A federal judge sentenced a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy to one year in prison Monday for lying on a warrant application to get dirt on a client’s estranged husband.
David Anthony Rodriguez, 45, was sentenced on one count of conspiracy against rights, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a release.
In 2021, while he was still employed by the sheriff’s department, Rodriguez began a second job working for the private security company of one of his departmental colleagues, Eric Saavedra, 43.
As part of his second job, Rodriguez acted as a security guard for a woman identified in court documents as “Person 1,” work that she paid him for in cash. Rodriguez also started a personal relationship with Person 1, who was going through a dispute with her husband, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Rodriguez learned from Person 1 that she feared for her safety and that she believed her husband was keeping valuable items that belonged to her. In July 2022, Rodriguez obtained a search warrant for Person 1’s husband under false pretenses, lying on an application that the victim’s phone number was connected to a robbery, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Rodriguez also said in the warrant application that GPS coordinates obtained through the warrant would allow him to arrest a robbery suspect on grounds of assault with a deadly weapon. Instead, Rodriguez tracked the victim down to Utah using the ill-gotten data and gave it to Saavedra, federal prosecutors said.
The deputy then found that, at the request of co-conspirators, Saavedra and other Los Angeles County deputies working with him had the victim’s car towed when the victim was in Los Angeles. They put a tracking device on the victim’s car when it was in Utah and sent a threatening text to the victim.
“This was not impulsive conduct or a momentary lapse in judgment. It was a calculated abuse of authority carried out with full awareness of its significance,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum as cited by the U.S. attorney’s office.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty to conspiracy against rights in July 2025 and left the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in October 2025.
In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that the “criminal actions outlined in this case are unacceptable” and that “the overwhelming majority of our employees serve our communities with integrity, professionalism, and distinction every day, and they deserve to work alongside individuals who uphold those same standards,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Saavedra pleaded guilty to conspiracy against rights and making and using a false tax return in February 2025.
Saavedra was relieved of duty in September 2024, according to the Los Angeles Times, and is due for sentencing in the coming months, federal prosecutors said.
