Cece Woods
Verified
Editor in Chief / The Current Report
Articles by Cece Woods
Sheriff Luna’s Fleet Crisis: Mechanics Walk Out, Leaving Aging Vehicles Unusable and Public Safety in Jeopardy
Failed negotiations, aging vehicles and a county motion seeking a temporary fix put Sheriff Luna’s fleet management under scrutiny. Centerra mechanics walked out Friday, October 30, after negotiations over the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s fleet maintenance arrangement collapsed, according to sources familiar with the contract talks.
THE RENKO FILES: A Decade of Disability Retirement Disputes and Questions LACERA Has Yet to Answer
For nearly a decade, former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Robert J. Renko has been fighting for disability retirement benefits in a case that has exposed serious questions about the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA), its handling of confidential law enforcement personnel records, and the conduct of the attorneys responsible for overseeing the process. At the center of the controversy is LACERA Senior Staff Counsel Francis J.
“Mr. Malibu” Sues United States Over $44M Federal Asset Grab in Fritsch StarClub Fraud Case
Active Lawsuit Exposes Systemic Federal Negligence Masking Official Misprision (18 U.S.C. § 4) and Concealing Asset Claims DOCKET REF: ONeal v. United States of America, U.S. District Court (WDNC), Case No. 1:26-cv-00358-MR-WCM As criminal kingpins and corporate fraudsters make headlines when their assets are seized by the federal government, a quieter, systemic injustice takes place behind closed doors: the unconstitutional sweep of innocent third-party property into federal custody.
EXCLUSIVE: Nithya Raman’s #MeToo Double Standard — From Demanding Accountability to Sharing the Political Stage With Accused Garcetti Advisor as $3 Million Union Backs Her Mayoral Bid
Federal records reveal millions in consulting payments to former Garcetti advisor Rick Jacobs, whose sexual harassment allegations Raman publicly condemned in 2020. Now, as she campaigns for mayor, Jacobs is appearing at political events alongside Raman and the powerful labor union investing millions in her election.
Raman Wants McDonnell Out After He Called Advance Warning of Federal Raids “Obstruction of Justice” — Now Gascón Is Eyed as His Replacement
Nithya Raman wants LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell gone if she becomes mayor of Los Angeles. But the timing and circumstances surrounding her demand for new leadership raise a far more serious question than whether an incoming mayor simply wants her own person running the police department: Does Raman want to remove a police chief who has already demonstrated that he will refuse political pressure to interfere with federal law-enforcement operations? That question isn’t hypothetical.
Judge Says Life Without Parole “Does Not Meet the Crime” in Execution of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer
On October 1, 2026, three years after Sheriff Robert Luna promised to pursue the “maximum punishment available under the law” for the murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, Judge Ronald S. Coen sentenced his killer to life without the possibility of parole — and reportedly made it clear from the bench that even that punishment was inadequate for the calculated ambush murder of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy.
EXCLUSIVE: The Weingart Money Trail Leads to Both Sides of the L.A. Mayor’s Race – Bass, Raman and the Political Network Behind Millions in Homeless Spending
New campaign filings reveal the Weingart Center Association itself contributed to a political action committee chaired by its own CEO — a PAC that spent money supporting Los Angeles politicians. Meanwhile, City Hall continued directing millions of taxpayer dollars to Weingart through sole-source and no-bid arrangements.
THE GHOST IN THE STARCLUB MACHINE: Seized Servers, Salida Capital, and the $1.7 Billion Pattern
Seven days after investigative journalist William B. Scott published an investigation into recurring $400 million and $1.7 billion financial claims involving Russian and American energy interests, federal agents raided StarClub, arrested its founder and seized servers containing approximately 50 emails tracking the same financial pattern. When federal agents raided StarClub on August 2, 2017, they did more than arrest founder and CEO Bernhard Fritsch.
SILENCED EVIDENCE: How a Year of Recordings Was Kept From a Father Fighting Abuse Allegations in Ventura County Family Court
For nearly a year, Amir Rahnavardi says he recorded his interactions inside his own home for one reason: he believed he needed evidence to protect himself. He says the recording was not covert. Signs were posted throughout the house. Rahnavardi says his then-wife, Rebekah, knew he was recording.
