LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- By late September 2011, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department "Special Operations Group" had FBI Agent Leah Marx under surveillance for more than two weeks. Her partner, FBI Agent David Lam, was under surveillance as well."Locate target and establish lifestyle," reads the surveillance order for Agent Lam.Surveillance logs on Agent Marx turned up nothing more nefarious than the young agent picking up after her medium-sized brown and white dog. The surveillance team notes in its report that the dog went "#2".It's highly unusual for a local law enforcement agency to investigate and conduct surveillance on FBI agents, but this is an incredibly unusual case. Seven former deputies, sergeants and lieutenants stand convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice for their roles in trying to block a federal investigation into brutality and corruption in L.A. County Jails.Eyewitness News has obtained hundreds of exhibits from the three trials, including the videotaped confrontation between Marx and two LASD Sergeants, along with hours of recorded jailhouse interviews.On September 26, 2011 Sgt. Scott Craig and Sgt. Maricela Long confronted FBI Special Agent Leah Marx outside her home; they flash their LASD badges at Marx and then threaten her with arrest. The entire confrontation was captured on video by the LASD surveillance team staked out across the street on orders from Sgt. Craig. That video would later become a key piece of evidence against Craig and Long who faced additional charges of making "false statements" to the FBI.Lying to the FBI is a crime, as Sgt. Craig would soon find out. Marx was not "a named suspect in a felony complaint" and Craig knew he could not arrest the FBI agent for her role in the FBI's undercover operation at Men's Central Jail. The FBI sting included smuggling a contraband cell phone into inmate-turned-FBI informant Anthony Brown through a corrupt sheriff's deputy who accepted a cash bribe from an undercover FBI agent.Craig did not have probable cause to arrest Marx because the contraband phone was part of a legitimate, authorized FBI investigation. No less than the head of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office had told then-Sheriff Lee Baca that himself more than a month before the threat to arrest Agent Marx.The federal judge who oversaw all three trials delivered a harsh rebuke to six of the defendants at their sentencing last month.Hours after the confrontation, Sgts. Craig and Long got a frantic phone call from Marx's FBI Supervisor, Special Agent Carlos Narro.The phone call ends but Sgt. Long's tape recorder is still rolling.But again, Marx was NOT going to be arrested. Sgt. Long's repetition of that lie to Agent Narro is one of the "false statements" that's sending Long, a 23-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department, to federal prison.Contempt for the FBI is evident in emails and recorded interviews as well. Lt. Steve Leavins refers to the FBI as "spoiled children", "pitiful" and "idiots" in various emails entered into evidence and obtained by Eyewitness News.In one recorded interview, Lt. Leavins tells Deputy Gilbert Miche l -- who'd been caught taking a bribe in that FBI sting operation - that he's being lied to and manipulated by the FBI, that he's a pawn in their little game.That's witness tampering. Prosecutors say the defendants repeatedly tried to discourage witnesses, including Deputy Michel, from cooperating with the FBI.In that same interview, the defendants tell Deputy Michel that the FBI is lying to him, threatening and blackmailing him.At this point, Dep. Michel had already confessed to accepting a bribe to bring that contraband cell phone into inmate Anthony Brown. Michel explained to Craig, Long, and Leavins that the FBI had come to his house and shown him a video they recorded of him accepting the cash from an undercover FBI agent known only as "CJ."The witness tampering appears to work. By the end of the interview, Deputy Michel turns against the FBI.Sgt. Craig orders Deputy Michel to NOT talk to the FBI.Defense attorneys pointed out at trial that the defendants DID appear to record everything. That, they argued, is evidence the defendants had no ill-intent. Why would they record jailhouse interviews with Deputy Michel and the confrontation with FBI Agent Leah Marx if they believed they were committing some kind of crime?Inmate Anthony Brown is a fast-talking, wise-cracking convicted felon who'd only been out of prison for six weeks when he went on a crack-fueled crime spree in 2009 - robbing banks, restaurants and drug stores in Downtown Los Angeles. Brown