LOS ANGELES — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - California, Central), published as received.
LOS ANGELES – A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) deputy was sentenced today to 12 months in federal prison for submitting a false search warrant application to a state court judge, lying that he needed GPS tracking information for a robbery suspect’s cell phone when in fact it was for a private client’s estranged husband during the client’s contentious divorce proceedings.
David Anthony Rodriguez, 45, of La Verne, was sentenced by United States District Judge Percy Anderson.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty in July 2025 to one count of conspiracy against rights. He left LASD in October 2025.
According to court documents, while serving as an active-duty law enforcement officer, Rodriguez received cash payments for his work as a private security guard for a wealthy Los Angeles-based client who had hired a private security company owned by a then-LASD colleague, Eric Chase Saavedra, 43, of Chino. In August 2021, Rodriguez began working for Saavedra, whose company provided private security services for clients and often employed active LASD deputies and law enforcement officers.
One of those clients was Adam Iza, 25, who resided in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach, was a self-styled cryptocurrency businessman, and who has been in federal custody since September 2024. Iza has pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges –conspiracy against rights, wire fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery – in California and Connecticut and awaits sentencing.
As part of his employment for Saavedra’s company, Rodriguez began working as a security guard for Iza and another wealthy Los Angeles-based individual – identified in court documents as “Person 1” – who had an ongoing dispute with her husband, the victim. Rodriguez worked for Person 1 at least twice a month and developed a personal relationship with her. He received cash payments in exchange for the shifts he worked as a security guard for Person 1.
While employed as Person 1’s private security guard, Rodriguez learned that Person 1 was concerned for her own safety and believed that her husband possessed valuable goods that she said belonged to her. Rodriguez also learned that Person 1 could not locate the victim and had engaged in multiple attempts to find him.
In July 2022, Rodriguez obtained a search warrant for the victim by lying in an affidavit to a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. In the affidavit, Rodriguez falsely stated that a detective had contacted him and asked for assistance from LASD’s Gang Surveillance Team in connection with a robbery that occurred three days earlier in Cudahy.
The affidavit further falsely stated that Rodriguez was able to positively identify a suspect involved in the robbery case, and that the suspect used two cell phones. Rodriguez falsely indicated in the affidavit that the victim’s cell phone number was associated with the robbery suspect. The search warrant application sought, among other things, GPS precision location information associated with the cell phone. Rodriguez knew that the victim’s cell phone number had no relationship with the robbery investigation.
Rodriguez also falsely swore in the affidavit that he believed the search warrant would allow the detective to locate the suspect through GPS coordinates and help the detective arrest the suspect for the charge of assault with a deadly weapon.
After serving the search warrant on the telephone provider, Rodriguez obtained GPS location pings associated with the victim’s cell phone, later tracking the victim in Utah and sharing that information with Saavedra. Rodriguez admitted in his plea agreement that he knew Saavedra and other LASD deputies working with Saavedra had unlawfully obtained information and used it to threaten, intimidate, or oppress other people.
Rodriguez later learned that – at co-conspirators’ request – LASD deputies later towed the victim’s vehicle while the victim stayed in Los Angeles, that co-conspirators had placed a tracking device on the victim’s vehicle in Utah, and co-conspirators had sent a threatening text message to the victim.
“This was not impulsive conduct or a momentary lapse in judgment,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “It was a calculated abuse of authority carried out with full awareness of its significance.”
Saavedra pleaded guilty in February 2025 to one count of conspiracy against rights and one count of making and subscribing to a false tax return. He is expected to be sentenced in the coming months.
The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter. LASD provided assistance.
Assistant United States Attorney Maxwell K. Coll of the National Security Division prosecuted this case.