Protected: EXCLUSIVE: Ventura County Judge Michael Lief Named in Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit as Allegations Against Troubled Family Court Escalate
Cece Woods is an independent investigative journalist and Editor-in-Chief of The Current Report, specializing in public corruption, institutional accountability, and high-profile criminal and civil cases. She has contributed reporting and commentary to The Epoch Times on public safety, law enforcement, and government oversight.
Sheriff Luna’s Deputy Gang Double Standard? Captain Promotion at Norwalk Station Directly Contradicts His Public Stance on Subgroups and Undermines Accountability in the Emmett Brock Case
Despite Sheriff Robert Luna’s repeated public condemnation of deputy gangs, station cliques and the tattoos associated with them, another reported tattooed member of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station subgroup has been elevated to the rank of captain, this time at the very station associated with the tattoo he is reported to carry. Omar Camacho now serves as Acting Captain of LASD’s Norwalk Station, an assignment confirmed by official department records.
EXCLUSIVE: DA Rejects Criminal Case Against Commander Over Explosion Photographs
The case against Commander Thomas Giandomenico ended without charges. The far more troubling question is how an unverified allegation was used to justify search warrants and a sweeping intrusion into his electronic devices in the first place. Three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies were killed in a catastrophic explosion at the Biscailuz Training Center on July 18, 2025. Detectives Joshua Ecklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn went to work that morning and never came home.
EXCLUSIVE: ATF Continues Investigation into Missing Grenade – More Interviews Scheduled
The federal investigation surrounding the missing grenade from the July 18, 2025 explosion that killed three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives has moved deeper into LASD’s executive ranks. Multiple sources tell The Current Report that an LASD executive was interviewed by federal investigators on Monday regarding the circumstances surrounding the missing second grenade and events that unfolded after the fatal explosion at the Biscailuz Training Center.
EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION: Missing Notices, Familiar Names and a $7.5 Million Security Bill at Weingart
A prolonged cleanup at Shelby and a separate security-company money trail raise troubling questions about favored vendors, public disclosures and who benefits while promised housing remains unfinished.
Loyalty Over Accountability? Questions Surround Sheriff Luna’ and Commander Holguin’s Elevation of Juan Briseno to Lead Lakewood Station
In the ongoing struggle to root out deputy subgroups and gangs within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, few episodes illustrate the tension between reform rhetoric and institutional self-protection more clearly than the handling of allegations at Lakewood Station.
The Silence is Deafening: Three Years After Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer’s Murder, Sheriff Luna’s Failed Leadership Denied His Family The Justice He Promised
This September 16th will mark three years since the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department experienced one of its darkest moments in the agency’s more than 150-year history. The devastating murder of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer. On Monday, August 17th, that painful wound was revisited as opening statements began in the murder trial of Kevin Cataneo Salazar, the man accused of pulling alongside the unsuspecting deputy at a traffic light and shooting him at point-blank range.
Another Preventable Risk? New Incident Raises Fresh Questions About Leadership Inside LASD’s Bomb Squad
Last year, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department suffered one of the darkest days in its history when Detectives Joshua Kelley Ecklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn were killed in a catastrophic explosion at the Biscailuz Center. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that the evidence shows these detectives weren’t killed by bad luck. They were killed in an explosion that state investigators concluded was preventable.
The Road to 2028: How LAPD Leadership Failed Olympic Security Before the Games Even Began
Part I: Critical event planning trips or Taxpayer funded Vacations abroad?
Exclusive: Missing Grenade Cover-up Allegedly Reaches LASD Executive Leadership
One year after three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives were killed in the deadliest incident in the agency’s history since 1857, the investigation is revealing a far more troubling picture than the public was initially led to believe. The aftermath of the tragic accident has devolved into a sprawling cover-up designed to protect the image of Sheriff Robert Luna as he seeks re-election.
PART II – THE ARCHITECTURE OF FAILURE: THE 27TH STREET BLAST AND THE CRATERING OF LAPD ACCOUNTABILITY
THE 10TH FLOOR SHIELD, TAXPAYER MILLIONS, AND THE ILLUSION OF REFORM What was supposed to be a routine bomb squad detonation on 27th Street turned into a neighborhood catastrophe. The LAPD assured the public they had everything under control—until a massive, miscalculated explosion tore through a South L.A. block, shattering homes and trust alike. But the blast itself was only the beginning.
