Jury Awards Ex-Officer $2.3 Million

A Superior Court jury awarded a former Los Angeles Police Department officer $2.3 million Thursday, a week after finding that the LAPD discriminated against her when she sought to join the SWAT unit and then retaliated against her when she sued the department.

Nina Damianakes, 36, who joined the department in 1983, decided she wanted to be a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics team when members of the unit visited her class at the Police Academy.

During the monthlong trial, her attorney, Patrick McNicholas, presented evidence that other officers ostracized and harassed Damianakes after she filed a lawsuit against the LAPD for rejecting her. He said she was under great stress and began seeing a doctor.

A spokesman at the LAPD’s press relations department refused to comment about the jury award.

Damianakes first tried out for the 60-member unit in 1990, and again in 1993, but was rejected both times. She is an accomplished athlete and received consistently high job evaluations and strong recommendations from her supervisors. She filed a lawsuit claiming gender bias, not performance, was the reason for her rejections.

That is when other officers began harassing her, her attorney charged.

Two years ago, the LAPD agreed to accept Damianakes and “undertake an in-depth analysis of the SWAT testing procedures utilizing the expertise of test research personnel outside the department.”

But she decided not to accept. The dangerous work requires trust and cooperation between members of the unit, which she felt she could not count on, her attorney has said.

She quit the LAPD in November 1994. She now works as a volleyball coach and is seeking a new career.