Police Panel Rules Officer Insubordinate

A veteran LAPD officer who complained about a “No Fat Cops” poster in her captain’s West Valley Division office was deemed insubordinate by a police Board of Rights panel, which today will discipline her.

In a 2-1 vote late Friday afternoon, the panel, consisting of a Los Angeles Police Department captain and commander and a private attorney, found Officer Johnneen Jones was insubordinate more than a year ago when she didn’t follow a detective’s orders to leave the captain’s office where the poster hung.

The two LAPD officials--Cmdr. Dan Koenig and Capt. Sharon Buck--found Jones guilty. The civilian panelist, attorney John Caldwell, voted not guilty.

None would comment, pending today’s penalty hearing in a downtown office building.

Jones, who has been suspended without pay since June, said she was in the captain’s office in June 1999 taking a photograph of the poster, because she had complained about it to a sergeant in another division who she said asked for a picture of it.

“I complained and they’re retaliating against me,” Jones, a 12-year veteran officer, said Monday. “I’m very disappointed in the system, but unfortunately, it was very predictable: You report a captain, and you know what’s going to happen.”

About 18 by 24 inches, the framed poster depicts an overweight man, wearing only a towel around his waist, breaking a scale. A blue police uniform is hanging nearby. “Fat Grows on You” is printed across the top of the poster, with “No Fat Cops” across the bottom.

The poster hung in the office of former West Valley Division Capt. Julie Nelson, who has transferred to another LAPD division.

Jones said she objected to the poster because at 5-feet-6 and 180 pounds, she considers herself overweight and found the poster offensive.

In the hearings, which lasted several days, the department defended its actions, saying Jones was not suspended for her viewpoint but because she refused to follow the orders of a superior.

“It’s clear that she’s been targeted,” said Bradley Gage, Jones’ attorney. “She broke the code of silence, which is also a code of fear.”

Activists from the National Assn. for Advancement of Fat Acceptance showed their support for Jones by attending the Board of Rights hearings, which began in late August.

The Sacramento-based organization lobbies for fat-friendly legislation, conducts legal research and raises funds to fight anti-fat messages.

Several association activists plan to attend today’s 1 p.m. disciplinary hearing, in which the panel will decide what penalty to impose, including a possible recommendation of dismissal.

Gage said he will appeal the panel’s ruling.

“It’s so obvious they’re going after her and they will not let it go,” he said.