A former Los Angeles County healthcare worker has dropped her two contractual claims in her lawsuit against her ex-employer and two staffing agencies, in which she alleges that a co-worker told her, “you are going to go to hell for being a lesbian.”
Sheila Cruz’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit still maintains allegations of discrimination, harassment, whistleblower retaliation, wrongful termination and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Cruz contends that she was fired in 2025 for complaining about the allegedly homophobic remarks.
In her original suit filed April 15, Cruz contended in two contractual claims that she had been given oral promises she would not be terminated without good cause. The two causes of action were eliminated from her amended suit brought Wednesday.
A county Dept. of Health Services representative previously said the department does not comment on personnel matters or pending litigation.
Cruz was hired in September 2024 as an X-ray technologist, worked an early morning shift and had no initial job performance issues, the suit states. Upon learning the next month that Cruz is gay, a patient-intake coordinator began making “repeated, disparaging, religiously-framed comments about her sexual orientation,” including telling her, “you are going to go to hell for being a lesbian” and “you should change yourself and be with a man if you want to go to heaven, otherwise you are going to hell,” the suit alleges.
After Cruz complained, a supervisor asked her to write a statement about what happened, but also warned the plaintiff that she was just a temporary employee and that the alleged harasser was a member of a union, the suit states. Feeling pressured, Cruz wrote a limited statement in which she did not recall any discriminatory statements by the co-worker after all, according to the complaint.
In November 2024, a female radiographer falsely accused Cruz of trying to flirt with her and a department manager said he may have to fire the plaintiff, the suit states. Cruz reported the manager’s alleged warning to human resources and said she believed it was connected to her reporting the alleged homophobic comments by Cruz’s co-worker, the suit states.
Retaliation followed and Cruz was given a late afternoon-evening shift change over her objections in December 2024 and then terminated two months later, according to the suit, which further states that Cruz was only told that she lost her job due to “discourtesy.”