Editorial: Alex Villanueva, L.A.’s loosest cannon and pettiest cop

Los Angeles Supervisor Sheila Kuehl stands in front of her Santa Monica home Wednesday after being escorted out by deputies who served her with a search warrant. The potential evidence that armed Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies confiscated from the home of Supervisor Sheila Kuehl on Wednesday included her mobile phone, personal computer — and videotapes of the TV show she starred in 60 years ago, “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” Maybe that’s an indication of how deep L.A.’s sheriff thinks this suspected conspiracy goes — Kuehl, and her alleged co-conspirator, activist Patti Giggans, might have been planning to collude on a no-bid contract since the 1950s. More likely it’s an indication of just how unhinged Sheriff Alex Villanueva has become in the weeks before voters decide if he deserves another term. The self-recusal didn’t stop the sheriff from comparing the searches of Kuehl’s and Giggans’ homes, plus offices at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration, to the FBI search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Perhaps what the warrant should have asked instead is whether Villanueva targets his political enemies and wanders at will outside his own jurisdiction and the bounds of the law, such as when he proposed sending deputies door to door during the 2020 lockdowns because he was concerned that child abuse reports had decreased, or when he substituted his own legal opinion for county lawyers’ on whether gun stores weren’t, then were, essential businesses.