A man is suing the Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade, alleging he was fired in January from his program manager job for having taken medical leave for surgery to remove a cyst that caused him migraine headaches.
Jose Loeras’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against the nonprofit alleges disability and family leave discrimination, retaliation and failure to accommodate and engage in the interactive process. He seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
The Brotherhood Crusade is a 57-year old grassroots organization with a vision of improving quality of life and meeting the unmet needs of low-income, underserved, under-represented and disenfranchised individuals,” according to its website, which also says, “We envision a South Los Angeles devoid of health disparities, disenfranchisement and poverty-associated adverse public health conditions.”
A Brotherhood Crusade representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit filed Thursday.
Loera was hired in October 2023 as a program manager. He managed staffing, oversaw daily operations and helped to ensure that the organization’s program goals were met. Loera’s annual salary was $80,000, he seldom received any criticisms of his work and he consistently met his employer’s performance expectations, the suit states.
“Simply put, plaintiff was a model employee,” the suit states.
Loera began suffering from chronic migraines in September 2025 and so he sought a doctor’s advice. He was told he had a cyst that needed removal and that he would have to take time off for surgery from that same month until January of this year, the suit states.
Loera provided all applicable medical documents to the proper manager and hoped that the organization would be understanding because he wanted to return to work, according to the suit. He later updated the manager in December to let her know he would return in early January, the suit further states.
Loera complied with the manager’s request for all medical documents clearing him to return to work, the suit states. But the same day the plaintiff returned to work, the manager told him he was being terminated, the suit states.
“Plaintiff was in utter shock as he never would have imagined that taking a medical leave of absence due to his disability would have these repercussions,” according to the suit, which further states that his attempts to reason with the manager failed.
Loera was left feeling embarrassed, ashamed, emotionally hurt and in financial hurt for being terminated “simply because he was disabled and took a medical leave of absence due to a disability even after his loyal service to defendants,’ the suit states.