My thoughts and prayers go out to all area Police Offocers and Sheriff Deputies, especially the loved ones of the victims' of Dormer's Rampage.
However, the Piece Below, written Almost Two years-ago, begs the question:
Did LAPD Have Every Reason to See This Coming?
May 9, 2011 - by
Stephen A. Jamieson
Regarding a LA Times article about the
multiplicity of lawsuits involving the LAPD.
"Interesting that the essence of the
article is that the City botched the defense of the case(s), and not that the
City is perhaps terrible at making sure the employees/cops are treated
appropriately and according to legal standards during their employment so as to
avoid so many lawsuits from being filed in the first place."
"At least 17 officers have won million-dollar-plus jury verdicts or
settlements from the city in the last decade in lawsuits involving accusations
of sexual harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation and other workplace
injustices"
Below is the article from the LA Times
$1-million-plus LAPD payouts
LAPD clear backlog of untested DNA evidence
By Joel Rubin
Los Angeles Times May 8, 2011
Robert Hill did not join the Los Angeles Police
Department to become a millionaire. And yet, that's what happened in September
when city officials cut the veteran cop and his lawyer a check for nearly $4
million.
The money was compensation for the snide comments and other abuse Hill suffered
at the hands of other LAPD officers after he reported that a supervisor used
racial slurs and embezzled department funds.
In the last decade, at least 16 other officers have won million-dollar-plus
jury verdicts or settlements from the city in lawsuits in which they leveled
accusations of sexual harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation and other
workplace injustices. Dozens more officers have won five- or six-figure
paydays.
"These cases irk the heck out of me," said City Councilman Greig
Smith, who has been a critic of the city's job-protection rules that, he said,
make it too difficult to fire officers who cause workplace problems.
"Somebody running a private company would never let this … stand. Why do
we let it happen here? And we see the same things happening over and over
again."
City records show that from 2005 to 2010, officers have sued the department
over workplace issues more than 250 times. The city has paid settlements or
verdicts totaling more than $18 million in about 45 of those cases and has lost
several other verdicts worth several million dollars more in cases it is
appealing, a review of the records shows. The city has prevailed in about 50
cases. The rest, representing tens of millions of dollars in potential
liability, remain open.
Litigious officers have bedeviled Los Angeles police chiefs and city lawyers
for decades, and a survey of large police departments across the country
indicates that LAPD officers file suit more than others.
Los Angeles police, for example, brought an average of about three times more
lawsuits a year per officer than officers in Chicago and the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department. And there were about a third fewer lawsuits among Boston
police.
Officer-driven lawsuits have come under greater scrutiny in
recent years as Los Angeles' financial problems have gotten worse. Elected
officials and the LAPD's independent watchdog believe the department should be
doing more to deter workplace conflict and avoid the expensive litigation.
Beyond the financial toll, the cases often amount to embarrassing, public
airings of the department's dirty laundry — nasty fights that expose crude
behavior by officers and a retaliatory mindset of supervisors that undermine
efforts by senior officials to present the LAPD as a smoothly run operation.
The case of Patricia Fuller, who at the time was the only woman serving as a
dog handler in the LAPD's canine unit, underscores how contentious and costly
workplace incidents can become for the city.
Fuller had accused men in the unit of making vulgar sexual advances and
comments, while also excluding her from training exercises, court records show.
In 2009, city officials paid Fuller $2.25 million to settle her claims.
Then another canine officer, Donald Bender, filed a lawsuit alleging that he
had been stripped of a rank and kicked out of the unit as retaliation for
coming to Fuller's defense.
He was followed by Blaine Blackstone, a sergeant who supervised Fuller.
Blackstone said he had been the target of retaliation by superiors after he
refused their demands that he placate Fuller by changing her performance evaluation.
The city refused to settle with Bender and Blackstone, and both officers won
their cases. Bender received $2.5 million and Blackstone was awarded nearly
$750,000 in damages, court records show.
For Hill, who said the retaliation against him included being followed by other
officers, falsely accused of misconduct and removed from a coveted assignment,
knowing the large verdict he won came from taxpayers left him with mixed
feelings.
"Here I was a public servant suing the city, basically suing the taxpayers
who I was committed to protecting," Hill said. "What I really wanted
was for the names of the people who had harmed me to be on that lawsuit. I
wanted the money to come out of their pockets. I felt bad that the wrong people
were paying, but it was the only recourse I had as an officer."
Large verdicts can be a financial boon for rank-and-file police officers who
earn $45,000 to about $85,000, depending on the number of years they have
served. Some, like Hill, choose to remain on the job, while others leave.
Beyond the money, some who have been fired have successfully sued to get their
jobs back.
The question of whether to settle a case or take the officer to court can be a
dicey one for city and police officials. Settle too easily, the thinking goes,
and the department will be seen by officers and attorneys as an easy target.
Taking too hard a stand, however, carries risks as well. Employment cases are
difficult to defend against, lawyers say, since they often turn on emotional
issues and differing perceptions of what occurred.
"If you settle, all you're doing is encouraging other officers to file
more lawsuits," said LAPD Cmdr. Stuart Maislin, who for several years ran
the department's Risk Management Division. "It sends the message that the
city is just giving away money — that an officer just has to make a claim and
they'll walk away with some money in their pocket. The only way to stop that is
to take them to court and fight them."
"When we lose," Maislin added, "we lose big."
In general, City Atty. Carman Trutanich and Gerald Chaleff, a
senior advisor to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck who oversees employee lawsuits, have
pursued a hard-line approach with officers in recent years, refusing to settle
except in those cases where it is clear the city is likely to lose in court.
That tough stance has led to mixed results. The city has lost a handful of jury
verdicts that could have been avoided if it had been willing to settle.
Attorney Matthew McNicholas, for example, represented Richard Romney, an officer
who was fired after he testified about the department's overtime policy in a
labor dispute; Melissa Borck, who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit; and
Bender, the canine officer. McNicholas offered to settle the three cases for a
total of $2 million, but police officials and city lawyers were adamant about
taking all three to court and ended up losing verdicts totaling about $9.5
million.
Understaffing and a lack of lawyers with experience in workplace issues in the
city attorney's office has hampered the city's ability to defend itself against
such lawsuits in court, officials said. Bill Carter, Trutanich's chief deputy,
said overworked attorneys have missed court-filing deadlines, failed to take
important depositions and made other blunders on employment cases.
"We're creating a recipe for disaster," Carter said.
The recent high-dollar verdicts and settlements suggest that the department
needs to do more to mediate workplace conflicts, said Nicole Bershon, inspector
general for the Los Angeles Police Commission. That should include bringing in
impartial employment experts to help resolve conflicts before they reach a
courtroom, she said.
The department also has come under fire for failing to thoroughly
investigate complaints of workplace problems. In a 2010 audit of LAPD
investigations into employee allegations of retaliation, Bershon's office found
that investigators routinely neglected to interview people accused of
misconduct, or even name them in the investigations.
The way the department handles officer lawsuits has become a source of
increasingly hostile fodder for the Police Protective League, the union that
represents rank-and-file officers and sometimes assists officers in bringing
their suits.
Emboldened by recent high-profile verdicts for officers, union officials have
grown vocal at what they see as the unwillingness or inability of senior LAPD
officials to deal with problems in the workplace — a charge department leaders
deny.
"I've got a news flash for … the 'leaders' who are tasked with ensuring
the Department treats its people fairly. Look in the mirror to find out where
the problems are," Sgt. John Mumma, the union's secretary, wrote in a
recent open letter published in the union's magazine. "How many more
officers are going to become millionaires over the botched handling of their
cases?"
|
|