A Los Angeles police detective with cybercrime expertise is suing the city, alleging he was downgraded and prevented from doing FBI work for blowing the whistle on a boss allegedly working in the office during times he ostensibly was performing Metropolitan Transportation Authority policing overtime duty.
Detective Jilvee Abalos’ Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory damages. A representative for the City Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Friday.
Abalos was hired by the Los Angeles Police Department in 2009 and was promoted to detective eight years later. He served for the next five years in the Major Crimes Division’s online criminal intelligence section and became a cybercrime expert.
Abalos also served a year as a fellow with the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security’s Cyber Mission Center in Washington, D.C., and in March 2022 he was chosen to be a task force officer with the FBI’s Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force in Los Angeles. Later that same year, Abalos was upgraded to a detective 2 in the LAPD’s Office of Constitutional Policing and Policy and was allowed to continue his FBI work outside of his LAPD hours, the suit states.
After Abalos began working at OCPP, he became aware that his boss was coming into the OCPP office while working MTA overtime shifts offered to LAPD officers and managers, the suit states. LAPD members doing MTA overtime work were not supposed to be doing LAPD work at the same time, the suit states.
Abalos reported to a unit acting lieutenant that the supervisor was changing his days off at the last minute so he could work MTA overtime shifts, which other workers were not allowed to do, according to the suit.
Abalos believed his boss was violating local, state and federal statutes and he took photos of the supervisor wearing attire associated with his MTA work and also made copies of OCPP sign-in sheets to support his suspicions, the suit states.
After Abalos was seen photographing MTA-related clothing in October 2023, other OCPP supervisors told him to report to them at the end of his shift and he was told to surrender his FBI take-home car, FBI credentials, and all FBI property, according to the suit, which also alleges that he was downgraded to a detective 1 and removed from the FBI cyber task force.
Abalos has lost income and benefits and his ability to promote and obtain highly desired positions have been impaired by the department’s actions against him, the suit alleges.