Ex-L.A. County sheriff’s deputies in Andres Guardado shooting face federal charges in separate case

Two deputies involved in the police shooting of 18-year-old Andres Guardado in 2020 have been indicted on charges in a separate case in which they allegedly falsely imprisoned a man and then filed false reports to cover up their actions, authorities said.

Miguel Angel Vega, 32, and Christopher Blair Hernandez, 37, worked as deputies assigned to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Compton Station on April 13, 2020, when they unlawfully detained the victim, identified only as 23-year-old J.A., and kept him in the back of their patrol SUV during a pursuit in which they crashed, causing injuries to the victim, the indictment states.

Vega and Hernandez face charges of conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law, witness tampering and falsification of records, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. Vega faces an additional count of falsification of records.

The two men surrendered to federal authorities Thursday, less than a month after they were named in the March 21 indictment.

“The indictment alleges that these two deputies violated a young person’s constitutional rights by willingly and illegally detaining him without just cause,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “Officers who abuse their power must be held accountable.”

The detention and crash occurred about two months before the shooting of Guardado in the 400 block of Redondo Beach Boulevard in unincorporated Los Angeles County just east of Gardena.

Vega and Hernandez pulled up to Wilson Park in Compton and detained J.A. after he had yelled at them to stop bothering two young Black males outside the skatepark, according to the indictment. J.A. was identified in the indictment as an “avid skateboarder, and a non-gang member.”

At least one of the deputies pulled him through an opening in a fence and put him in the back of the SUV without telling him why he was being detained or informing him of his rights, the indictment said. They didn’t handcuff J.A. or secure his seatbelt.

Instead, with Vega driving, the deputies told J.A. they were going to set him up by dropping him off in gang territory, with Hernandez adding that he would be beaten, the indictment said. They taunted him, saying he was scared.

While J.A. was still in the back seat, Vega began pursuing a young male on a bicycle down an alley, the indictment said. Vega crashed into a wall and another vehicle, causing a gash above J.A.’s right eye. Vega then took J.A. out of the SUV and told him to “get the (expletive) out of here,” the indictment said.

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Vega then radioed that a person with a gun had fled through the alley near 130th Street and Mona Boulevard, according to the indictment. He described the suspect as having similar clothing to what J.A. was wearing. Vega did not initially tell supervisors J.A. was in the SUV when he crashed, but later falsely told supervisors J.A. was in the SUV at the time of the crash because he was under the influence of a controlled substance, the indictment states.

Soon after, Vega was detained by other deputies who believed he was the suspect with the gun, the indictment said. He was hospitalized for the cut over his eye, but Hernandez directed a deputy at the hospital to cite J.A. for being under the influence of methamphetamine, Mrozek said. In a second report, Vega falsely claimed he had checked J.A. for injuries following the crash and placed him in another patrol SUV, according to the indictment.

Vega and Hernandez later filed a report falsely claiming J.A. had exhibited symptoms of a person under the influence of a stimulant, that he had threatened others including the deputies and that they drove away from the skate park because a group of people were moving toward the SUV.

Two months later, Vega and Hernandez stopped their patrol vehicle in the 400 block of Redondo Beach Boulevard after claiming to have seen a man brandishing a gun, officials have said.

The deputies chased the man, later identified as Guardado, southbound between two businesses and Vega fired six shots at Guardado, with five of them hitting the teenager in the back, officials and a coroner’s report said.

Adam Marangell, an attorney representing Vega, has previously said that Guardado had put his hands up and a firearm on the ground, but had reached for the weapon when Vega went to handcuff him, prompting Vega to fire.

Family members have maintained that Guardado was unarmed when deputies encountered him that day.

No charges have been filed in that case, but Los Angeles County settled a lawsuit filed by the Guardado family for $8 million last year.

In the J.A. case, Vega faces a possible maximum sentence of 75 years in federal prison if convicted of the charges, federal authorities said. Hernandez faces a possible maximum sentence of 55 years.

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