Cerise Castle is an American journalist. She received theIWMF Courage in Journalism Award and theAmerican Mosaic Journalism Prize for her investigative series on deputy gangs in theLos Angeles County Sheriff's Department.^[1][2]

Castle previously worked as an associate producer forVice News Tonight.^[3] In 2020 she was hired as a producer atKCRW. While reporting a Los AngelesGeorge Floyd protest in May 2020, Castle was shot with a rubber bullet byLAPD.^[3] During her rehabilitation, she spent six months investigating the history ofdeputy gangs in theLos Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LACSD).^[4]

Castle accepted a buyout to leave her position at KCRW in February 2021.^[5] In a statement posted toTwitter and an interview onLA Podcast, she stated she had experienced racist microaggressions during her time as an employee.^[6]

In March 2021, she published her LACSD gangs series, "A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department" inKnock LA.^[4][2] Her reporting stated that multiple gangs are active in the department and alleged that gang members have killed 19 men of color around Los Angeles.^[7] One month after the series was published, Castle was detained at an LACSD press conference while reporting the event.^[8] A year after publication, the city's civilian oversight board launched an investigation into the deputy gangs.^[7] In 2022 she received the American Journalism Online Award for Best Use of Public Records and theIWMF Courage in Journalism Award for the series.^[1][2][9] In 2023 she received theAmerican Mosaic Journalism Prize for her reporting, an award for freelance journalists.^[1][2][10]

Castle has freelanced forthe Daily Beast, theLos Angeles Times,LA Magazine, and multiple podcasts.^[2][11] Her freelance reporting broke the story of theCitizen app's misidentification of an arson suspect.^[12] Her reporting has been cited byNewsweek,LA Weekly, andThe Ringer.^[13][14][15] In late February, 2023, it was announced Castle had signed withCAA.^[2] In March 2024 she was hired as a staff writer for California-based nonprofit publicationCapital & Main.^[16]

She was targeted for surveillance by theLos Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.^[17][18] She received death threats.^[19]

Castle was raised in southern California. In 2014 she moved toLos Angeles after completing her bachelor's degree atEmerson College^[1][20] to become a freelance reporter.^[21]

She is a lesbian.^[22]

• International Women's Media Foundation, Courage in Journalism Award^[1][11]
• American Journalism Online Award for Best Use of Public Records^[9][2]

• American Mosaic Journalism Prize^[1][2][23]

• "A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department".Knock LA. 2023-07-17. Retrieved2024-10-07.
• Castle, Cerise (2024-07-17)."I wrote the history of LASD gangs. Then the sheriff's department started surveilling me".LA Public Press. Retrieved2024-10-07.

• Official website
• "A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department" atKnock LA

• Living people
• African-American women journalists
• African-American journalists
• 21st-century American women journalists
• 21st-century American journalists
• Writers from California
• 21st-century American women writers
• American lesbian writers
• African-American LGBTQ people
• LGBTQ people from California

• CS1 maint: location missing publisher
• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Year of birth missing (living people)