A Huntington Park police officer is suing the city, alleging he has been discriminated against because of his age and that the police chief only provided accommodations to those whom he liked.
Officer Raymond Garcia’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges discrimination, retaliation, failure to accommodate and engage in the interactive process and failure to take all steps to prevent unlawful discrimination and retaliation. He seeks unspecified damages.
“Due to the department’s failure to engage in the interactive process, failure to accommodate, discrimination and retaliation, (Garcia) continues to suffer losses in earnings and other employment benefits,” the suit brought Thursday states.
City Attorney Andrew Sarega said Monday the city has no comment on Garcia’s case because it is being litigated.
Garcia was hired as an officer in 2017 and the next year was assigned to the Southeast Regional Mental Evaluation Team and the firearms training unit. He contends that beginning in 2022, he was discriminated against, harassed and retaliated against based on his physical disability, age and for complaining about how he was treated. The department failed to help Garcia, the suit alleges.
Garcia contends that an example of the alleged discrimination was his removal from the mental evaluation team and his replacement by two people who, unlike him, were under 40 years old, the suit states. In addition, after a March 2023 on-duty back injury, Garcia was required to do desk duty in the station for a month rather than given an at-home assignment permitted to other officers, the suit states.
Garcia contends he was being pressured by a sergeant to return to full duty and that the sergeant was reinforcing what the plaintiff believes was a department culture in which the police chief only allowed reasonable accommodations to those whom he liked, according to the suit.
After rumors spread within the department that Garcia has applied for a position with the Vernon Police Department, Garcia was denied a promotion to sergeant and the job was instead given to someone with less seniority, the suit states. After Garcia filed a series of complaints against a lieutenant concerning alleged retaliatory conduct, the plaintiff was removed from patrol and assigned to the detective bureau, the suit states.
Garcia was eventually placed on leave and prevented from doing outside work, impacting his earnings, according to the suit, which further states that the officer has suffered damage to his reputation.