A judge Monday dismissed a sheriff’s lieutenant’s lawsuit against Los Angeles County, in which he alleged his supervisors retaliated against him for trying to inform the public about shootings in and around Malibu Creek State Park before a man was killed there while camping with his daughters in 2018.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bradley S. Phillips heard arguments Monday on the county’s motion to dismiss Lt. James Royal’s case, briefly took the long-running case under submission and ruled later in the day in the county’s favor.
“Plaintiff has not cited any authority that failure to issue a public-safety announcement violated any statute, rule or regulation,” the judge wrote. “Nor has plaintiff cited authority to contradict the cases cited by defendants to the effect that there was no duty to warn.”
Tristan Beaudette, 35, was killed at the park on June 22, 2018, while sleeping in a tent with his daughters, ages 2 and 4. The shooter, Anthony Rauda, was sentenced in June 2023 after being convicted of second-degree murder.
Rauda, a vagrant who lived in the surrounding area, was arrested in October 2018.
The first shooting Royal warned about occurred Nov. 3, 2016, in Tapia Park; the second on Nov. 9, 2016, in Malibu Creek State Park; and the third on Jan. 7, 2017, also in Malibu Creek State Park.
Royal, then a 24-year sheriff’s department veteran, told his supervisors that the agency needed to warn the public about the initial shootings, but no advisory was given and Royal’s bosses told him it was a state park problem and not theirs, according to the suit brought in September 2019.
Four additional shootings occurred in the area, including one just four days before the Beaudette killing, when a Tesla was struck by a bullet at Malibu Creek State Park, the suit stated. Royal recommended to a gathering at the sheriff’s headquarters in downtown Los Angeles that a public safety statement be issued, but once again his suggestion was denied, the suit stated.
After Beaudette was killed, Royal was instructed by his supervisors to state at a town hall meeting that the official position of the sheriff’s department was that the prior shootings were unrelated to his death, the suit stated.
In retaliation for speaking out, Royal was transferred from the Malibu/Lost Hills sheriff’s station to the Santa Clarita station, a less prestigious assignment, and was stripped of his detective status, the suit stated. He also was subjected to an Internal Affairs investigation under false circumstances that has damaged his reputation, the suit alleged.