Attorneys for Los Angeles County and a sheriff’s sergeant are asking a judge to strike a punitive damages claim brought by a deputy who says he was wrongfully transferred from patrol duty to an inmate custody assignment in retaliation for complaining that a supervisor had texted him a photo of the boss sitting naked on a toilet seat.
Deputy William Winters further contends in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that after an internal investigation into Sgt. Bernie Lopez’s alleged conduct, the latter in turn filed a complaint against the plaintiff accusing him of sharing the photo.
On Thursday, attorneys for the county and Lopez filed court papers with Judge Kevin Brazile in advance of a June 12 hearing asking that Winters’ request for punitive damages be denied before it goes to a jury. The defense attorneys say that Winters agreed during an attorney conference to drop his claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, but not the exemplary damages claim.
According to the defense attorneys, Winters’ only current way of obtaining punitive damages is through his sexual harassment claim. But the same lawyers further contend that allegedly being sent a photo of Lopez sitting on a toilet seat does not constitute “wrongful motive, intent or purpose” on Lopez’s part.
To obtain punitive damages, Winters is required to present clear allegations of an intentional wrong, but “this is not done here in the slightest,” according to the defense lawyers’ pleadings.
“All he has done is plead one sentence that Sgt. Lopez sent him an unwanted photo,” according to the defense attorneys’ court papers.
According to Winters’ suit, he was hired in August 2024 and assigned to Metrolink train security. After his complaint that Lopez allegedly sent him the offensive photo, Lopez then filed his own claim against the plaintiff that he had allegedly shared the photo of Lopez with others, the suit states.
Winters was subsequently suspended and transferred from patrol to an inmate watch assignment where he lost the chance for a patrol bonus, the suit states.
“Plaintiff’s family life has also been negatively impacted due to plaintiff’s work schedule and hours after being involuntarily transferred,” according to the suit filed last May 9, which further alleges that Winters was transferred in retaliation for reporting Lopez’s alleged sending of the photo.