A judge has dismissed a retaliation lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles police sergeant who sued the city, alleging he has experienced retaliation after reporting that he heard a captain make a racially insensitive remark to a fellow captain, both of whom are Latinos.
Sgt. Rigoberto Vasquez is the officer in charge of the Foothill Division vice unit and his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit was filed in July 2022. On Thursday, Judge Tony L. Richardson granted the city’s motion to dismiss Vasquez’s case, saying he had not shown any evidence the city had taken an adverse employment action against him.
“Plaintiff cannot raise triable issues of material fact by citing inferences derived from speculation, conjecture, imagination or guesswork,” the judge wrote.
Vasquez said his troubles began in September 2020 when the plaintiff overheard one Latino captain tell Capt. German Hurtado, also a Latino, that Hurtado and his family members are “wetbacks.”
Hurtado filed an internal complaint against the other captain in August 2021 regarding alleged remark and the next month the plaintiff was interviewed by Internal Affairs about what he had heard, according to the suit.
Vasquez met with the captain who allegedly made the offensive remark for about two hours in October 2021 on an unrelated matter and the captain said, “I can’t believe that (Hurtado) filed a complaint against me,” the suit stated.
The same captain also was upset with Vasquez for his interview with Internal Affairs, the suit stated. When Vasquez replied that he had an obligation to tell the truth, the captain “threateningly” told the plaintiff that he did not have to say he remembered the captain making the “wetback” comment, the suit stated.
“Just know that you’re in front of a very powerful train here,” the captain told Vasquez, according to the suit. “This is something that can get in the way of your career. Do you think you’re going to make lieutenant if you’re involved in stuff like this?”
Vasquez believes the captain recorded their discussion on his phone and he later discussed the conversation with Hurtado, who along with the captain was a supervisor of the plaintiff, the suit stated. Vasquez told Hurtado that he believed the captain’s remarks to him were retaliatory in nature, the suit stated.
Vasquez was subsequently interviewed by Internal Affairs regarding his conversation with the captain and shortly thereafter, the plaintiff was reassigned to work under a different captain who was newly appointed and not as familiar with the complex workings of undercover operations, the suit stated.