Cerise Castle is an American journalist. She received the

IWMF The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical so ...

Courage in Journalism Award for her investigative series on deputy gangs in the

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

Career

Castle previously worked as an associate producer for ''

Vice News Tonight ''Vice News Tonight'' is an American news program currently broadcast on Vice on TV and originally broadcast on HBO as the channel's first-ever daily series, premiering October 2016. HBO cancelled the series after three seasons, ending September ...

''. In 2020 she was hired as a producer at

KCRW KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programm ...

. While reporting a Los Angeles

George Floyd protest The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internatio ...

in May 2020, Castle was shot with a rubber bullet by

LAPD The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

. During her rehabilitation, she spent six months investigating the history of deputy gangs in the

(LACSD). Castle accepted a buyout to leave her position at KCRW in February 2021. In a statement posted to

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and an interview on ''LA Podcast'', she stated she had experienced racist microaggressions during her time as an employee. 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" in ''Knock LA''. 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. One month after the series was published, Castle was detained at an LACSD press conference while reporting the event. A year after publication, the city's civilian oversight board launched an investigation into the deputy gangs. In 2022 she received the American Journalism Online Award for Best Use of Public Records and the

Courage in Journalism Award for the series. Castle has freelanced for ''

the Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', '' LA Magazine'', and multiple podcasts. Her freelance reporting broke the story of the Citizen app's misidentification of an arson suspect. Her reporting has been cited by ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

,'' and The Ringer.

Personal life

Castle was raised in southern California. In 2014 she moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

after college to become a freelance reporter. She is a lesbian.

Accolades

2022

International Women's Media Foundation The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical so ...

, Courage in Journalism Award * American Journalism Online Award for Best Use of Public Records

2023

American Mosaic Journalism Prize The American Mosaic Journalism Prize is a journalism prize awarded annually to two freelance journalists "for excellence in long-form, narrative, or deep reporting on stories about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the present Ame ...

References

External links

Official website

"A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department"
at ''Knock LA'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Castle, Cerise Year of birth missing (living people) Living people African-American women journalists 21st-century American journalists Writers from California 21st-century American women writers American lesbian writers LGBT African Americans