In 2021, after the LAPD bomb squad foiled the detonation of confiscated fireworks and leveled part of a city block, destroying dozens of homes and costing the city millions in lawsuit payments, police officials would not disclose how the officers responsible for the disaster were held accountable.
The sentencing remained a closely guarded secret until recent weeks, when internal affairs investigative files for the incident surfaced online — along with hundreds of thousands of confidential police records obtained by hackers targeting the L.A. City Attorney’s office.
A Times investigation published two years after the June 30, 2021 incident in South L.A. identified six bomb squad officers who were at the scene that day. Since then, neighborhood residents and community activists have repeatedly called for his firing.
But leaked files show that they all escaped serious discipline.
The most severe punishment was 18 days suspension without pay for the date. LAPD records show that Damien Levesque, the unit’s highest-ranking member, was present. Others had even less time before returning to work.
Two bomb squad technicians, Stephanie Alcocer and Mel Hogg, were suspended for 10 days after the investigation found they misplaced the weight of the fireworks in a container before detonating them, according to LAPD records reviewed by The Times. Later all three were transferred from the bomb disposal squad. He did not respond to requests for comment Friday, nor did an LAPD spokesperson. The department did not respond to questions about whether the officers named in the files had received additional discipline beyond the suspensions noted in the records.
An LAPD source familiar with the matter certified the leaked files and said they included details about disciplinary decisions that the department has said it cannot release under state law. The files also include unpublished versions of official reports previously reviewed by The Times.
The explosion in the 700 block of East 27th Street injured 17 people — 10 LAPD officers, six civilians and an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — and damaged or destroyed 22 residential properties, 13 businesses and 37 vehicles, officials said.
The LAPD has long said the department cannot disclose officer personnel records or information related to the explosion, due to the strict privacy protections given to police. An attorney for The Times and others have argued for the files to be made public under a landmark state transparency law that requires the release of police records in cases where officers seriously injure people — as happened in the explosion — or when there are sustained findings of inappropriate or excessive force.
The investigation, summarized in the files, found that the bomb squad incorrectly estimated how large the explosion would be from a controlled detonation of illegal fireworks. The documents show that the LAPD found that Levesque was “deficient in his supervisory duties” by failing to check the accuracy of calculations made by his technicians. The report also blamed him for staying away from important security discussions, which “led to the detonation of an excessive amount of explosive material.”
Some residents displaced by the explosion on East 27th Street were angry when The Times told them about the punishment of officials in the leaked files.
“Eighteen terrible days?” Maria Velasquez said, reacting to Levesque’s suspension.
Her family’s home was destroyed in the explosion, which she said traumatized her elderly parents. He said they lived out of a hotel for three years and although they got a settlement from the city, a large portion of the money went to paying rent on an apartment because permits to rebuild their home still have not been approved.
Previous reporting by the Times showed that several officers involved in the incident were later promoted, which some said only resulted in humiliation.
“Whatever money they lost because of these (suspension), they made up for it with their earnings,” said Ron Gochez, a member of the advocacy group Unión del Barrio.
According to the leaked file reviewed by The Times, internal LAPD investigators found that Hogg had “grossly underestimated” the explosive weight of the fireworks police intended to detonate.
Hogg said in an interview with federal investigators that he estimated the devices contained 10 pounds of explosive powder – calculations on which Alcocer based his later decisions, according to the leaked files. Federal investigators concluded that the actual weight of the fireworks was closer to 42 pounds, almost twice the maximum safe capacity of the containment vessel for an explosion.
The leaked Internal Affairs report stated that there was a mistaken “universal belief” within the bomb squad that the containment vessel could safely detonate up to 40 pounds of explosive material.
The department’s monthly discipline roundup shows that the 10-day suspensions given to Hogg and Alcocer are in line with penalties for more routine incidents, such as an officer found to inappropriately push a citizen. Another policeman, whose name was not released by the department, was suspended for 10 days after failing to disclose an affair with a subordinate and using a department database for non-work purposes.
In the fireworks incident, leaked records show the department suspended for five days Brendan McCarty, a technician whose warnings to his colleagues that the plan was not safe went unheeded. According to the internal affairs document, several officers at the scene recalled hearing McCarty voice his objections.
Department officials concluded that McCarty, the most senior technician at the scene, should have been more assertive when it became clear that his advice was not being followed, according to the leaked investigative file.
According to the internal affairs file, two other bomb squad officers, Thomas DeLucia and Mark Richardson, were cleared of any misconduct after the department determined that neither of them played any significant role that day.
The owner of the fireworks, Arturo Ceja III, 26, who lives in his family’s home on the block, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of unlicensed transportation of explosives from Nevada to California.
Times staff writer Brittany Mejia contributed to this report.
