A judge has declined to set aside a Los Angeles Fire Dept. reprimand handed down against a firefighter who took legal action against the city and former LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley, alleging he was wrongfully suspended for about 700 days for refusing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Adin Waldrep’s Los Angeles Superior Court petition asked that the reprimand be repealed as well as restoration of his back pay. On Thursday, Judge Tiana J. Murillo ruled that the department did not abuse its discretion in admonishing Waldrep. She also found that an arbitrator previously found that Waldrep and other firefighters who were removed and placed on an unpaid administrative leave pending selection of their Board of Rights hearings were entitled to back pay.
Waldrep contended that his Board of Rights hearing improperly excluded his offered evidence of disparate treatment, i.e., examples of other LAFD members who allegedly received different penalties for failing to comply with the vaccination requirement, the judge noted.
“Whether other LAFD employees received the same or different penalties is irrelevant to whether (Waldrep) engaged in misconduct,” Murillo said while adding, “Indeed, (Waldrep) does not challenge the propriety of the penalty at all.”
Murillo also disagreed that the department failed to accommodate Waldrep.
“The record reflects that (the LAFD) accepted and granted the exemption request and returned him to paid active duty,” the judge wrote.
The 39-year-old Waldrep alleged a complete failure to engage in him the interactive process, but the record “plainly demonstrates” that the department accommodated the firefighter, Murillo further said.
Waldrep joined the LAFD in late January 2006. His petition alleges that both Crowley and her predecessor, Ralph Terrazas, ignored the requirements of a personnel rule that stated any suspension imposed had to be with pay, even in the case of an emergency, until a finding of guilt was issued.
Crowley was fired by Mayor Karen Bass in February 2025 over her handling of the Palisades Fire and the current chief, Jaime Moore, took over the department last November. Crowley is still with the LAFD.