Lieutenant Sues Gates Over Criticism on Riot Response : LAPD: The officer says the former chief slandered him by faulting his actions when the unrest broke out.

A Los Angeles police lieutenant Friday filed a $30-million slander lawsuit against former Chief Daryl F. Gates, alleging that Gates unfairly made him the scapegoat for the civil unrest that followed the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case.

In his Los Angeles Superior Court suit, Lt. Michael Moulin also sued the producers of two television programs, “Donahue” and “Inside Edition,” saying they recklessly broadcast comments by Gates that criticized his actions as watch commander in the department’s 77th Street Division, where some of the earliest rioting broke out.

Moulin also filed a claim for damages against the city Friday, a prerequisite for filing a lawsuit later.

Gates quickly responded by denying he ever blamed Moulin for last spring’s rioting, but refused to back away from criticism of the lieutenant, who is now on a paid stress-related leave.

Moulin, 43, was the field supervisor on the evening of April 29 when violence broke out at Florence and Normandie avenues, one of several flash points of the riot and where news helicopters filmed the beating of truck driver Reginald O. Denny.

An hour before the Denny beating, Moulin withdrew his outnumbered officers from the intersection to avoid a bloody clash. In the days after the riots, Gates said Moulin had made a critical mistake by not immediately regrouping the officers and returning to the intersection.

Moulin says in his lawsuit that it was not within his authority to send officers back to the intersection, but the responsibility of his commanders.

“Immediately after the disturbance broke out, Chief Gates quickly blamed me for a lack of appropriate law enforcement response,” Moulin said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit. “Among other things, Chief Gates falsely accused me of failing to follow his nonexistent plan for the predictable crisis.

“While Chief Gates was attending a fund-raiser in Brentwood,” Moulin added, “. . . those of us in uniform on the streets of Los Angeles were left to handle a highly volatile situation with only meager resources. When assigning blame for any failure of the Los Angeles Police Department to properly respond to the events on April 29, perhaps the chief should look in the mirror.”

Gates responded with his own press conference Friday.

He said there was, indeed, a plan for responding to such a crisis and that Moulin should have prepared himself and his officers. Moulin made a good decision to withdraw officers from Florence and Normandie, but the benefits were lost when officers did not return quickly in a “riot mode,” Gates said.

“He had enough people to go back into Florence and Normandie but he did not do that,” Gates said. “He made a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes. . . .

“He is not responsible for the riots. He was responsible for getting police service into that area. He didn’t. I am still at a loss as to why he didn’t.”

Gates said he never mentioned Moulin by name until the lieutenant was identified in media reports and Moulin himself granted interviews to reporters. Gates also suggested during the press conference that Moulin’s lawsuit could be part of an effort to win a disability pension.

“Is he filing a stress disability pension?” Gates asked reporters. “That might be what he is trying to do.”

One of Moulin’s attorneys, Elizabeth Mann, angrily denied that the suit had anything to do with a pension. She said Gates’ comments during the press conference and on his afternoon radio talk show were repetitions of the earlier slander.

Mann noted that despite Gates’ criticism of Moulin, no complaint was ever filed or department investigation begun in regard to his actions during the riot.

Moulin said Friday that his law enforcement career has been ruined by the “completely false and defamatory” comments by Gates and, that he has received threats and letters calling him a coward.

“My ability to perform my job has been snatched away in a thoughtless heartbeat,” he said. “My number one goal is to clear my name and recapture some of what has been taken from me.”

Moulin’s suit also names the producers of “Donahue” and “Inside Edition” because the programs broadcast interviews with Gates in which Moulin was discussed. A second attorney for Moulin, Barry B. Langberg, said the shows presented one-sided reports on the lieutenant’s actions.

Officials for the programs could not be reached for comment late Friday.

A spokesman for the city attorney’s office declined to comment on the suit against Gates and a similar claim against the city, saying they had not yet been reviewed.