Inside the LA Times’ AirTag Story: Omitted Facts, Compromised Sources, and Manufactured Victims
Another day, another Los Angeles Times masterpiece of misinformation begging for a reality check.
The October 9 article titled “She found an LAPD official’s AirTag. Lawsuit claims it derailed her career” delivered yet another slanted narrative from a publication that has elevated omission to an art form. This was not journalism. It was a carefully curated storyline stitched together with selective sourcing, withheld facts, and credibility issues the Times apparently hoped readers wouldn’t bother to examine.
Front and center in this manufactured drama is defense attorney Nicole Castronovo (formerly Lopes), the architect of the allegations. What the Times failed to disclose is that Castronovo’s own professional standing is currently hanging by a thread. In April 2025, a U.S. District Court judge removed her from a high-profile case for conduct so troubling the court ruled the defendant “cannot select an attorney who has so greatly failed in her duty of competence and duty of loyalty.” The matter was referred to the State Bar. Despite this professional implosion, the Times elevated her to star witness, without a single word of disclosure.
The article does not even get the basics right. It frames Sgt. Jessica Bell’s lawsuit while repeatedly labeling her attorney’s claims as “baseless” and describing Bell’s relationship with a married co-worker as merely “alleged.” There is one glaring problem. Sergeant Bell (formerly Zamorano) was caught by her then husband sending countless explicit sexual messages to her married partner on her LAPD-issued phone. The Times published a lawsuit devoid of meaningful scrutiny, referencing only the fragments that help fabricate a sympathetic narrative. That is not oversight. That is fabrication.
Even more telling is what the Times chose not to print, Bell’s documented disciplinary history. In 2024, she received an official reprimand (LAPD Complaint #24-000519) for sending sexually explicit messages on a city-issued phone to married co-worker Nick Giordano. That misconduct contributed to the collapse of her marriage and later cost her a departmental position. Internal references to “L90,” a watch commander phone line commonly used to mask identities during extramarital affairs, corroborate the disciplinary findings. None of this appeared in the Times’ righteous whistleblower narrative. Nor did any mention of Bell’s affair or the destruction of her own family, leaving two young children in the wake of her actions.
The article portrays Bell as a brave whistleblower whose career was “derailed” for speaking out, based entirely on selective quotes from Bell and her attorney. The Times scrubbed the record of inconvenient facts that directly undermine that narrative, beginning with Bell’s credibility.
In the Ontario Police Department report, Bell claimed she had “no knowledge” of how to use AirTags. Her ex-husband stated she had previously placed them on all three of his vehicles. Bell further claimed her children were traumatized after finding an AirTag and required therapy. Her ex-husband refuted this entirely, the children never mentioned the incident and never sought therapy. The Times did not merely omit context, it withheld contradictions that collapse the story’s foundation.
Bell’s long, chaotic relationship with former LAPD Assistant Chief Alfred Labrada was marked by distrust and personal turmoil. Bell, who has allegedly been involved in multiple extramarital affairs, actively encouraged Dawn Silva, while Silva was living with Labrada, to continue an affair with married officer Josh Sewell. When Labrada ultimately ended the relationship and served Silva with a termination of domestic partnership on September 6, Bell’s resentment escalated. A San Bernardino District Attorney reject memo later flagged significant credibility issues with both the alleged “victim” and key witnesses, yet another critical fact buried by the Times.
None of these public records, disciplinary findings, contradictory statements, or prosecutorial red flags appeared in the LA Times article. Instead, readers were spoon-fed a one-sided narrative designed to portray Bell as a wronged victim while shielding them from every fact that contradicts that portrayal.
And the giveaway? The October 9 story aligns perfectly with an attorney personally connected to the Times reporter, perhaps explaining why this so-called investigation reads more like a sponsored post than journalism.
The pattern does not stop there. In Ontario PD Report #230900291 (October 4, 2023) and LAPD Internal Affairs records, Dawn Silva initially reported no threats, no stalking, and no domestic violence. “No domestic violence and no other crimes occurred during the relationship,” the report states. Silva later altered her story, falsely characterizing intimate text messages from 2022 as threats and submitting them in a San Bernardino Superior Court TRO affidavit.
Silva claimed reaching out to mutual LAPD friends Angela Fleischer and Nicole Minnarick constituted stalking, despite Labrada knowing both women for over six years and having assisted their careers. The TRO relied on selectively framed personal messages exchanged throughout a six-year relationship, including joking, intimate language. On September 29, 2021, Silva herself sent Labrada a message stating, “I’ll murder your ass.” Similar language appeared throughout their exchanges. These messages were later rebranded as threats, conveniently stripped of context.
The department has consistently denied access to the full message history. Requests were denied as addenda to a personnel complaint (September 27, 2024), as a public records request (October 7, 2024), and again through formal legal demand to Chief McDonnell on January 30, 2025. Silva forfeited any claim of confidentiality when she submitted the messages to advance her narrative, yet the full context remains hidden. Why?
Silva also lied in her Ontario PD interview, stating she had no other relationships during her six-year relationship with Labrada. That statement is demonstrably false. From 2017 to 2023, Silva engaged in multiple extramarital relationships, including a concealed affair with former Assistant Chief Jorge Villegas in 2018, while she and Labrada were living together.
Silva and Villegas allegedly met off duty, drank together, and engaged in sexual activity at the Continental Bar in Glendora, at the LAPD Elysian Park Academy locker room, and during the October 2018 Orlando Chiefs Conference, where Silva met Villegas in his hotel room while Labrada attended classes. In September 2018, Silva and Villegas were observed engaging in sexual activity in Silva’s white Honda Accord after drinking at a bar, an act constituting a misdemeanor. Then-Chief Moore was made aware and called off surveillance. No action was taken.
Shortly after, Silva sold her Honda Accord, eliminating potential evidence. Only after a Pitchess motion in an unrelated case did Moore order a complaint (CF #19-001124). Villegas abruptly retired. Silva faced no discipline.
Now Silva and Bell claim Internal Affairs is targeting them, after both used that same process to target Labrada with false allegations. Silva denounces the system that once protected her.
The San Bernardino District Attorney’s reject memo, hidden by LAPD for six months, flagged significant credibility issues with the alleged victim and witnesses. No follow-up occurred. On February 25, 2025, the Executive Director of Peace Officer Standards concluded after an independent investigation that there was no clear evidence the alleged misconduct occurred. These findings were omitted, again.
Moore did not leave voluntarily. City Hall sources confirm he learned of his early departure the day it was announced. It was not about family. It was about failure and leadership collapse.
When a publication selectively omits verified facts, elevates compromised sources, and launders fabrication as law, it ceases to be a watchdog. It becomes an accessory.
The October 9 article was not designed to inform. It was engineered to mislead, weaponizing half-truths in a matter involving law enforcement, public trust, and reputational ruin.
Take this story for what it is, not justice, not accountability, not journalism, but manipulation.
