Malibu Resident Says Sheriff’s Letter Is Partial Vindication of His Allegations

• Lost Hills Commander Says Most Charges Have No Merit

BY ANNE SOBLE

A Malibu man who alleges he was the target of anti-Semitic behavior by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies at the Lost Hills Station last month when he attempted to file official complaints concerning what he says was the mishandling of his 15-year-old son’s arrest for a curfew violation in Calabasas sees a degree of vindication in a recent communication from the law enforcement agency.
Ed Meyer, who has filed a notice of claim against the county seeking $2,000,000 in damage for alleged mimicry of Nazi hand salutes and Yiddish pronunciation by Lost Hills deputies, received a letter from Captain Tom Martin of the Lost Hills Station last week, stating an in-house investigation “did discover a policy violation that will be addressed administratively.” Martin also said he has “determined that the rest of [Meyer’s] complaint was without merit.”
Meyer told the Malibu Surfside News, “I never expected any of the sheriff’s deputies to fess up to their actions, or to turn on each other, but I was glad that Captain Martin brought forward his admission of a ‘policy violation’ at the least.”
Capt. Martin told The News because the administrative matter is ongoing, he could not discuss the specifics of the violation. He did state for the record that it is regarded as “something minor.”
Martin wrote Meyer that if he is not satisfied with the department’s in-house assessment of his complaints, he can take them up with Los Angeles County Ombudsperson John Fernandes, who is supposed to remain independent of county agencies.
Meyer indicated that he believes “the majority of the men and women of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station are good hardworking people who come to our community’s aid in times of need. I hope that this incident reminds the few ‘bad apples’ among them that people are now aware of their behavior, and may be watching them more closely.”
He says he’s concerned “the loser in this matter is [his] son, who has lost his ability to trust— specifically to trust the sheriff’s deputy as our friend and protector.”
Meyer, a local TV producer, alleges that the “ongoing anti-Semitic behavior” by deputies at Lost Hills took place while they were obstructing his efforts to obtain information to file complaint paperwork against his son’s arresting officers at the public counter at the Lost Hills station.
He has indicated that he was late picking up the boy after a sports event in Calabasas, because he got “caught in a long delay at the sheriff’s drunk driver checkpoint on Las Virgenes after we came off the 101 toward Malibu.”
Meyer says that it is important for people to avoid settling into a mindset where they “do not question authority.” He says he is using his and his son’s personal circumstances to illustrate “what happens when authority is allowed to go unchecked.”