Sheriff’s Department moves to fire deputies in 2017 Boyle Heights crash that killed 2 children
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has moved to fire two deputies involved in a wreck that killed two young boys and injured several other people when their patrol car crashed into a group of pedestrians in 2017, according to two law enforcement sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
The Boyle Heights wreck sparked at least four lawsuits and more than $23 million in settlements, though the district attorney’s office ultimately decided not to prosecute the driver. Investigators found that the driver, Deputy Carrie Esmeralda Robles-Placencia, failed to turn on her siren when she crossed a busy intersection against a red light, hitting another vehicle and careening onto the sidewalk where a mother was walking her two sons home from school.
A trainee at the time, Robles-Placencia went on to become part of former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s inner circle and was later relieved of duty amid a gun permitting scandal that the FBI began investigating earlier this year.
Vincent Moran, the training officer supervising Robles-Placencia from the passenger seat was a deputy at the time of the crash, though payroll records show that he was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2022, after the county already paid out several million in legal settlements in connection with the deadly incident.
An attorney representing both of the deputies declined to comment. Without naming any of the employees involved, the Sheriff’s Department sent a written statement about the case early Friday.
An L.A. County sheriff’s deputies union recently elected to its board a veteran lawman with a controversial tattoo who was involved in two shootings that cost the county $4 million.
“This was an absolute tragedy that had a profound impact on the victims and their families,” the statement said. “The Department has implemented corrective measures and strengthened policies to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. Sworn personnel are afforded certain employment rights and procedures, which limit the department from commenting until the process has been completed.”
Disciplinary actions are not considered final until employees have exhausted their internal appeals, a process that includes a hearing where the deputy can respond to the allegations against them.
Just after 7 p.m. on Nov. 16, 2017, Moran and Robles-Placencia were driving in a patrol cruiser near the border of East Los Angeles when a call came in about shots fired less than two miles away. Heading southbound on Indiana Street, Robles-Placencia sped up to 60 mph, then slowed as she reached the intersection at Whittier Boulevard, according to investigators.
Though Robles-Placencia turned on the cruiser’s emergency lights, investigators found she did not activate the sirens before proceeding into the intersection and hitting a Honda Accord, which in turn crashed into a Honda Odyssey van stopped at the light.
The deputies’ cruiser jumped the curb, careened off a nearby bank building and hit 7-year-old Jose Luis Hernandez and his 9-year-old brother, Marcos. Both children died from their injuries and their mother, Maria Veronica Solis Munoz, suffered a crushed pelvis and several broken bones. The cruiser also grazed a fourth pedestrian, hit a fifth and dislodged a large cement trash can that hit a sixth person.
The trove of jail security footage was released after The Times and Witness LA asked a federal judge to make the videos public.
The deputies’ vehicle was traveling only about 14 mph when the collision happened, but the force of the crash and the fact that Robles-Placencia may have accidentally stepped on the gas after her vehicle was struck caused it to speed up, investigators found.
One person who was nearby and heard the crash, Hector Lopez, told The Times in 2017 he felt the deputy’s driving was reckless.
“You’re supposed to turn on your lights, sirens and check before taking off,” Lopez said.
Several victims and their families filed lawsuits, including the mother of the two boys who were killed. That case settled for $17.5 million in 2019, and other cases have since agreed to settlements for smaller sums. This week, attorneys for all the plaintiffs either declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries.
Previously, a source told The Times that officials under Villanueva’s administration decided to delay the department’s internal investigation into the incident until the lawsuits had played out.
But before that could happen, Robles-Placencia was relieved of duty as the result of a separate investigation. Last year, authorities raided a Monterey Park gun store as part of a probe that officials said stemmed from the discovery of “irregularities” in the process for issuing licenses to carry concealed weapons, also known as CCW permits.
Announcing the investigation in a September 2022 news release, the department said detectives had served warrants at “multiple locations regarding weapon law violations.” They also seized evidence involving “individuals who appear to have been involved in a possible long-term scheme to defraud the citizens of Los Angeles County.”
A few weeks later, The Times published an investigation into the department’s handling of concealed carry permits, finding that dozens of Villanueva donors and other people linked to him were among the thousands who received such permits. Several gave questionable reasons for needing to be armed, received their permits more quickly than average or were assisted by two deputies who worked directly for the sheriff.
Those deputies — one of whom was Robles-Placencia — were relieved of duty that fall. They later sued the county in state court, alleging they’d been sexually harassed at work as early as 2020, and that they only faced criminal investigation in retaliation for reporting the harassment. In court filings, the lawyers for the county denied the allegations.
After Sheriff Robert Luna was elected last year, he said it would have been a “conflict of interest” for the department to keep handling the CCW permit investigation. Earlier this year, officials confirmed that Luna turned the case over to the FBI.
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