wielded an old revolver and made his getaway on a bicycle. Surveillance photos showed Brown losing so much weight so quickly, an LAPD spokesperson joked that Brown was on the "crack diet."The LAPD caught up with Brown in August of 2009 and the native New Yorker quickly confessed. Brown later changed his story and contested the charges, but the third-striker was convicted and sentenced to 423 years to life in prison.Brown was still awaiting trial at Men's Central Jail when he was recruited as an FBI informant by Agent Leah Marx. In 2011, a plan was approved to smuggle a cell phone into Brown so he could document any possible abuse, as well as communicate with his FBI handlers.Before he received the cell phone, Brown called Marx at her FBI office from a jailhouse phone line that's routinely recorded.Brown had the FBI cell phone for less than three weeks when it was discovered by a jailhouse deputy, wrapped in a latex glove and stashed inside a bag of Doritos. Deputies with MCJ's "Operation Safe Jails" eventually connected Brown to the FBI, setting off a series of jailhouse interviews that were sometimes tense, and sometimes comical.The Sheriff's Department wanted to know - how did Brown get the phone? Were there more cell phones in the jails? Did the FBI smuggle drugs into the jail? What was the FBI investigating? How much did the FBI already know?Brown is chatty, but sees an opportunity to make some demands of his own before he'll spill the beans on the FBI operation.Over the next few days, Brown reveals more about the FBI investigation, telling the defendants that he's witnessed inmates being beat up by deputies and he's reported this back to the FBI. Brown claims he's taken photographs and even video to help the FBI make their case.Brown tells the deputies the FBI has been gathering evidence inside the jails for years. He says the feds are coming to "clean" the Sheriff Department's "house."On August 23, 2011 FBI agents got into Men's Central Jail to see Brown despite a LASD directive to not allow any visits from "outside" law enforcement without approval. Sheriff Department officials abruptly broke up the interview when they realized the FBI had gotten in to see Brown.Later that day, Lt. Leavins told Brown he was going to be moved to a station jail in San Dimas for his own safety. Brown's name was also changed and his inmate records were falsified to make it appear as if he'd been released from LASD custody.That's when Brown disappears from the LASD computer system. The FBI can't find him. On August 25th, 2011 the FBI obtains a "writ" - or court order -- from a federal judge to force the LASD to turn Brown over the U.S. Marshals Service. But the writ disappears after it's served on the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.Brown begins to wonder why he hasn't heard from his FBI handlers. He tells Sgts. Craig and Long that FBI Agent Leah Marx had promised to come back for him as she was being kicked out of their interview at Men's Central Jail.Once again, that's witness tampering. The jury agreed with prosecutors that statements like "they haven't come back for you" were meant to discourage Anthony Brown from any further cooperation with the FBI.The FBI hadn't come back for Brown because they didn't know where he was. Brown had been rebooked in San Dimas under a series of fake names with no live-scan/fingerprints that would have allowed the FBI to find him.After weeks hidden away from his FBI handlers, Brown writes a letter to Lt. Leavins, Capt. Carey, Sgt. Long and Sgt. Craig denouncing the FBI and declaring that the "LASD should handle their own problems, NOT the FBI or any other agency." Brown says he will not testify for the FBI because the "FBI has left me for dead!"Brown never did testify at any of the three trials, for either side. He did, however, testify before a grand jury more than a year after this bizarre episode. Brown is now back at state prison serving his 423 year sentence and hoping to appeal his 2011 conviction for a series of armed robberies. Brown tells Eyewitness News he's been contacted by a movie director who wants to tell his story.The six defendants convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in July, Greg Thompson, Steve Leavins, Scott Craig, Maricela Long, Gerard Smith and Mickey Manzo, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 21 months to 41 months. Long and Craig were also convicted of making false statements to the FBI. All six defendants are appealing the verdicts.A seventh defendant, James Sexton, was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in September after his first trial ended with a hung jury. Sexton will be sentenced in early December.