A Los Angeles County jury awarded a former Los Angeles police sergeant $4.5 million after finding that officials retaliated against him when he reported another officer for billing Metro Transit for overtime work that was never performed. The lawsuit by Randy Rangel, who spent 32 years with the department before retiring in 2023, was the latest in a string of lawsuits involving officers from LAPD’s Transit Services Division over allegations of overtime fraud, gender discrimination and lax supervision. Officers who sued alleged they faced backlash from their bosses after pointing fingers at their colleagues, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Rangel said his troubles started in February 2018 when he alleged a sergeant, Humberto Najera, was overreporting overtime. Rangel claimed he reported the issue up the chain of command on at least two occasions in 2018 and 2019 but the department never launched an investigation. Instead, became the target of a months-long retaliation and harassment campaign. He eventually lost his position as captain’s adjutant, considered a springboard to promotion, and suspects that someone from the command staff started a false rumor that he was sleeping with a civilian secretary. Although some lawsuits are inevitable, the tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money spent to pay verdicts or settlements over police behavior has increasingly angered city officials and the public, particularly given the city’s dire financial straits. On social media last week, City Controller Kenneth Mejia reported that the city had paid out more than $107 million so far this fiscal year to settle police-related court cases.
Comments