LOS ANGELES : Judge Refuses to Dismiss Slander Suit Against Gates
A judge this week refused to dismiss a $30-million slander suit filed by a police lieutenant who then-Chief Daryl F. Gates blamed for mishandling the initial police response to last year’s riot.
Superior Court Judge Richard Hubbell rejected a city attorney’s argument that Gates was acting within his right to comment on an employee’s performance when he publicly criticized the lieutenant.
In the lawsuit, Lt. Michael Moulin contends that comments Gates made to news reporters ruined his 21-year career with the Police Department. Gates and several broadcasting companies, including NBC, Inside Edition Inc. and Kingworld Productions Inc., are named as defendants.
During a news conference a few days after the riots, Gates criticized the lieutenant for withdrawing officers from the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues at the beginning of the riots on April 29, 1992.
Although Gates did not mention him by name, Moulin later was identified as the lieutenant who ordered outnumbered officers to retreat rather than face an angry, rock-throwing mob that attacked motorists and pedestrians.
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