Santa Ana Police Department Headquarters — Reported Federal Agent Staging Site
An Orange County sheriff’s deputy and a Sheriff’s Special Officer have been placed on leave while investigators determine whether the pair’s actions violated department policy or state law during an ICE arrest outside Men’s Central Jail in Santa Ana. The man taken into custody that day, identified by family members as 69-year-old Jesús Esparza, had just finished visiting his son at the facility on Halloween when federal agents detained him.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said it received a complaint on November 3 alleging that personnel may have communicated with ICE agents, and that it immediately opened an internal investigation, according to NBC Los Angeles. A department review of video from the scene showed ICE agents parked outside the jail in an unmarked black SUV, with two sheriff’s department members seen on the sidewalk appearing to speak with someone inside the vehicle for about five seconds. NBC4 obtained footage of the Halloween incident through a public records request…