Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy Arturo Atilano-Valadez spent more than 21 years on the job \u2013 including the last 12 in the county jail, where grueling 12-hour shifts fueled the feeling that he, too, was “locked in like a prisoner,” according to a new notice of claim against the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Atilano-Valadez is one of four LA deputies<\/u><\/a> who killed themselves on the same day last month \u2013 and one of eight this year whose death has been linked to mandatory overtime, according to Brad Gage, the attorney for his widow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Over the years being locked up so often became more and more depressing for Deputy Atilano-Valadez,” the filing reads. “He was also forced to work mandatory overtime which Sheriff Luna himself admitted caused employees to suffer post traumatic stress-like symptoms.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The decisions being made by the sheriff’s department truly are life or death decisions \u2013 all too often resulting in the choice of death,” Gage told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michele Atilano said during a news briefing she found her husband with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in their home on Nov. 7, after she heard a “pop” in their living room. Their girls were in their bedrooms at the time, and she said she threw a blanket over her dying husband when they came out to see what was going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “To hear the gunshot sound of your spouse killing himself, and coming out to see what the noise was and have your mother have to throw a blanket over your dying father, so you don\u2019t see it \u2013 it\u2019s a horrible thing,” Gage said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Atilano-Valadez repeatedly asked for a transfer to a position outside the jail<\/u><\/a>, according to Gage, but never received one. He frequently worked a double shift, followed by a single, then another double, then another single, the lawyer said. Often, he would return home around 11 p.m. and have to wake up at 4 a.m. the following morning to go back to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Atilano said overworked deputies like her husband become a risk not only to themselves but to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “All you have are a bunch of deputies who are zombies, zombies walking around tired \u2013 always tired,” she said. “They’re not even there. How are they going to save lives?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The staffing issue is an important one for the Associate for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, or ALADS, which represents more than 8,000 deputies and other members of law enforcement in the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LA deputies are facing “unprecedented” levels of forced overtime, ALADS President Richard Pippin told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Employees of the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department are being pushed daily to, and sometimes beyond, their limits,” he said. “With the increasing operational demands on law enforcement and the upcoming Olympics on the horizon, a solution is needed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The union, one of two representing county deputies, is willing to work with the board of supervisors to fill vacant positions and stop well-trained deputies from leaving<\/u><\/a> for other communities, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gage, who also represents the family of murdered deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer,<\/u><\/a> says the forced extra shifts leave officers exhausted and have left some with post-traumatic stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The claim names Sheriff Robert Luna specifically while leaving open the possibility that other county employees may be liable: “This is still being investigated.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n