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LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Two Los Angeles County deputies who say they were beaten and strangled to the point they believed they might die spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News.

"I knew I was losing consciousness. I knew that at the moment I was being overpowered. So I did feel like I was being killed," says one of the injured deputies.

In all, eight deputies are demanding $60 million in a new lawsuit against Los Angeles County and four fellow deputies they say are members of the "Banditos" deputy gang.

"We're hoping that the county and the Sheriff's Department finally changes, finally fixes what they admit has been a problem for 50 years," says their attorney Vincent Miller. "It's unbelievable to anyone on the outside that you'd have gang-member cops."

According to the lawsuit, the attack took place after a party at Kennedy Hall last September that was sanctioned by the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station.

The deputies say the deputy clique or gang ran the East Los Angeles station like a criminal enterprise - controlling schedules, demanding donations and pressuring recruits to make arrests even if they were bad ones.

Deputies say the gang strictly enforces a code of silence.

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