Officer says LASD leadership refused requests to go public on Malibu Creek shootings




PUBLIC MISLED—Lt. Jim Royal speaks at a town hall meeting last August about the Malibu Creek State Park shootings. The veteran officer alleges he wasn’t allowed to speak out about the true danger of the situation. Acorn file photo

PUBLIC MISLED—Lt. Jim Royal speaks at a town hall meeting last August about the Malibu Creek State Park shootings. The veteran officer alleges he wasn’t allowed to speak out about the true danger of the situation. Acorn file photo

A former Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station lieutenant has come forward with allegations that his superiors repeatedly ignored requests to go public about a series of unsolved shootings in and around Malibu Creek State Park in the years leading up to the June 2018 death of camper Tristan Beaudette.

In a claim filed last week with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on behalf of Lt. Jim Royal, attorney Matthew McNicholas says his client was first ignored then demoted when he pressed LASD leadership, including Lost Hills Capt. Josh Thai, to issue a warning to the community about a potential gunman on the loose as far back as 2016.

It wasn’t until after Beaudette, a 35-year-old Irvine resident, was shot and killed—in a campground tent he shared with his two daughters—in the pre-dawn hours of June 22, 2018, that the public would learn of the seven incidents of reported gunfire between Nov. 3, 2016, and the summer of 2018.

The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, asks the department to restore Royal’s rank and duties.

A local transient named Anthony Rauda was later charged in connection with the shootings and the murder of Beaudette.

A convicted felon believed to be living in the hills near the state park, Rauda was carrying a rifle at the time of his October 2018 arrest. Investigators believe it was the weapon used in Beaudette’s killing.

Last December Beaudette’s widow, Erica Wu, filed a $90-million lawsuit against various government agencies, including the sheriff and California State Parks, saying their unwillingness to come forward about the incidents of gunfire contributed to her husband’s demise.

Royal alleges the retaliation against him began shortly after the Wu lawsuit.

“In January (2019), Lt. Royal was stripped of his detective duties, stripped of his supervisorial duties and was moved to (the Santa Clarita) station 80 miles away so he could undergo ‘freeway therapy,’” McNicholas said. “He was shortly thereafter placed under an internal investigation dealing with some bogus allegation of interfering with an investigation.”

McNicholas said “freeway therapy” is a common term in public service circles that describes when an employee is transferred to a distant station, which forces them to spend more time on the road so they can “think about all the bad things they’ve done.”

The demotion, transfer and internal affairs investigation were part of the sheriff’s attempt to discredit Royal’s testimony in Wu’s case against the department, McNicholas said.

The sheriff ’s department hasn’t publicly responded to the complaint.

Warning shots

Royal, a 24-year-veteran of the force, first called for a public warning following reports of two November 2016 shootings at Tapia Park and Malibu Creek State Park, and a third incident in January 2017, also at Malibu Creek, according to the claim.

No warning was issued, and Royal’s supervisors reportedly told him the Malibu Creek shootings were the “state park’s problem . . . not theirs.”

Four additional shootings occurred in the area. A Porsche automobile was hit by gunfire in June 2017 on Las Virgenes Road in Malibu Canyon, and a BMW driving on the same road was fired on in July of that year. The campground itself was hit by gunfire that same month.

Rauda is also said to have shot at a Tesla automobile on Las Virgenes Road on June 18, 2018, just days before the Beaudette killing.

Brian Boudreau is the owner of Malibu Family Farms on Mulholland Highway, where Rauda is suspected in multiple burglaries.

Boudreau said he’s unsure if the department not coming forward made a difference in Beaudette’s death.

“If they issue a warning, would you hear it? If I’m visiting a park in another part of the county I’m not sure I’m going to watch for warnings,” Boudreau said. “This isn’t like going to Yosemite (National Park) hearing about a danger. Maybe they were afraid it would hurt the investigation.”

The public’s reaction to the canyon mayhem reached such a pitch that state Sen. Henry Stern hosted a town hall meeting in August 2018 to address the issue.

At that meeting, Royal said, he was ordered to toe the company line and not draw a connection between the shootings and Beaudette’s death.

“Despite the high profile and sensitive nature of the event, and the significant concern in the community, the department did not select a captain, commander, chief or even the sheriff, to represent the department at the town hall,” the claim states. “Instead, (Royal) was instructed to attend the town hall and speak on behalf of the sheriff’s department and communicate the official position that the prior series of shootings were unrelated to the Beaudette murder.”

Royal’s attorney feels his client was manipulated and his reputation damaged.

“This is an example of the sheriff’s department turning the power of the badge on one of its own and utilizing the powerful machinery of the department to control their employee and witness,” McNicholas said.