A Los Angeles police sergeant is suing the city, alleging he was retaliated against because he reported alleged wrongdoing by colleagues involving body-worn cameras.
Sgt. Jorge Gonzalez’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also alleges harassment, discrimination and failure to take corrective action. He seeks unspecified compensatory damages as well as punitive damages against still unidentified “Doe” defendants.
A representative for the City Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Friday.
Gonzales was one of three supervising officers assigned to the Mission Area Gang Impact Team, which included the Mission Area Gang Enforcement Detail. The GED covers Panorama City and other communities with large immigrant populations who are less likely to report police abuses, making it more possible for abusive police tactics to flourish, the suit states.
Gonzales reported to his lieutenant and captains what he believed to be widespread policy violations that included so-called “ghost stops” in which GED officers conducted stops without activating body-worn cameras, the suit states.
“The failure to document during critical stops exposed potential violations of Fourth Amendment protections, other civil rights violations and procedural non-compliance by officers within the GED,” the suit alleges.
Further, Gonzalez reported that he believed the LAPD was attempting to use him as a scapegoat for the inadequate policies concerning body-worn camera review, the suit states.
“The department is now retaliating against Gonzalez, blaming him for supervisorial oversight to cover up its own flawed policies regarding the body-worn camera review process,” the suit further contends.
The alleged backlash against Gonzalez has included removing the plaintiff from his supervisory role, stripping him of his police powers and downgrading him from sergeant 2 to sergeant I, according to the complaint, which further states that the department also revoked his access to systems available exclusively to supervisors, preventing him from performing any supervisory functions.
While media reports later exposed the same body-worn camera issues Gonzalez had reported and validated his concerns, the articles were used by LAPD supervisors as an excuse to take further adverse actions against him, effectively silencing him from exposing deficiencies in the body-worn camera program, the suit states.
The financial and emotional toll of the department’s alleged retaliation has adversely affected Gonzalez’s physical health and well-being, potentially leading to ongoing medical expenses, the suit states.