A former aide to a Carson city councilwoman has reached a conditional settlement in his lawsuit in which he alleged he was fired for complaining about having to run personal errands for the politician.
Justin Battle’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleged a violation of the state Labor Code. Although the suit was targeted at District 4 Councilwoman Arleen Bocatija Rojas’ alleged actions, she was not a defendant.
On Thursday, defense attorneys filed court papers with Judge Jeffery McFarland notifying him of a “conditional” resolution of the case with the expectation a request for dismissal will be filed by Feb. 1 depending on a bankruptcy court settlement approval involving Battle.
No terms were divulged.
In their previous court papers, the city’s attorneys disputed Battle’s contention that his case was about whistleblowing. The defense lawyers said that the plaintiff was terminated for legitimate, performance-based reasons due to his limited work availability and that the law does not insulate employees from termination based on routine workplace complaints.
Battle had a second job as a student supervision aide in which he worked 30 hours weekly at Stephen M. White Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District and his hours there overlapped with those he had with the city, according to the city’s attorneys’ court papers.
Meanwhile, Bocatija Rojas’ full-time job required that a council aide be available to help her after 3 p.m., the city’s lawyers further explained.
Battle’s six-month probationary period concluded in November 2023, when the city evaluated him and determined that he had not met the required standards and said his inflexible scheduling demands did not allow him to sufficiently meet the needs of the councilwoman, so he was terminated that month, the city’s attorneys stated in their court papers.
Bocatija Rojas is a longtime Carson resident and Los Angeles Police Department member and was the department’s first female Filipino-American officer, as well as the city’s second Filipina councilwoman since 1993, according to the city’s website.
According to Battle’s suit, he was hired in 2019 as a recreation assistant, was promoted in June 2022 to administrative intern and elevated once more in March 2023 to be Bocatija Rojas’ council aide. She required him to be available at all times to run personal errands for her, including picking up her daughter from school and keeping a watch on her whereabouts, using an LAPD tool to track the girl’s email and to monitor her phone calls, the suit stated.
Battle also was tasked with picking up the councilwoman’s dry cleaning, driving her to events, getting her car serviced, working on her vacation plans, mowing her lawn, getting her food and transporting her sister, according to the suit, which also says Bocatija Rojas told him not to use the office so that other people would not notice that he was doing her personal errands.
Battle also alleged that Bocatija Rojas asked him to spy on District 2 Councilman Jim Dear’s “comings and goings” and “watch Jim Dear’s girlfriend or wife and inform Bocatija Rojas when she left.”
Battle refused the order regarding Dear and reported the councilwoman’s alleged demand multiple times to Assistant City Manager Robert Lennox, but “the conduct never stopped,” according to the suit.
Battle believed his termination was related to his complaints about alleged illegal conduct and his refusal to engage in it, the suit filed in July 2024 stated.