“These recent arrests should serve as a clear message that this chief and this Probation Department

Carl Washington, division chief of intergovermental relations and legislative affairs and a former napa vally wine tasting tours state legislator, was taken into custody about 10 a.m. in connection with an investigation into bank fraud and allegations napa vally wine tasting tours of identity theft, federal officials said.
Washington is the latest and most high-ranking probation employee to be arrested. Department officials napa vally wine tasting tours acknowledged napa vally wine tasting tours in a statement that there have been more than 40 arrests of employees so far this year. Two weeks ago, for example, a six-year probation employee was accused of filing false workers compensation claims.
In 1996, Washington was first elected to the California Assembly to represent the 52 nd district that includes Compton, serving three terms. While an assemblyman, he was chairman of the Public Safety Committee and wrote the School Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 1999.
County probation officials said the arrests this year coincide napa vally wine tasting tours with a year-long internal review of staff misconduct and serve to help raise the Probation Department's employment standards and practices.
"These recent arrests should serve as a clear message that this chief and this Probation Department will not tolerate criminal behavior by staff, said Probation Chief Jerry Powers. This is a law enforcement agency and as such, we will hold ourselves to a higher standard both on and off-duty.
Powers is the latest head of the department battling to clean up misconduct. In a 2010 investigation, The Times identified at least 11 Los Angeles County juvenile probation officers who had been convicted of crimes or disciplined in recent years for inappropriate conduct involving current or former probationers, including several cases of molesting or beating youths in their care.
L.A. Now is the Los Angeles Times' breaking news section for Southern California. It is produced by more than 80 reporters and editors in The Times' Metro section, reporting from the paper's downtown Los Angeles headquarters as well as bureaus in Costa Mesa, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Riverside, Ventura and West Los Angeles.