Malibu StarClub Case: Trump’s New $1.7 Billion Anti-Fraud Fund Appeared in 96 Hours – and The Timeline Raises Questions
To understand why so many Americans have lost confidence in the federal justice system, look no further than the StarClub fraud case. On its face, the case appears straightforward. Bernhard Eugen Fritsch, the founder of StarClub, was convicted in federal court and sentenced to 20 years in prison for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that funded an extravagant lifestyle. Yet today, Fritsch remains in Germany, beyond the reach of the sentence imposed by a U.S. court.
As Anniversary of Deadly Explosion Nears, Another Preventable Blast Exposes Leadership Failures Inside LASD’s Arson Explosives Detail
As first reported by The Current Report, a powerful blast rocked the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Biscailuz Training Center on June 5, rattling buildings – and nerves – across the complex. Thankfully, this time, no one was killed. The incident, however, has immediately reignited questions about safety, supervision, and leadership inside one of the Sheriff’s Department’s most dangerous specialized units.
The $111 Million Legal Machine: How Los Angeles County’s Political Power Structure, Exploding LASD Litigation, and Taxpayer-Funded Legal Contracts Created a Gold Mine for Private Attorneys
Los Angeles County deputies have now spent more than two years working without a contract and without a cost-of-living increase. According to the county, there is no money – and certainly no urgency – to properly compensate the men and women who put their lives on the line every single day to protect the citizens of LA County. Yet somehow, Los Angeles County found more than $111 million to spend on lawyers in a single fiscal year.
Eleven Months After Three LASD Detectives Died, Another Blast Raises Questions at Biscailuz Training Center
Just 11 months after a grenade explosion at the Biscailuz Center claimed the lives of three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives, employees are once again asking how an blast powerful enough to rattle buildings across the complex was allowed to occur at the very facility that has become synonymous with one of the department’s most devastating and preventable tragedies.
Part 2: The Architecture of Corruption and Human Capital Collapse
While City Hall projects grand illusions of a fortified police force ahead of the World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games, the structural reality of the LAPD tells a far darker story. The department is not just bleeding personnel; it is actively choking on its own bureaucratic machinery, shielded by an executive revolving door where multi-million-dollar vendor contracts and selective disciplinary warfare take precedence over public safety.
Systemic Administrative Decline: An Investigative Analysis of LAPD’s Operational, Technological, and ongoing Leadership Failures
When Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell convened a news conference on January 29, 2026, to release the 2025 citywide crime data analysis and outline public safety initiatives, the presentation was designed to project administrative stability and operational success. However, beneath this polished public relations facade lies a department grappling with deep-seated institutional decay.
THE $4.99 MILLION INSIDE GAME: How Los Angeles County’s Public Safety Unions Quietly Financed Measure ER Before the Public Ever Had a Vote
By the time Los Angeles County residents first heard the name “Measure ER” during a February 10, 2026 Board of Supervisors meeting, the political operation behind it was already fully constructed, fully funded, and moving millions of dollars through the County’s labor and political infrastructure.
EMERGENCY POWERS: Inside Los Angeles County’s Quiet Move to Rewrite Civil Service Protections Amid Probation System Collapse
Buried inside a March 24, 2026 letter sent quietly to union leadership is an extraordinary admission from Los Angeles County government: the Probation Department has deteriorated so severely that county officials are now seeking emergency authority to temporarily rewrite long-standing Civil Service protections for sworn probation personnel. The document, signed by Acting Chief Executive Officer Joseph M.
The Mirror Inside the Department: The Growing Revolt Against LASD Leadership
For years, deputies inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have quietly grumbled about politics, favoritism, retaliation, and executive leadership detached from the reality on the ground. But now, as staffing collapses, morale spirals, overtime becomes endless, and the Department’s credibility continues eroding in public view, those frustrations are no longer staying behind closed station doors. They are spilling out anonymously, publicly, and with increasing intensity.
