Documents mistakenly disclosed this past week by representatives for the Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies union shed new light on a whistleblower investigation launched by the county’s civilian watchdog agency overseeing the Sheriff’s Office.
The probe — the first of its kind for the county’s Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Oversight, or IOLERO – has been tied up in a court battle over the extent of the watchdog’s independent investigative authority.
The scope of IOLERO’s inquiry has until now been shrouded, with no substantive documents made publicly available, and representatives of both the oversight agency and the Sheriff’s Office have remained tight-lipped about the investigation’s focus. As the target of the complaint, the Sheriff’s Office has limited information about the case.
But legal representatives for the Deputy Sheriff’s Association provided a closer look at its contours when they inadvertently shared documents under court seal as part of a news release Tuesday.
The privileged documents revealed IOLERO investigators requested a variety of records related to hiring and promotions, performance evaluations, time off and internal disciplinary proceedings for multiple Sheriff’s Office employees.
Jonathan Murphy, attorney for the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, did not comment on the disclosed materials.
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