Huntington Park Officer Settles Race Bias Lawsuit

A Jewish Huntington Park police detective who sued the city in 1992 for anti-Semitic harassment has settled the case for $355,000.

“Part of me is relieved that it’s over with because it’s a tremendous amount of strain,” said Detective Alan Tavelman, who alleged that he was harassed during nine years on the force. He has been on disability for a knee injury since the suit was filed. “And part of me really wanted to go to trial to bring it to more people’s attention as to what really took place.”

Civil rights attorney Barry Litt called the case “among the worst I have seen.”

“To me, it’s reminiscent to the type of things you’d see against African Americans in the South in the early 1960s--blatantly racist statements,” said Litt, of the Los Angeles law firm Litt & Marquez, which represented Tavelman with the American Civil Liberties Union as co-counsel.

The suit alleged that incidents included a newspaper article about the Holocaust that had been left on Tavelman’s desk and altered to read “. . . burn them all,” references to a lampshade having been made from his grandfather’s skin; pennies taped to his desk, locker and car, an apparent reference to the stereotype of Jews as penny-pinchers, and implicit threats of violence, such as bullets left on his desk and in his department mailbox.

Huntington Park officials said the decision to settle was made to avoid incurring the cost of a trial. “We felt we had a defensible case,” said City Atty. Steven N. Skolnik.

The city was willing to take the case to court but had been advised to settle by the Independent Cities Risk Management Authority, a collective that pools the resources of cities against liability. “The city doesn’t retain the decision-making power by virtue of its participation in this collective,” Skolnik said.

The $335,000 settlement covers emotional distress and attorneys’ fees, Litt said.

Tavelman kept a detailed journal documenting religious slurs and harassment by fellow officers during his time on the force. He filed a federal lawsuit when the harassment continued despite formal complaints filed within the department.

During eight days of deposition testimony, the veteran burglary detective testified that harassment began during his prehiring interview when he was asked whether he “wore a funny hat.”

“The case causes heightened awareness of the issues and the city may have increased training in the wake of these allegations, but it has always taken very seriously this kind of harassment,” Skolnik said.

Police Capt. Daniel A. Leili, who was named in the lawsuit along with Chief Frank Sullivan, Sgt. Ronald Beason and former Chief Patrick M. Connolly, said that although the suit was likely to give the 60-officer department a bad name, changes on the force would be unnecessary because Tavelman’s allegations were untrue.

“I’m sure the public may reflect on us negatively, but the officers here know very well what was going on with Mr. Tavelman, and as far as internal morale goes, I don’t think it will affect us,” Leili said.