Officer Wins Suit for Resident Complaint

Sgt. Jeri Weinstein was cleared of wrongdoing in an internal Los Angeles Police Department investigation. But the west San Fernando Valley sergeant wouldn’t let it end there.

Using an unusual weapon for police, Weinstein sued the Woodland Hills woman who filed the complaint against her--and won.

“There are so many false complaints made against officers, I couldn’t sit back and let this happen to me,” said Weinstein, who works in the West Valley Division. “I wanted my reputation unsullied. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

While Weinstein is not the first officer to take a citizen to court, Police Department and union officials say it is uncommon. Over the last few years, a police union lawyer said, only half a dozen or so cases have been filed.

For a department seeking to foster community-based policing, the issue is a tricky one.

“If officers choose to use their civil recourse, we want to support them,” said Cmdr. Tim McBride, an LAPD spokesman. “But it’s extremely important that people in the community are able to come forward with legitimate complaints against officers.”

On one hand, department officials support the rights of officers wrongly accused. But they also want residents to feel comfortable filing misconduct complaints without the fear of retaliation.

“It’s a two-edged sword,” McBride said.

For its part, the Police Protective League, the union representing Los Angeles officers, unequivocally supports the right to file civil lawsuits over false complaints.

Police this year gained additional protection under a new state law that makes it a misdemeanor to falsely accuse officers. The legislation was roundly supported by law enforcement groups, which said that the number of false complaints was going up.

“After Rodney King, people had this sue-the-city mentality,” said Dennis Zine, a Police Protective League director. “They all wanted to be wealthy like Rodney King. But officers should not be subjected to false complaints.”

In Weinstein’s case, which was settled for $3,000 on the eve of the trial, neither side admitted guilt.

In fact, Adele Ornelas, the woman who accused Weinstein of lying and failing to follow the law, said she was taken to court simply “for exercising my 1st Amendment right.”

Ornelas added, “I am ashamed to live in Los Angeles.”

Ornelas said the only reason she settled with Weinstein was because she was threatened with arrest if the case went to trial. Police officials deny that such a threat was made.

“I think there are some very, very good officers out there, but I think also there are some very corrupted ones,” Ornelas said. “If they make mistakes, they cover up.”

Ornelas said she filed a complaint against Weinstein after the sergeant joined officers responding to a call to Ornelas’ hillside Woodland Hills home. Ornelas said she was having ongoing problems with her neighbor and had called police on several occasions. This time, she wanted to make a citizen’s arrest.

But Weinstein refused to let officers arrest the neighbor. So Ornelas filed a complaint against Weinstein and wrote a letter to Chief Willie L. Williams.

The LAPD reviewed the complaint, a standard practice in the department. Weinstein and a second officer were later found to have done nothing wrong.

But Weinstein was not satisfied. Not only was she concerned about having the complaint remain in her personnel file throughout her LAPD career, she also wanted other officers to know their recourse, she said.

“It’s important,” Weinstein said. “The large majority of officers are out there doing their job to the best of their ability, and they don’t deserve to have complaints against them just because someone didn’t get their way.”

So Weinstein took the case to Small Claims Court and won $1,500. Ornelas appealed the judge’s decision, and the case went to Van Nuys Superior Court.

“I did not think I did wrong and I thought I could prove a case,” Ornelas said.

Instead, the case was settled out of court last month for $3,000, Ornelas said. The settlement will hurt financially, but it relieves her family of the stress of a trial, she said.

Larry Hanna, Weinstein’s attorney, said that since closing the case, he has received dozens of calls from potential clients.

“So many officers now are coming forward with bogus complaints against them,” Hanna said. “I think more cases like this will be filed. . . . The officers have to be protected. It’s just not fair.”

The department received nearly 1,700 citizen complaints last year. The internal affairs division reviews about half, and individual police stations typically review the rest, an LAPD spokesman said.

In the landmark Christopher Commission report on the LAPD five years ago, the department was criticized for failing to hold officers accountable for their behavior. The commission found, in addition, that access to complaint forms was inadequate.

A study completed by the American Civil Liberties Union last summer found the department still lax in providing citizen access to those materials. LAPD officials disputed the ACLU findings.

Several officers and defense lawyers who represent police say they believe citizen complaints are taken so seriously by the department that they sometimes damage careers, even when the complaints are unfounded.

“These are blemishes on our records--forever,” one officer said.

Most officers applaud Weinstein’s decision to fight back.

“I don’t think anyone has the right to lie about anyone else,” said Capt. Val Paniccia, who oversees the West Valley police station.

Said Zine, of the police union: “Jeri won and she deserves it.”