Kern County

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said his office had policies it 'wasn't necessarily following' as a judge extended state oversight of the department by two years under a 2020 stipulated judgment

A federal jury found a Kern County sheriff's deputy used excessive, unreasonable and negligent force in the fatal 2020 shooting of unarmed Mickel Lewis Sr., awarding his family $30.5 million after the department's own internal review had cleared the deputy

Emails show an assistant DA coached a nonprofit CEO on obtaining grant funding five weeks before the Kern County DA's office ended Open Door Network's role at the Family Justice Center; the CEO donated $2,000 to the DA's campaign