Decision on LAPD detective’s discipline poses major test for Beck

The veteran Los Angeles police detective took the floor at a training class for fellow officers and let loose an expletive-laden rant.

Frank Lyga claimed that he drove his Jeep in the carpool lane at 100 mph, called a prominent black civil rights attorney an “ewok,” quipped that a female LAPD captain had been “swapped around a bunch of times” and described a lieutenant as a “moron.”

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FOR THE RECORD:
LAPD detective: In the Oct. 18 Section A, an article about an LAPD detective who made inappropriate remarks at a training class included a headline that said the Police Department’s civilian overseers recommended that he be fired. The recommendation was made by a department board of rights panel.
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Then he recalled his fatal 1997 shooting of a fellow officer, an incident that sparked racial tensions within the department because Lyga is white and the slain officer was black.

“I could have killed a whole truckload of them, and I would have been happy doing it,” Lyga recounted telling an attorney representing the officer’s family.

Nearly a year after Lyga gave his controversial training lecture, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck must choose whether to follow a disciplinary panel’s recommendation issued this week to fire the detective or reduce his punishment and let him keep his job.

The decision presents the chief with one of his biggest tests since his August reappointment to a second five-year term and is likely to reignite criticism of how he handles officers’ discipline. Beck has clashed with his civilian bosses and rank-and-file officers on the issue, with some accusing him of being inconsistent.

On Friday, black civil rights advocates called on Beck to fire Lyga, saying that the narcotics detective’s comments were racist and sexist and should not be tolerated. Meanwhile, Lyga’s supporters say that he is genuinely remorseful, and note that Beck recently rejected another disciplinary panel’s recommendations to fire a well-connected officer who was caught uttering a racial slur.

“This is a police chief’s nightmare,” said Merrick Bobb, a policing oversight expert.

Lyga’s comments, he said, were particularly troubling because they were made in a teaching setting, where he was presented as a role model to fellow officers.

Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who heads the South Los Angeles-based Community Coalition, said he hopes that Beck quickly adopts the board’s recommendations to fire Lyga. A lesser punishment, Harris-Dawson said, would threaten community relations that the LAPD has sought to improve in the last decade.

“The community isn’t likely to accept anything less,” he said.

Lyga, 57, has said he was deeply sorry for his remarks. His attorney said the detective read a statement to the three-person board of rights that heard the case, saying that his comments “were very wrong” and “hurtful to many people as well as the department.”

“I have no excuse for what I did,” he said, according to the statement, which the lawyer provided The Times. “The fact that I allowed myself to lose control will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

After the disciplinary panel’s recommendations are forwarded to Beck, he has 10 days to make his own decision on what punishment the officer will face, a department spokesman said. The chief then has five days to notify the Police Commission, the civilian board that oversees the LAPD.

Cmdr. Andrew Smith said Beck was out of town Friday. Smith declined to comment on Lyga’s case, saying that matters of officers’ discipline are confidential under state law.

Beck was blasted earlier this year over his decision to suspend instead of fire Officer Shaun Hillmann, who was caught on tape uttering a racial slur outside a Norco bar and later denied it to his supervisors. Critics accused the chief of giving Hillman favorable treatment because the officer’s father and uncle worked for the department.

Lyga’s remarks were recorded by someone attending the Nov. 15 training session, which focused on search warrants. The class ended early, so Lyga had time to answer officers’ questions before the next speaker arrived, according to his attorney, Ira Salzman.

Salzman said the department did not accuse Lyga of racism and that Lyga denied his remarks were racist. But the disciplinary board found that two of the officer’s comments were racial, he said.

In one, Lyga called attorney Carl Douglas, who is African American, a “little ewok.”

The other comment involved the 1997 shooting in which Lyga killed Kevin Gaines, who was off-duty. Lyga was working an undercover narcotics operation when he became involved in a traffic dispute with Gaines, according to police accounts. Neither man apparently knew the other was a police officer.

On the recording, Lyga said he did not regret shooting Gaines and made the remark about killing “a whole truckload of them.” Lyga frequently chuckles and others listening also laugh.

Salzman said Lyga later explained that he should have said he would have shot anybody who was trying to kill him.

Douglas, who represented Gaines’ family and was mocked by Lyga in the recording, said he welcomed the board of rights’ recommendation.

“All fair-minded Angelenos who desire a competent law enforcement department should rejoice at this news,” Douglas said.

Lyga’s attorney said he would send a letter to Beck next week asking for leniency. He said there was no evidence that his client unfairly enforced the law during his 28-year career.

“Frank uttered bad words,” Salzman said. “His 28 years ought to count for something more.”

More than 30 colleagues and associates, some from federal law enforcement agencies, wrote letters to the disciplinary board on Lyga’s behalf. Many commended his work ethic and fairness on the job.

“I have never seen Detective Lyga deal with citizens or suspects from any race or creed unprofessionally,” wrote LAPD narcotics Det. John Hong. “Once the cuffs were on, he always treated the suspects with dignity and professionally.”

In his comments to the board, Lyga said his shooting of Gaines had affected him deeply and said he had recently started undergoing therapy “to gain insight into why I lost control over my speech that day.”

“Since I was 5 years old, I only ever wanted to be a police officer. I love my job and I would do it for free,” he said. “The fact that I am here today faced with losing the profession that I have built over the past 28 years [is] truly devastating to me.”

kate.mather@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com