Ex-Commissioner May Sue City Over Neighbor Dispute

A former police commissioner who was fired after alleging that police officers improperly meddled in an ongoing dispute she had with her neighbors has been denied at least $20,000 in damages from the city and says she may file a lawsuit.

City officials failed to respond to Linda Acaldo’s claim for damages within 45 days after it was filed April 21, leaving the door open to a legal challenge by the ex-commissioner in the next six months.

Allowing the claim to lapse means that it has been “deemed denied” by the city’s investigators, said Burbank’s risk manager, Jim Patricola.

Patricola and City Atty. Joe Fletcher declined to elaborate on any other aspect of the case, which started as a neighborhood dispute last year and escalated into a swift decision by the City Council to fire Acaldo in May.

Acaldo, a county prosecutor, had served on the five-member Police Commission for three years, but says she is no longer interested in getting back her non-paying job.

“I haven’t received a response and I’m presuming it’s been denied,” she said of the claim, adding that she and her attorney, Ralph J. Ayala, are still considering the possibility of suing the city.

Acaldo’s troubles with her next-door neighbors, Leon and Dionne Bradshaw, began last year during a dispute over whether their young children should play together.

Acaldo’s son, now 7, reportedly threatened to shoot the Bradshaw’s son. The Bradshaws then retaliated by telling Acaldo that they no longer wanted their children playing together.

When Acaldo found the Bradshaws’ son repeatedly playing on her property, she angrily warned the couple in a letter that she would consider keeping their boy away with “reasonably appropriate and legal use of force, including but not limited to deadly force.”

The Bradshaws, acting on advice from the Police Department, obtained a temporary restraining order to keep Acaldo and her son at least two feet from their home.

The restraining order prompted Acaldo to seek financial compensation from the city. In her claim, she said police improperly encouraged the Bradshaws to obtain “illegal, inappropriate, fraudulent and secret restraining orders.”

Finally in May, the City Council voted unanimously to fire Acaldo. One councilman said it was because her claim posed an uncomfortable working atmosphere for her and Police Chief Dave Newsham.