A Los Angeles police lieutenant won a round in court Tuesday when a judge said she will review the personnel records of nine department members and one retiree regarding the plaintiff’s lawsuit, in which she says she was harassed after complaining that other LAPD members had disseminated sexist images on social media.
Lt. Darcy French further maintains that her bosses may have tried to hold up her promotion to lieutenant after she came forward. On Tuesday, Judge Lynne Hobbs granted French’s “Pitchess” motion, which allows a plaintiff and her attorneys to see a law enforcement officer’s personnel file to find possible misconduct evidence.
French was hired in 1998 and says officers on her watch ignored her warning to stop posting derogatory memes because they could lead to both discipline and poor morale. French was a sergeant at the time.
“However, the hostile memes and social media posts did not stop and instead began to specifically target and degrade Plaintiff because of her sex or gender,” the suit states.
French’s superiors failed to take prompt action to stop the offensive social media posts or to hold the offending employees responsible and instead began to shun and ostracize her, including canceling and refusing meetings with her, removing some of her customary duties and responsibilities without justification and unfairly counseling her for purportedly being mean, the suit states.
In her motion, French’s attorneys asked the judge to not only peruse the records of the nine current and one retired department members, but also any Internal Affairs investigations regarding her complaints about the memes and social media posts at issue as well as any “baseless” IA probes that may have delayed the plaintiff’s promotion to lieutenant, which occurred in January 2024.
The judge will conduct the records inspection in chambers on April 4 and then decide which ones if any should be turned over to French and her attorney.