Deputy is allowed to pursue his bias suit
A sheriff’s deputy can move forward with a lawsuit that alleges the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department unfairly transferred him out of its Century station because he is Latino, a judge ruled Friday.
Deputy Angel Jaimes alleges that African American supervising officers transferred him in 2004 to rid the Century station of experienced Latinos who were admired by other deputies.
The lawsuit has brought attention to a group of deputies in the Century station -- Jaimes among them -- who got matching tattoos and called themselves the Regulators. A series of anonymous letters, purportedly written by fellow deputies, claimed that Jaimes and other Regulators intimidated those who were not part of their clique, extorted money from them and had undue influence over the running of the Century station.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green ruled that the case can proceed to trial, despite sheriff’s officials’ claims that the transfer was related to defamatory statements the deputy made to a supervisor, not to ethnicity.
Green said he based the decision in part on a lieutenant’s testimony that Cmdr. Willie Miller and division Chief Ronnie Williams told her the Century station was “was run by Mexicans and they were going to change that.”
Jaimes has alleged in the lawsuit that supervisors, including Sgt. Arthur Scott, openly referred to him and other Latino deputies at the Century station as the Mexican Mafia, the name of a prison gang linked to violent crimes throughout the country.
Jaimes confronted Scott in a meeting at the Lynwood station and used profanity while criticizing the sergeant’s management style and for failing to apologize for using the Mexican Mafia term. The department later suspended Jaimes for 25 days for those comments and transferred him from Century to the department’s Transit Services Bureau.
Jaimes’ lawsuit seeks to overturn the transfer and suspension and seeks monetary damages. Green said allegations that the department was motivated to transfer Latino deputies out of the Century station was enough to allow the case to go to trial.
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