The Generals: Power, Deception and a Cover-Up that Goes to the Top

Crimes of the Times

L.A. Times Studios

Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles, La Times, Los Angeles Times, True Crime, Chris Goffard, News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 42.8K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The feds interview Baca’s flinty #2 man and heir apparent, Paul Tanaka, who professes ignorance about who gave the order to hide Anthony Brown. In 2013, as the FBI probe enters its fifth year, feds finally get a chance to grill Baca. He touts his achievements as a reformer but admits he resents that the FBI excluded him from the jail probe and snuck in the cell phone. His answers are evasive and riddled with falsehoods. In Jan. 2014, as the feds close in, he resigns after 15 years as sheriff. Tanaka is convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Baca enters a plea that will give him a maximum of six months in prison, but a judge deems it too lenient, setting the stage for the sheriff’s trial. Their questioning showed how politics and power shaped Los Angeles law enforcement. What began as a probe into jailhouse abuse had reached the top of the nation’s largest sheriff’s department. Chris Goffard, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and host of Dirty John, explains how the scandal unraveled the careers of two of the county’s most powerful figures. Topics in this episode include: Sheriff Lee Baca, Paul Tanaka conviction, FBI interrogation, Los Angeles jail scandal, obstruction of justice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I don't want to interfere with an FBI investigation.
0:04.0	There's nobody that wants to get rid of bad cops more than I do.
0:09.0	Were you aware of LASD changing Mr. Brown's name?
0:13.0	No.
0:14.0	We still didn't know how high up this whole thing went.
0:16.0	I would not have subjected the FBI to me saying I don't trust them.
0:21.3	We have too much to do than put prisoners who are at risk in a position where they are
0:28.4	trusted more than I am.
0:29.8	I am not going to accept that.
0:36.5	I got mine in 25 years ago.
0:42.3	When I got mine, the Vikings were like, there was no scandal.
0:46.3	There was no belief that people who had tattoos were up to no good.
0:53.3	I was a kid I was wanted of the tattoo and never had a
0:55.2	real good reason. I'm just curious, why did he pick the vitamins as a... I have no idea. It was
0:58.2	picked long before I got there. An FBI agent was asking Paul Tanaka about the Viking tattoo on his
1:04.8	calf. He had gotten it in the late 1980s when he was a sheriff sergeant in South L.A. Now, in November 2012, he was the
1:14.5	department's much-feared number two man with plausible ambitions to be the next sheriff.
1:20.6	Then all of a sudden it became criminal to have a Mikey tattoo.
1:23.8	I want a reporter asking us, shit, if I would have known you guys were going to be all consternated
1:27.4	over liking, I would have got Mickey Mouse, shit, if I would have known you guys were going to be all consternated over Viking, I would have got Mickey Mouse, you know?
1:30.9	I would advise against a Mickey Mouse tattoo.
1:35.3	The tattoo on Tanaka's calf denoted membership in a group of hard-charging deputies known as the
	...

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