A judge will review and decide what personnel records will be given to attorneys for a longtime Los Angeles County sheriff’s lieutenant who is black and alleges that age and racial discrimination have prevented his promotion to captain.
Lt. Michael A. White’s attorneys filed court papers in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking information on the backgrounds and qualifications of those candidates promoted to captain ahead of their client. On Monday, Judge Jon R. Takasugi said he will review the records in chambers and determine which, if any, should be produced to White’s lawyers.
The judge ordered the custodian of records to present only those qualification-related records for the specific individuals identified for the period of 2016-25.
In their court papers, White’s attorneys said the “racial and age glass ceiling that blocks the promotability of plaintiff and other African American deputies must be broken now. Plaintiff isn’t getting any whiter and he isn’t getting any younger.”
White, who was 61 years old when he filed his suit in November 2024, was hired in 1987. He was promoted to sergeant in 2007 and to lieutenant four years later, but he has been denied an elevation to captain eight times over a dozen or so years, the suit states. White has filed two amended complaints, with the most recent submitted last May.
White’s attorneys stated in their court papers that they found out 18 candidates were promoted ahead of the plaintiff.
“In order to prove at trial that plaintiff was more qualified than the numerous applicants who were promoted instead of plaintiff, plaintiff must put on evidence of their qualifications in order to refute the position that the county has taken (that the other candidates were more qualified or a better fit),” White’s lawyers wrote in their pleadings.
White is not interested in personal details about the other contestants, but just their length of service, tenure in each rank, their experience during service, their commendations and awards and any disciplinary actions taken against them, according to White’s attorneys’ court papers.
“The persons promoted ahead of Michael A. White have been less qualified and not African American,” White’s attorneys state in their court papers, also alleging that the “clear explanation for this unfair result is race and age discrimination.”
According to White’s lawsuit, he was a candidate for captain in 2016 and was made an acting captain at the Lomita Station, but a non-Black candidate was given the open captain position. The plaintiff was similarly passed over for a captain promotion at three stations in 2019 and all of those slots also were given to competitors who are not Black, the complaint further states.
Numerous other deputies sworn with less tenure than White have been promoted or appointed to captain, commander, chief, assistant sheriff and undersheriff, according to the suit.
The LASD previously issued a statement regarding the suit, saying the department takes any allegations of discrimination “with the utmost seriousness” and that the LASD enforces strict policies and procedures regarding discrimination and does not tolerate any violations.
Undersheriff April Tardy is only the second Black person to hold her position in the department’s history.