Former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca has filed another appeal over whether he should remain free while he challenges his convictions on three federal corruption charges.
The bail appeal filed Friday afternoon insists it’s not an effort to delay the start of Baca’s three year prison term, and it again asks the 9th Circuit Court to reverse a U.S. District Court judge’s decision ordering Baca to prison.
“Mr. Baca, who had a 50-year career in public service, has no history as a dilatory criminal litigant,” Baca’s attorneys wrote, refuting suggestions the latest bail request was a delay tactic.
“If this Court agrees that he has a debatable appeal, as he maintains, then it should grant him bail,” the lawyers said.
The 9th Circuit Court already rejected Baca’s initial bail release appeal and returned the case to the trial court in Downtown L.A., where earlier this week U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson ordered Baca to surrender to prison on Monday.
Baca was convicted earlier this year of conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, and making false statements for a scheme in 2011 to interfere with a federal grand jury investigation of civil rights abuses inside County jails.