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Investigation into former Los Angeles police chief closed without formal conclusion – NBC Los Angeles

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The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners’ Investigations Division has clarified that an investigation into a complaint that former Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore ordered an investigation into Mayor Karen Bass over her receipt of a USC scholarship was closed without a formal finding by the commission because Moore took early retirement in January.

“This was merely a recommended finding and not a judicial order,” the commission’s Office of the Inspector General wrote in an email to the I-Team after former Commissioner William J. Briggs II said earlier this month that the OIG had cleared Moore of any wrongdoing.

“In fact, there is not a shred of evidence that he (Moore) gave any order,” Briggs said at the commission’s June 11 meeting.

The OIG representative at the meeting, Deputy Inspector General Florence Yu, seemed to agree.

“Our investigation has shown that we would recommend a finding of no merit for these allegations,” Yu said.

A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said that while Moore’s resignation prevented the commission from making a final decision, the investigation was neither closed nor terminated because of Moore’s departure, and that enough information had been gathered to support the conclusion that Briggs made public on June 11.

Moore denied that he issued an order to investigate the mayor, and the LAPD said last year that the LA Times article that first reported the existence of the complaints was false.

“I did not in any way initiate, request or authorize an investigation as alleged,” Moore said in the statement.

In the complaint filed by two investigators in the Internal Investigations Division, first reported in the LA Times in December 2023, the investigators said they received orders through their chain of command to open an investigation into the grant Karen Bass received in 2011, but they believe they received those instructions from Moore.

This, the lawsuit says, came after former Los Angeles County Executive Mark Ridley-Thomas was indicted in federal court. Ridley-Thomas was later convicted of bribery, conspiracy and fraud in connection with a scheme involving USC that awarded his son a full scholarship in exchange for the county awarding him a social work contract.

Ridley-Thomas was sentenced to more than three years in prison last year.

He maintains his innocence and is free on bail while he appeals the verdict.

Bass denied any wrongdoing in accepting the grant, saying the grant was approved by a congressional ethics committee and that she did not author any bills that would have benefited USC during her time in Congress.

Her office declined to comment on the investigation into Moore.

Attorneys for the detectives who filed the complaint rejected the OIG’s findings, saying they believed the case was closed without a thorough investigation.

“It seems like they are protecting his image rather than investigating wrongdoing,” said attorney Greg Smith.

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