The Sheriff's Department says there are no “gangs.” Huntsman says it doesn’t get to make that determination on its own.
In response to the inspector general’s letter, the department posted a statement on Facebook calling it “another irresponsible attempt from Mr. Huntsman to discredit the organization, through omission and misrepresentation.” It said the inspector general “has failed to provide any actual evidence or new information,” claiming the letter “is consistent with his unhealthy obsession to attack the department.
The inspector general said he was also responding to a Feb. 10 letter from Undersheriff Tim Murakami, which “objects to the use of the term ‘deputy gangs’ and contends that the term ‘stems from.... false allegations made by a now discredited deputy sheriff.’” Huntsman said that and similar claims Villanueva made to the Board of Supervisors in a Feb. 16 letter “ignore the plain language of [the new state law] and … misapprehend the legislative history” of the law.