The $1.7 Billion Ghost: Inside the Federal Failure to Stop Malibu’s Most Connected Fugitive
When federal fugitive Bernhard Eugen Fritsch lost his appeal on April 23, 2026 under the fugitive disentitlement doctrine, the ruling officially transformed one of Malibu’s most bizarre corporate collapses into something even more serious: a growing international financial mystery involving offshore infrastructure, missing money, federal seizure failures, and questions about whether U.S. authorities ignored a much larger system sitting directly in front of them for years.
Ashes, Evictions, and $90 Million Dreams: How Sacramento’s SB 1093 Could Finish Off California’s Coastal Mobile-Home Communities
Senator Ben Allen is calling it a “fix.” Sacramento insiders are branding it “progress.” But for many displaced mobile-home residents, SB 1093 looks less like recovery and more like a legislative cleanup operation designed to finish what the fire started.
INSIDE THE COLLAPSE OF LASD: How Budget Disasters, Failed Leadership, and Board Policies Crippled the Nation’s Largest Sheriff’s Department
What is unfolding inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is no longer a staffing problem. It is a full-scale operational collapse years in the making. The nation’s largest sheriff’s department is now drowning in vacancies, runaway overtime, frozen hiring, blocked promotions, and mounting internal frustration as personnel describe an agency struggling to maintain even basic day-to-day operations. Deputies are burning out. Civilian staffing is gutted.
The Marie Antoinette Machine: Inside Gavin Newsom’s Last-Ditch California Power Play
California is collapsing under the weight of political arrogance, insider protection, and a ruling class that increasingly behaves as though accountability is optional.
Sheriff Luna Feeds LASD Deputies to the Wolves: LA Superior Court Judge Greenlights OIG’s External Witch Hunt on Deputy “Gangs”
In a ruling that unions call a partial but dangerous victory for civilian oversight, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant handed the politically charged Office of the Inspector General (OIG) a green light to interrogate Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) deputies about alleged membership in so-called “law enforcement gangs.” The May 1, 2026 decision in Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs v.
LAPD Unions, A Deepening Divide.
The internal rift within the Los Angeles Police Department has reached a fever pitch, signaling a fundamental failure of leadership that transcends simple policy disputes. On one side, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) operates with directors who are full-time and vocal, acting as a fierce shield for the rank-and-file.
The Games, Part II: The Novela
In “The Games,” one reality was laid bare about the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The system is not failing. It is operating exactly as it has been allowed to operate. Power is preserved. Optics are managed. Merit is conditional. Part II exposes what that system looks like when control is exercised through something far more corrosive than politics or favoritism.
The Trojan Horse Sheriff: Robert Luna’s Anti-Law Enforcement Endorsement Machine Exposed – Why True Blue Voices Are Flocking to Alex Villanueva Instead
• Questionable Coordination with Sheriff Luna: Reports indicate that months ago, ALADS and POPA leadership attended a retreat with a contractor hand-picked by Sheriff Luna. According to sources familiar with the discussions, Steve James reportedly advised both unions against issuing any endorsements in the sheriff’s race to prevent embarrassment to Sheriff Luna from unfavorable membership polling results.
The Donor-Funded Defense Machine: Eric Swalwell, Rob Bonta, and California’s Campaign Cash Loophole
In California politics, campaign money is supposed to be held in trust for one purpose: electing candidates and supporting legitimate political, legislative, or governmental activity. But two high-profile Democrats, Eric Swalwell and Rob Bonta, have now exposed the same uncomfortable question from different corners of the state: when does campaign cash stop being political money and start becoming a personal legal-defense fund?
EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: Sheriff Robert Luna and County Lawyer Jason Tokoro Caught in a Tangled Web of Contradictions as Ben Torres’ Federal Retaliation Case
In a stunning display of courtroom gaslighting, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna and his high-priced outside counsel Jason H. Tokoro of Miller Barondess LLP, have painted a picture of a perfectly fair, merit-based promotion system at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), one completely untainted by any “station tattoo” policy or deputy clique favoritism.
The Closed Door Endorsement: How ALADS Is Quietly Sidelining Its Own Membership
Unions are built on a simple premise. The members fund it. The members are the voice. The leadership carries that voice forward. That is the structure deputies in Los Angeles County have been paying into for decades through ALADS, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. What those members are now confronting is something far less straightforward. The structure still exists. The voice does not.
