A judge has ruled that a taxpayer claim by the ACLU and eight sheriff’s deputies who say they were pressured to quit or leave the East Los Angeles station by a clique of mostly Latino deputies known as the Banditos will be heard by her in a nonjury trial after a jury first decides the plaintiffs’ claims for damages.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Serena R. Murillo heard arguments Tuesday, took the issues under submission and ruled Wednesday that all the claims of plaintiffs Art Hernandez, Alfred Gonzalez, Benjamin Zaredini, David Casas, Louis Granados, Mario Contreras, Oscar Escobedo and Ariela Lemus against Los Angeles County and individual defendants Rafael “Rene” Munoz, Gregory Rodriguez, David Silverio and Michael Hernandez should be heard by a jury except for the taxpayer claim, which she will hear after the jury trial scheduled to start Dec. 11 is over.
The ACLU is a joint plaintiff in the taxpayer cause of action only and had joined with attorneys for Los Angeles County in asking for it to be tried separately by the judge.
The plaintiff deputies opposed the severance. Their attorneys stated in their court papers that even if the scope of the taxpayer claim is broader than the other causes of action, the allegations of all claims focus on “the nature of the harm perpetrated by a gang-infested, corrupt and lawless LASD.”
The taxpayer claim seeks to stop countywide policies and practices of the Sheriff’s Department that the plaintiffs allege are illegal. Thus, Murillo said, the subject matter of the taxpayer claim is “hugely different” from the rest of the case because it concerns the policies and practices of LASD as a whole and primarily includes allegations regarding LASD’s treatment of the public or violations of its own policies that implicate the treatment of the public.
On the other hand, the other claims involve the plaintiffs’ alleged experiences of harassment and retaliation at the East Los Angeles Station in 2017-19, the judge wrote.
Lastly, trying the taxpayer claim with the other causes of action would be “highly prejudicial” to the defense because central to the taxpayer claim are the policies of LASD on the use of deadly force against members of the public, the judge further wrote.
The plaintiffs’ suit was originally filed in September 2019 and deals in part with the events that allegedly occurred during a September 2018 training session at Kennedy Hall, an East Los Angeles event venue where the plaintiffs maintain the alleged Banditos “sucker-punched” Art Hernandez and “knocked him out cold,” then kicked him while he was unconscious and unable to defend himself.
The suit alleges the assailants also grabbed Escobedo from behind twice and choked him unconscious in a manner that could have killed him.
The plaintiffs were threatened and bullied in attempts to get them to conform to a “corrupt culture,” were denied needed backup on dangerous calls and were “shaken down” and ordered to pay taxes to the gang, according to the suit. The plaintiffs also allege they were given excessive calls, sent hostile messages, forced to perform unpaid overtime and denied promotions and transfers.
But in their court papers, county attorneys argue the county is not responsible for anything that allegedly happened to the plaintiffs at Kennedy Hall.
“The county cannot be held liable for the fight since none of the people involved were acting within the scope of their employment with the department, not the plaintiffs or the Individual defendants,” the county attorneys state in their court papers. “The party was voluntary — LASD did not require anyone to go. It was planned and funded by the deputies. None of the attendees were on-duty. And it took place at a site not owned or operated by the County.”
The county put the individual defendants on administrative leave, investigated the incident and then fired the individual defendants for their involvement, according to the county attorneys’ court papers.
The plaintiffs allege the Banditos are a gang that targets young Latinos for harassment, but the county lawyers state in their court papers that the plaintiffs cannot show they heard a single comment or insult about their ethnicity.
The Banditos members actually admitted members of all races and treated all non-Banditos the same, regardless of race, and the plaintiffs were harassed only after they spoke out against the Banditos and not because the plaintiffs themselves are Latinos, the county lawyers state in their court papers.