A Los Angeles County employee has been charged with felony hate crimes after allegedly breaking into the government’s downtown headquarters three times in the last two weeks and placing death threats on the desk of an Asian co-worker.
Bhavin Patel, 42, has been charged with making criminal threats, burglary and violation of civil rights, according to the district attorney’s office. If convicted as charged, Patel could face up to 13 years in prison.
“Everyone deserves a safe workplace and no one deserves to be vilified for their race or ethnicity,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement.
Patel, who worked in the county counsel office, allegedly broke into the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration on Aug. 25, Aug. 26 and Sept. 4 with “prepared threats,” which he scattered on the co-worker’s desk and nearby cubicles “for the purpose of instilling fear in the victim,” according to a statement from the district attorney’s office.
The county did not provide the name of the victim.
County Counsel Dawyn Harrison said in a statement that the office immediately reached out to the sheriff’s department.
“The Office of County Counsel, and the County as a whole, have zero tolerance for harassment of any kind, and hate crimes are particularly heinous,” Harrison said. “We work to create an environment of safety and belonging for all of our employees.”
The county counsel is composed of in-house lawyers for the county, providing legal advice to the county’s dozens of departments. Patel’s job description was not provided, but he was not a licensed lawyer, according to the state bar registry.
Last year, the county reported a record-breaking number of hate crimes across the region, according to a report from the county’s Commission on Human Relations. After a dip in 2022, anti-Asian crimes rose in 2023, with 80 victims targeted — the second-highest number on record. In 2021, there were 247 anti-Asian hate crimes.
