Councilman vows probe of LAFD reports

A Los Angeles City Council member said Wednesday that he plans to investigate allegations that Fire Department discipline reports sent to a top commander were altered in two now high-profile racial discrimination lawsuits.

Councilman Jack Weiss, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said he was troubled by disclosures in Wednesday’s Times that two veteran officers said reports were prepared without their knowledge and that their names were signed on the documents by someone else.

“It’s very disturbing,” said Weiss, who plans to conduct a hearing on the matter early next month. “Either documents and/or signatures were falsely prepared and forged or there is a standard operating protocol in the department with the respect to the creation of these documents that is incredibly lax.”

A spokesman for Fire Chief William Bamattre -- who plans to step down Jan. 1 as head of a department plagued by allegations of harassment and discrimination -- said Wednesday that the chief was unavailable for comment.

On Wednesday, The Times quoted Battalion Chief Millage Peaks and Capt. Armando Hogan as saying their reports were sent to Deputy Chief Andrew Fox, who commands the Bureau of Operations and oversees departmentwide discipline.

Peaks said he discovered that his name was signed on two reports he did not write when asked to identify the records during a deposition in one of the lawsuits.

Hogan, citing the pending legal actions, declined to discuss how he learned that a report in another case had been prepared without his knowledge and signed with his name but without his consent.

Weiss, a former federal prosecutor and likely candidate for city attorney in 2009, said the statements by the two fire officers would create problems for the city if the lawsuits by African American firefighters Tennie Pierce and Brenda Lee go to trial.

“This is going to look terrible on cross-examination and can expose the taxpayers to additional damages,” Weiss said.

Because of the pending litigation, Fox also has declined to comment on the reports. Speaking generally, however, Fox said it was a common practice for department officials to sign a colleague’s name on discipline and investigative documents, provided the official has the consent of the other person.

Such practices, Weiss said, are legally unacceptable and have to change.

“These are important matters involving people’s careers and public safety,” the councilman said. “Documents that are relevant to legal and personnel matters have to be signed in the manner indicated.”

Peaks supervised an inquiry after Pierce complained that a Latino and two white firefighters tainted his spaghetti dinner with dog food in October 2004. Hogan was one of two captains who investigated allegations that Lee physically and verbally assaulted another firefighter during a 2003 brush fire in Simi Valley.

Pierce has alleged in his suit that the actions against him were racially motivated.

In her lawsuit, Lee alleges that she was subjected to improper discipline and harassed into leaving the force because she is a black and a lesbian.

robert.lopez@latimes.com