Judge to vet claims of LAPD nemesis

A self-styled crusader against the Los Angeles Police Department agreed Thursday to submit to screening by a judge before she filed any future complaints alleging misconduct.

The deal short-circuited a trial this week in which four veteran LAPD officers sued Guadalupe Andrade for libel, alleging her 85 personnel complaints had defamed them.

“This is more than we ever, ever hoped to accomplish,” said Michael P. Stone, lawyer for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, who represented the four officers. “They weren’t in this for the money. They were in this to stop this woman from doing this to police officers.”

Andrade, a mother of a 9-year-old boy, said she was satisfied with the settlement, which had been pushed by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David L. Minning.

“In my eyes, I won,” Andrade said. “I won because I have an independent person to screen my complaints. Before, they’d get lost.”

The terms of the deal require Andrade, 35, to personally witness an incident before filing a complaint and to submit any complaints first to the judge. Stone gets 10 days to dispute the complaint.

The deal lasts three years. LAPD Lt. Gregory Jones, Sgt. Andrew Rea and Officers Raymond G. Castro and Oscar Garza agreed to drop their defamation claims.

“They’re not getting nothing. Zero,” Andrade said.

In the lawsuit, the officers asked Minning to issue an order barring Andrade from filing more complaints.

They alleged that only one of 85 complaints she had filed in the last three years was justified, but that the accumulation of unfounded accusations damaged their law enforcement careers.

Andrade was accused of targeting antigang police to help out the Hazard Gang in Ramona Gardens.

She strenuously denied the claim, although acknowledged that two of her brothers are street gang members.

“I didn’t choose to be born here, but I’m not a gang member,” said Andrade, who wants to study law. “I’m proud to be from East L.A., to grow up in the projects.”

A different judge earlier had ordered Andrade to stay at least 50 yards away from several officers who had complained about her.

She alleged that officers harassed her, threatened her with guns and falsely arrested her. The police protective league issued a statement Thursday alleging Andrade had “maliciously and unfairly” complained about antigang investigators.

john.spano@latimes.com