Santa Ana officials were served Tuesday with a lawsuit filed by former Santa Ana police Chief Carlos Rojas, who alleges that his claims of political corruption involving the police union, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and City Council members were ignored and led to his forced resignation earlier this year.
The lawsuit, which was filed a week ago in Orange County Superior Court, alleges violations of labor code and due process, as well as breach of contract and constructive termination. Rojas filed a precursor claim in June that was rejected, clearing the way for him to bring the lawsuit.
“We are reviewing the lawsuit and will file our response in 30 days,” City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said.
Rojas, who is now the police chief of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System, says in his court papers that he had wanted to finish out his career with the Santa Ana Police Department, where he worked his way up from an officer in 1990 to the top cop by 2014.
Rojas alleges that he blew the whistle — but was ignored — on multiple cases of possible corruption, most of them allegedly involving Mayor Miguel Pulido. He says he ultimately drew the ire of Santa Ana Police Officers Association President Gerry Serrano, who, he alleges, orchestrated a political campaign to have him ousted along with ex-city manager David Cavazos, who resigned at the beginning of the year.
Serrano, Rojas claims, has nursed a grudge against the ex-chief since 2001, when Serrano was dumped as public information officer for the city after one week on the job and replaced by Rojas. Also, in 2012, Rojas disciplined Serrano on the job, according to the lawsuit.
Serrano, Rojas noted, is married to an investigations assistant for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, which, he claimed, refused to investigate claims of corruption by Pulido because of his relationship with District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
The move to dump Cavazos and Rojas began in 2013 when they began to “pursue police accountability measures and crack down on poor officer behavior,” Rojas alleges.
The “old school” Serrano “bristled” at the reform measures, according to Rojas’ lawsuit.
Pulido asked Serrano’s predecessor, John Franks, for help dumping Cavazos and Rojas, but he refused last year, according to Rojas’ lawsuit.
When Serrano took over, he launched an “aggressive campaign of smearing certain city leaders, including Rojas,” according to the lawsuit. For instance, Serrano falsely claimed violent crime had shot up 500 percent since 2012 and that 911 callers waited hours for service, Rojas alleged.
According to Rojas, his allegations that Rackauckas ignored corruption claims against allies while pursuing prosecution of enemies have also been made by three employees of the D.A.’s investigations unit.
Rojas claims Pulido made shady deals with marijuana dispensary operators, and that business owners complained that he had allegedly been extracting “rent” payments from businesses at the city’s transportation center.
The ex-chief alleges he overheard a conversation in August 2011 between Councilmen Vince Sarmiento and Sal Tinajero in which they “expressed amazement that Pulido had taken plans from the state of California regarding some type of power-electrical generating plant, deleted the state of California’s name and sold the plans to the Mexican government.”
Rojas said he passed on the information to city officials and the District Attorney’s Office.
The former chief said he received a call from a tipster in April 2014 alleging that Pulido was taking money from a medical marijuana dispensary to “keep doing business illegally” in the city. He said he passed on that tip to prosecutors and city officials.
In the fall of 2015, Rojas claims he was directed by Pulido to crack down on a particular marijuana dispensary.
Rojas alleges that when city officials put up Measure BB to legitimize medical marijuana dispensaries, they also “solicited payments from certain favored dispensaries with the promise of winning a spot in an eventual marijuana permit lottery.”
Rojas also alleged that a bus transportation company that provided trips from the city to Los Angeles and Mexico was supposedly “paying rent” to Pulido, but that it “went away” under Cavazos. The mayor also was apparently “somehow profiting” from a musical organization’s storage of its instruments in an old YMCA building that was supposed to be unoccupied, Rojas alleges.
The mayor was accused of “collecting rent” from small businesses with parking lots in the city, as well, Rojas alleges.
Before the November election, the union spent $300,000 to $400,000 on candidates it backed for City Council, according to Rojas.
Serrano issued ultimatums to candidates to either back the firing of Cavazos and Rojas and receive campaign contributions or face the union’s opposition, Rojas alleges. Rojas says he and others said that sounded like a “bribe” and reported it to city officials.
Rojas alleges that Pulido and Councilmen Jose Solorio and Juan Villegas took the campaign contributions and then orchestrated the ouster of Cavazos and then Rojas.
Tinajero supposedly told Rojas “this was the mayor’s attempt to reestablish his power,” according to Rojas’ complaint.
Tinajero, who refused the deal, said Serrano told him, “Sal, are you ready to throw some bodies out the window?”, according to Rojas’ lawsuit.
Rojas even details a dispute the mayor’s daughter had with a traffic patrol officer who issued a citation to her for double parking her car. When the officer returned an hour later and was taking steps to have the car towed, the mayor’s daughter got her dad on the phone and handed it to the officer, Rojas alleged.
Rojas further alleges that union members were “improperly accounting” for time on the job. He alleges that Serrano was a “full-time union president,” but was still drawing a salary and pension as sergeant while also accepting other perks of the job like a uniform allowance.
Rojas said Cavazos was pushed out of the job for allegedly violating a city policy — that doesn’t actually exist — on romantic relationships. Rojas said the claim had been earlier investigated and proved false.
Rojas alleged that Gerardo Mouet leapfrogged from head of the parks department to take over the city manager’s job when Cavazos was ousted. The daughter of Mouet, who was later replaced by Cynthia J. Kurtz, dated Pulido’s son, Rojas alleges.
Rojas said Mouet pressured him to resign and then made it clear he would be fired if he didn’t find a new job. Rojas said he took the job at BART because he had no choice and now has to rent an apartment there during the week while his family has stayed behind until his son graduates high school. Rojas claims he has lost money in the deal because of a lower salary and higher living expenses.
–City News Service