More Plaintiffs Climb Aboard Class-Action Suit Against LAPD

More than 60 current and former officers are joining a class-action lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department that alleges retaliation against whistle blowers, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to more than 100, an attorney said Monday.

The original lawsuit, filed on Aug. 24 in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of 41 former and current employees, most of them officers, claims that the LAPD has a culture that enforces a “code of silence” that leads to a pattern of discrimination, harassment and retaliation against those who report misconduct by other officers.

“The LAPD is really an expert . . . at retaliation,” said attorney Bradley Gage at a Woodland Hills news conference, where he was flanked by a former lieutenant, a former detective and a former sergeant, all of whom he represents in the lawsuit.

Most of the 109 plaintiffs identified so far worked in the West Valley Division, the 77th Division or the Southwest Division, Gage said. About 20 are still working for the LAPD in such divisions as Internal Affairs, which investigates misconduct, he added. An LAPD spokesman declined comment Monday because of the pending lawsuit.

Among the new plaintiffs in the suit, which seeks $100 million in damages, is Shelby Braverman, a former narcotics detective in the Harbor Division. Braverman, who was relieved of duty and then retired, said he tried to report a supervisor whom he suspected of stealing heroin that had been seized as evidence. Braverman said he met resistance from top brass who told him he should take the matter with him to his grave.

Braverman said that when he continued speaking out, the department retaliated against him by reopening a closed investigation of him involving a violation of a court order. That led to his arrest and a 30-day jail sentence after he was forced out of his 20-year career, he said.

Lita Abella, a former lieutenant in the Central Division, said she resigned in February. She said she was targeted for what she characterized as her “activist” role as a union delegate and a vice president of the Los Angeles Women Police Officers Assn. She said that over the years she had reported or investigated numerous incidents of alleged misconduct.

The department eventually launched a “major personnel complaint” against her that she said had been manufactured in an effort to get her fired. She said she quit rather than fight the charges, because it was making her physically ill.

Cheryl Dorsey, a former sergeant, said she went to the LAPD’s ombudsman’s office because she was being sexually harassed by one of her supervisors. The visit was supposed to be confidential, but within three days retaliations against her began, she said.

Everything she did came under severe scrutiny, Dorsey said, and she eventually was transferred to another division, where her male supervisors refused to speak to her alone and treated her differently from everyone else, as well as giving her an undesirable work schedule. She decided to retire in August, she said.

Since the filing of the lawsuit, Gage said he has received hundreds of calls. “We have rejected dozens of individuals . . . because we wanted to make sure we have meritorious cases,” Gage said. “Everybody named in the lawsuit [had] reported some sort of misconduct and they were retaliated against.”