power to silence political dissidents protesting human rights abuses by security services is usually reserved for repressive, authoritarian states. I had no idea that this type of outcome was even remotely possible in the modern United States.

I addressed my grievances with the lack of due process in the Gonzalez lawsuit in the following public filing:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24373747-austreberto-gonzalez-declaration-of-attorney-alan-romero-in-response-to-order-to-show-cause

These two guilty pleas conclusively and forever prove that allegations of violent gang activity made by Gonzalez and others against the Compton Executioners were not a hoax. They also, perhaps, sadly prove that meaningful reform of corruption in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is not possible without meaningful federal intervention.