A Los Angeles County jury found a sheriff's deputy not guilty of perjury this week, more than two years after prosecutors accused him of lying in court.
In 2019, Deputy Kevin Honea testified that he personally recovered a stolen gun from the front seat of a car, but prosecutors said video showed another deputy found the gun inside a bag in the trunk.
At the time, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials defended Honea, saying he was “off-handed” but did not lie. On Friday afternoon, after more than a week of trial, the jury agreed.
Stephen Alvarado, Honea's attorney, called the ruling a “remarkable” result.
“I’m happy for Rep. Honea and his family,” Alvarado told The Times on Friday. “The jury got this right and gave the good cop his life.”
In a statement on Friday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office called the case a difficult case and said it “will continue to prioritize integrity and accountability” in law enforcement.
“We recognize the challenges inherent in trying cases of this type,” the statement said. “Perjury poses a significant threat to the foundation of justice and public confidence in law enforcement, making these cases particularly complex.”
Honea was on patrol in Gardena in May 2019 when he spotted an Audi sedan leaving the Motel 6 parking lot, according to court records. He checked the license plate and found it was linked to a burglary. Three men were arrested.
At a court hearing a month later, transcripts show Honea described opening a box in the front seat and finding several items, including a gun.
“It was like where your feet would be if you were sitting in the front passenger seat,” he said when questioned by the prosecutor.
During questioning, Honea again confirmed that he found the gun in the front passenger seat. When a deputy public defender asked him if he had recovered the weapon “personally,” he said that he had.
But hotel surveillance footage — obtained by the defense team of one of the arrested men — showed Honea and other deputies searching inside the box in the front passenger seat several times and did not find a gun.
Eventually, another deputy at the scene pulled a small box from a bag in the trunk. Honea, who was on the phone at the time, turned back towards the group when another deputy opened the box. The group celebrated and patted each other on the shoulders.
By January 2021, Honea's inaccurate testimony forced prosecutors to drop the criminal case against the men, as The Times previously reported. Under the previous administration, the Sheriff's Department chose not to criminally investigate Honea, instead he was suspended for 10 days and attributed his false statements to negligence. The ministry said on Friday that he has now been relieved of duty, but did not say why, citing privacy laws.
Two years after Jardina's arrest, prosecutors charged Honea with perjury.
“Lying under oath damages the credibility of law enforcement and creates doubt and mistrust in the public.” Atty. George Gascon said in a statement at the time.
Although Gascon has taken a more aggressive stance on prosecuting police officers than his predecessors, his results in court have been mixed.
A perjury case against two Long Beach police officers also ended in acquittal last year, and a judge dismissed another perjury case involving the Sheriff's Department at a preliminary hearing in 2022, with prosecutors facing a much lower burden of proof than they would in a 2022 trial.
During Gascón's tenure, the district attorney's office also lost a manslaughter case against Rep. Luke Liu, even though those charges were filed by his predecessor. In a recent victory for the office earlier this year, former Rep. Andrew Lyons was sentenced to 30 days in jail after pleading no contest to the 2019 killing of Ryan Twyman.