The Games: A Culture That Breaks Deputies. A Silence That Protects It
There are internal cultures that agencies quietly tolerate, and then there are cultures that metastasize, spreading so deeply into the fabric of an institution that they begin to define it. What a current trainee inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department describes is not a series of isolated complaints.
Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s 2022 “Reimagining” of Public Safety in West Hollywood Left Residents Vulnerable — Now She’s Suddenly Demanding Sheriff Resources During Reelection Bid
West Hollywood, once known for its vibrant nightlife and progressive ideals, is reeling from two shootings in just five days. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath issued a statement vowing that “solving these crimes is a top priority” and that “every resource available” from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department would be deployed. She personally reached out to Sheriff Robert Luna and Captain Fanny Lapkin to demand action.
CHIRLA’s Power Network and AB 2624: The Legislative Push to Silence Investigative Journalism
AB 2624 making headlines recently as the “Ban Nick Shirley” Act, is being presented in Sacramento as a targeted protection measure, framed as a necessary response to threats against immigration service providers. The language is deliberate and controlled, built around the concept of safety in a way that discourages deeper examination.
The “Stop Nick Shirley Act”: How California Democrats Are Moving to Criminalize Citizen Journalism
They don’t call it censorship anymore. They call it protection. Protection for communities. Protection for organizations. Protection from “threats.” The language is softer now, more strategic, designed to pass scrutiny without triggering it. But behind California’s AB 2624, the intent is harder to ignore: if you document the wrong thing, in the wrong place, involving the wrong people, the state may decide you shouldn’t be allowed to show it at all. And this time, they’re not going after institutions.
Swallwell’s Campaign in Freefall: Sexual Assault Allegations Explode As Senior Staff Flee the Sinking Ship
California… buckle up. What was supposed to be Eric Swalwell’s triumphant march to the governor’s mansion just turned into a nightmare straight out of a political thriller, and the walls are closing in fast. For weeks the whispers had been swirling behind closed doors in Sacramento and Washington. Campaign insiders trading frantic texts. Staffers eyeing the exits. Then, just days before ballots start dropping, the bomb detonates. A brave former staffer, a young woman who trusted Rep.
The Deputy Gang Mirage: Sheriff Luna’s $8 Million Taxpayer Giveaway Exposes Phony “Eradication” Narrative, and Democrat-Backed Cover-Up
In a stunning display of political theater disguised as justice, Los Angeles County just handed over $8 million of taxpayer money to settle a six-year-old lawsuit brought by eight sheriff’s deputies who claimed they were harassed by the so-called “Banditos” clique at the East Los Angeles station. The settlement was quietly approved by the Board of Supervisors on April 7, 2026, just days before what would have been a very public trial. But make no mistake: this wasn’t about accountability.
Public Trust, Private Gain: The Carlson School Fundraiser Under Scrutiny
Carlson Home Hospital School is now facing serious questions that cut to the core of workplace ethics, public trust, and the exercise of authority inside a taxpayer-funded institution. At the center of it: allegations that a GoFundMe fundraiser, tied to a personal family loss, may have evolved into something far more troubling.
Cronyism Over Competence: The Deadly Cost of Inexperienced Leadership and the Preventable Explosion That Killed Three LASD Detectives
In the early morning hours of July 18, 2025, an explosion tore through the parking lot of the Biscailuz Center Training Academy in East Los Angeles, killing three veteran Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies, Detectives Victor Lemus, Joshua Kelley-Eklund, and William Osborn.
Sheriff Luna’s Overtime Narrative Collapses: Internal Memo Reveals a Department Running on Exhaustion While Leadership Tells the Public Otherwise
Los Angeles County is not simply facing a staffing crisis inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, it is operating under a system that is actively stretching its remaining workforce to the brink while publicly insisting everything is under control. Two days after a department employee was involved in a multi-vehicle crash on the eastbound 10 Freeway in the early morning hours of March 29, 2026, the department moved quickly to contain the narrative.
The Deputy Gang Charade – How COC Chair Hans Johnson and Sheriff Robert Luna Built a House of Cards on Lies, Endorsements, and Fear of the Truth
In Los Angeles County politics, where progressive branding often masks hard-edged power plays, one figure has consistently positioned himself at the center of the conversation: Hans Johnson.
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