News Releases

If convicted as charged, Tommy Ray Trimble faces up to three years in prison

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman announced today that a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s custodian has been charged with taking and tampering with evidence stemming from his own DUI arrest in 2024.

“We entrust our public officials and law enforcement officers to uphold the law, not to break it,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said. “Those who perform civic service should expect to be held to a higher standard. This wasn’t a mistake. This was a concerted effort to flout the law to escape justice.”  

Tommy Ray Trimble (dob 2/4/65) was charged in case 25DWCF01150 with one felony count each of second-degree commercial burglary, preparing false evidence and destroying government records. He also is charged with one misdemeanor count of destroying evidence.

Trimble is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in Department 2 at the Downey Courthouse.

The case was filed for warrant on Aug. 29.

On July 7, 2024, Trimble, an evidence and property custodian who worked at the sheriff’s crime laboratory in Downey, was arrested on the 91 Freeway in Compton and subsequently charged for driving under the influence. As part of the investigation, the defendant’s blood was drawn.

On Sept. 11, 2024, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s criminalist at the Downey facility examined Trimble’s blood sample and noticed it had been damaged. Trimble is accused of accessing a vault where evidence is stored, taking out his blood sample and heating it in a microwave.

If convicted as charged, Trimble faces up to three years in state prison.

The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Juree Kim of the Justice System Integrity Division and remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau.

The charges filed in this case are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.