Ex-LASD Deputy Sentenced For Using Police Power As Tool In Bitter Divorce Battle

LOS ANGELES, CA — A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy was sentenced to one year in federal prison on Monday for using a fabricated criminal investigation to obtain GPS data to help a private client track down her estranged husband, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

David Anthony Rodriguez, 45, of La Verne, was sentenced after pleading guilty in July 2025 to one count of conspiracy against rights. Rodriguez left the Sheriff’s Department in October, prosecutors said.

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Prosecutors said Rodriguez was still an active-duty deputy when he began working in 2021 for a private security company owned by fellow LASD deputy Eric Chase Saavedra.

The company frequently employed active law enforcement officers and provided security to wealthy clients, including cryptocurrency businessman Adam Iza — who referred to himself as "The Godfather" — and an unnamed woman identified in court documents as “Person 1.”

Rodriguez worked security shifts for the "wealthy Los Angeles-based" woman at least twice a month and was paid in cash, according to court documents. He learned that she was involved in a contentious dispute with her husband and had been trying to locate him.

In July 2022, Rodriguez submitted a search warrant application to a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that falsely connected the husband’s cellphone number to a robbery investigation in Cudahy, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez claimed another detective had asked the Sheriff’s Department’s Gang Surveillance Team for help finding a robbery suspect. He also falsely stated that he had identified the suspect and linked the man to two cellphone numbers.

One of the numbers actually belonged to the private client’s husband and had no connection to the robbery, according to prosecutors.

The warrant application sought precise GPS location information from the cellphone provider. Rodriguez swore that the data would help deputies locate and arrest a suspect for assault with a deadly weapon.

After serving the warrant on the phone company, Rodriguez obtained location pings that allowed him to track the husband to Utah. He then shared the information with Saavedra, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez later learned that others involved in the scheme had a tracking device placed on the husband’s vehicle, arranged for the vehicle to be towed while he was in Los Angeles and sent him a threatening text message, according to court documents.

Rodriguez admitted that he knew Saavedra and other deputies working for the security company had illegally obtained information and used it to threaten, intimidate or oppress people.

“This was not impulsive conduct or a momentary lapse in judgment,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “It was a calculated abuse of authority carried out with full awareness of its significance.”

The case is part of a wider federal investigation involving Iza and several former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies accused of using their positions to target people involved in personal or business disputes with the cryptocurrency trader.

Iza, 25, of Beverly Hills and Newport Beach, has been in federal custody since September 2024. He has pleaded guilty in California and Connecticut to charges including conspiracy against rights, wire fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery. He is awaiting sentencing.

Former deputy Michael Coberg was sentenced in March to over five years in federal prison for helping Iza intimidate and extort people he viewed as rivals.

Prosecutors said Coberg and other active-duty deputies acted as Iza’s personal enforcers, using their law enforcement authority to threaten people, obtain protected information and help stage a false drug arrest.

Saavedra pleaded guilty in February 2025 to conspiracy against rights and filing a false tax return. He is expected to be sentenced in the coming months.