A judge Tuesday dismissed a defamation claim filed against Los Angeles County that was part of a lawsuit filed by a Black, gay orthopedic surgeon who maintains she was a victim of racial and disability discrimination.
Dr. Melani Cargle’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also alleges retaliation, failure to engage in the interactive process and defamation. Cargle additionally names UCLA Health as a defendant and she alleges a supervisor at one of its facilities carried a gun on duty.
According to the complaint, the county sent out an internal email as well as a public posting personally attacking her and saying that her allegations against her UCLA supervisor and the county were “entirely false and that she was lying,” causing severe damage to her reputation.
But on Tuesday, Judge Randolph M. Hammock granted the county’s anti-SLAPP motion and dismissed Cargle’s defamation claim on free-speech grounds. The state’s anti-SLAPP — Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
Cargle’s statements went beyond general issues of patient care and included an allegation a patient was sexually assaulted in an operating room, so the county responded with factual information that disputed her contentions, the county’s lawyers stated in their court papers.
The judge also ruled the county can seek attorneys’ fees. In their court papers, attorneys for the county maintained that the email was privileged and that the county did not make any false statements about Cargle.
Cargle, now 37,received her medical training at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine from August 2015 and June 2020. Cargle was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in the fall of 2015 during her first year of medical school by a UCLA psychiatrist.
In July 2019, Cargle began her orthopedic surgery rotation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, where her supervisor for learning purposes carried a firearm, sometimes concealed and other times in a fanny pack, the suit states. When Cargle once asked the supervisor in the operating room what was in his fanny pack, he laughed, the suit filed June 1 states.
When Cargle scrubbed into surgery with her boss and his team, she and the others were “recipients of extremely inappropriate sexist and sexual comments” from the supervisor, who also made a gay slur, the suit states. Cargle additionally was “aware” that the supervisor used the “N-word” when referring to some patients, residents and students, the suit states.
Cargle complained to hospital management about her supervisor, but the issues remained unresolved despite reassurances to her that something would be done, the suit states.
The part of Cargle’s case against the county stems from her 2020 enrollment in USC/Keck’s orthopedic surgery residency program, where the chief resident in the hand surgery program called her “stupid,” “useless” and an “idiot,” the suit states.
“You need to … get yourself together and find a better system,” the chief resident told Cargle, according to her suit.
During a meeting with supervisors in which she explained that she used a charting system that was best for her in light of her disability, the bosses refused to accept her accommodation request and demanded that she chart in the way that they preferred, according to the suit.
When her program’s leadership allegedly failed to support or accommodate her, Cargle turned to social media outlets such as Twitter to vent about her negative experiences, the suit states.
Cargle also did an orthopedic trauma rotation at Los Angeles General Hospital beginning in December 2020, the suit states.
In May 2022, Cargle received a letter from the county’s Department of Human Resources notifying her that her period of time to mediate her claims against her UCLA supervisor had closed, according to the suit. The communication came a week prior to her receiving a notice of intent to terminate from her program at the time, the suit states.