Orange County prosecutors have dropped a felony drug case due to accusations made by defense attorney Tammy Nguyen against Sheriff’s Sgt. Matthew LeFlore and Sgt. Arthur Tiscareno. Nguyen alleged that the two deputies planted evidence by moving nearly 18 grams of methamphetamine from an unrelated case into the defendant’s case. As a result, the charges of possession for sale against the defendant, Ace Kelley, were dismissed. Nguyen expressed relief for her client but raised concerns about how often such misconduct occurs without the defendants ever finding out.
These allegations of evidence tampering have also been cited in another drug case, prompting attorneys to request access to the findings of a reported internal affairs investigation into LeFlore. Despite these accusations, Sheriff’s spokesperson Carrie Braun did not comment on the Kelley case’s specifics but confirmed that LeFlore remains on active duty. She also mentioned that privacy laws prevent her from confirming whether LeFlore is the subject of an internal affairs probe.
The District Attorney’s Office did not provide immediate comment on the case. Additionally, LeFlore is currently facing separate allegations of illegally eavesdropping on attorney-client phone calls from the jail.
Nguyen’s accusations shed new light on a 2019 evidence scandal involving the late or nonexistent booking of evidence by sheriff’s deputies. Department officials have claimed that this problem has been rectified.
In the Kelley case, LeFlore claimed in his police report that he collected and booked methamphetamine seized from Kelley’s motel room, along with other drugs. However, according to Nguyen, the methamphetamine was actually seized from a neighboring room occupied by defendant Royal Baker. Baker pleaded guilty to possession for sale and received no jail time. Nguyen alleged that 17.8 grams of methamphetamine were later taken from the Baker case and placed into evidence for the Kelley case.
Documentation obtained by Nguyen from the Orange County Crime Lab seemed to confirm the switch of methamphetamine between the two cases. The internal evidence tracking system shows no indication of this switch, only that the methamphetamine was booked into the Kelley case by Tiscareno, not LeFlore as stated in his report.
Nguyen argued in her motion that LeFlore lied about collecting and booking the methamphetamine from Kelley’s room. She also accused LeFlore and Tiscareno of conspiring to cover up the switch by failing to file a supplemental report and manipulating the evidence tracking system.
This is not the first time LeFlore has faced allegations of mishandling evidence. An audit in 2018 revealed that he failed to book evidence properly in 18 cases. In one instance, he took custody of various items but never booked them, leaving a pair of boots with a sign saying “Free” on a shelf in a sheriff’s substation.
Court documents also showed that LeFlore falsely claimed to have placed evidence in a sheriff’s locker on multiple occasions when he had not. The evidence was booked more than 20 days late in some cases. Despite these incidents, no charges were filed against LeFlore, and he was ultimately promoted to sergeant.
Tiscareno has also faced issues with handling evidence, as revealed by a Sheriff’s Department audit. He falsely claimed to have booked evidence in 40 reports when he had not done so, according to court documents.
In recent weeks, LeFlore has also been accused of illegally listening to confidential attorney-client phone calls recorded by the jail’s telephone vendor. Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders alleged that LeFlore continued listening to these calls, despite being warned not to by the attorneys involved.
Overall, these various allegations raise serious concerns about the integrity of the evidence handling practices within the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the potential impact on criminal cases.
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