LA County sheriff candidate Eli Vera claims retaliation after announcing his bid for office

Eli Vera is a candidate for Los Angeles County sheriff. He says he was once part of Sheriff Alex Villanueva's inner circle and was actually promoted when he took office. Now he says Villanueva demoted him because he decided to run for sheriff himself.

"The sheriff hasn't spoken to me directly in about nine months. His reason by the second in command was he could not have someone at the chief level running for office and serving as an advisor," says Vera.

Legal expert Jessica Levinson, who is a professor at Loyola Law School, says sheriff's personnel have civil service protection.

"I think this has become mostly an ethical issue, a political issue, and potentially a legal issue if it can be proven that in fact someone in the sheriff's department was demoted as a result of running against the sheriff," says Levinson.

Vera points out that in the past, this was not an issue with other candidates who ran while working in the department. He specifically mentioned Lee Baca when he ran against Sheriff Sherman Block.

"When Lee Baca ran against Sheriff Block, Baca was a region two patrol chief within the department, and he was allowed to run against the incumbent," says Vera.

The sheriff's department issued a statement saying, "The allegations of retaliation lack merit. Although we will not comment on personnel matters, the law is firmly established that at will employees, in particular those who serve as confidential advisors to an elected leader, cannot oppose him/her politically and keep their advisory position. The Sheriff has the right to remove senior level advisors whose views do not align with his own agenda. Who has ever heard of a cabinet secretary running a negative campaign against the president who appointed them?"

But Levinson wonders if that is a good comparison.

"If you want to run against the sheriff and keep your job there's no other choice, so this is not analogous of a member of the cabinet running against the president," says Levinson.

Vera says he is talking with employment attorneys now and plans to fight this decision as he moves forward with his election plans.