The city of Pasadena can review some of the current Cal State Northridge police personnel records of a Black former Pasadena police officer who alleges she was wrongfully disciplined after intervening to diffuse a tense situation between another officer and a Black civilian woman in 2023, a judge has ruled.
Taisyn Crutchfield’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, filed by civil rights attorney Bradley Gage, alleges two decades of racial bias within the Pasadena Police Department. Crutchfield contends that the six months of administrative leave and an extended probation period was unfair discipline given her actions.
On Wednesday, Judge Richard L. Fruin ruled that lawyers for the city will get access to some of Crutchfield’s personnel records from her current CSUN job if they are relevant to defending against the lawsuit. The judge will review the documents beforehand and decide which should be turned over to the city.
“The city reasonably requests CSUN personnel records that would include Crutchfield’s disclosure of and explanation for these PPD management actions,” the judge wrote. “Crutchfield may have also disclosed in her CSUN interviews that she was allegedly subjected to racial slurs during her PPD employment.”
According to the city’s attorneys, the CSUN information will establish why Crutchfield, 29, was hired by CSUN and, in turn, whether her employment with the city negatively affected her ability to find alternate employment as she contends. The city’s attorneys also say the CSUN documents are expected to be useful in contesting Crutchfield’s emotional distress claims.
Filed in May 2024, Crutchfield’s lawsuit alleges harassment, discrimination, retaliation and failure to take corrective action. Crutchfield’s alleged damages include loss of future earnings and employment benefits.
During the 2020 George Floyd protests, a PPD lieutenant walked into the report-writing room and stated, “See, even Siri doesn’t think Black lives matter,” according to the suit.
Crutchfield began her career with the PPD in November 2021 and was on probation when she allegedly pushed another officer while they were out in the field in February 2023. A sergeant who witnessed the alleged shove later filed a complaint against Crutchfield contending that Crutchfield also disobeyed his order to return to the police station and because she had not timely turned on her body camera.
Crutchfield was put on paid leave in April 2023 pending the outcome of an internal investigation and the plaintiff claimed that she pushed the other officer because she believed he was about to use force on a female suspect, according to the city’s attorneys’ court papers, which further state that a video of the push shows otherwise.
Crutchfield also said she went to a substation instead of the main station because she was confused as to where she was told to go, according to the city’s attorneys’ court papers, which also state that the plaintiff accepted an offer to join the CSUN police in June 2024.
In her lawsuit, Crutchfield says she did not push her fellow officer but instead used her right hand to guide him away from the scene because she was concerned the situation would worsen. She further says she subsequently put her right hand on the other officer’s left arm to try to further calm him and that he responded by grabbing her arm and saying, “Don’t do that.”
Two other Black plaintiffs, Sgt. Milton White and Officer Jarvis Shelby, settled with the city.