In his campaign to become city controller, Councilman Dennis Zine has said that his top priority would be to audit the risk management division of the Los Angeles Police Department, in an effort to determine why the agency has had so many officers recently embroiled in litigation.
Our Los Angeles sexual assault attorneys are encouraged by this pledge of action. However, according to news reports, it comes from a man who himself was the subject of a sexual harassment claim back in 1997, when he was a sergeant for the department.
In the last several years, the city has reportedly spent more than $50 million just on legal settlements. Zine has said that if officers were better supervised by their commanders, many of these situations could have been curbed before they went out of control.
Between 2006 and 2012, the city spent nearly $101 million on lawsuits. A little less than half of that was given to plaintiffs who had alleged either police misconduct or civil rights violations. Those kinds of allegations comprised the largest portion of payouts.
But the second-largest portion involved employee-on-employee complaints. For those, the city reportedly shelled out nearly $32 million, according to a report released by the chief legislative officer of the city.
And these kinds of cases have only increased in recent years.
However, they weren't nearly as common during the time period in which Zine was accused of his wrongdoing. At the time, it was alleged that he had asked a female subordinate officer to attend a work-related function with him in Canada.
Zine allegedly contended the two were dating. The female officer said they were merely friends. He later admitted that he had made romantic overtures toward her over the course of the trip. However, he insisted he never acted improperly.
Among the claims of harassment against Zine was that he had put a handful of condoms and a container of urine in the female officer's suitcase after she had refused his advances. Other officers would later say they had done this as a prank, though it was never clear what their motive may have been.
On another occasion, it was alleged that Zine climbed into the female officer's bed one night and rubbed himself against her. They had been sharing a hotel room during the trip. When she demanded that he get out, he did.
Such wildly inappropriate advances from a supervisor to a subordinate on a work-related trip, if they took place, could hardly be viewed as anything but sexual harassment.
Although an internal investigation resulted in Zine being cleared off the allegations, the disciplinary panel said that this was "hardly vindication" for the sergeant, as his actions had displayed incredibly poor judgment. Furthermore, those actions resulted in taxpayers having to pay $60,000 to defend the city against a civil action brought by the female officer. In the end, both parties reached an undisclosed settlement amount.
Still, Zine insists that all of that is irrelevant because he was technically cleared of the charges.
Plus, he said his case was of little consequence, considering that others' cases have cost the city millions of dollars - only to see the employees accused of wrongdoing later promoted. This is the professional culture that Zine has reportedly taken issue with, and that he has pledged to investigate.
If you have been a victim of wrongdoing by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department or the LAPD, contact The Okorocha Firm at 1-800-285-1763.
Additional Resources:
Zine vows audits of officer-involved lawsuits as L.A. controller, April 22, 2013, By Catherine Saillant, Los Angeles Times
More Blog Entries:
Sexual Harassment Prevention Failures by LAUSD, Manager Says, April 23, 2013, Los Angeles Sexual Assault Lawyer Blog
