Facts

PLAINTIFF'S FACTS & CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff Gina Zanone, a female, had been a police officer for approximately 11 years when she accepted a position with the City of Whittier's police department in 1997. She began working in the patrol division and was rated as an "outstanding officer." She was promoted to detective in 2000 and almost immediately began receiving negative treatment from her superiors and fellow male detectives. In December 2000, the plaintiff lodged a complaint with the City alleging that she was being treated differently because she was female. Following the complaint, police personnel retaliated against the plaintiff and continued to subject her to adverse treatment. This culminated when the plaintiff was transferred out of detectives and back in to patrol in early 2002. In patrol, the plaintiff was the subject of continued harassment, which included being told not to make arrests while a certain sergeant was on duty. As a direct result of the working conditions, the plaintiff was taken off work by her psychologist in early 2003 and did not return to work.

DEFENDANT'S FACTS & CONTENTIONS: The City of Whittier contended that the plaintiff was a competent patrol officer, but that when she was transferred into Detectives, she exhibited performance related issues due to an inability to multi-task. The plaintiff admitted in testimony that the move to Detectives was a transfer, not a promotion, and that she could be transferred out at the Chief's discretion, without cause on her anniversary date. The plaintiff's performance did not improve and the City had received complaints about the plaintiff's performance from the District Attorney's Office and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Following several non-disciplinary memos documenting her performance deficiencies, including complaints from the District Attorney's Office as to poor case preparation and failure to appear when subpoenaed for trial, the plaintiff was transferred out of Detectives.

The defendant also contended that through cross examination, it was shown that the plaintiff made misrepresentations as to whether her service weapon was taken away from her, which it was not and, whether or not she participated in a sergeant's promotional examination, which she was allowed to do, even though she had been at Whittier only 15 months.

The defense expert found that the plaintiff was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting from an incident in which the plaintiff thought a suspect had a gun, froze during the incident, and was unable to assist her partner, and that she also suffered from a delusional disorder which was shown through her beliefs that Dispatchers at Whittier wanted her dead and that personnel from the City were flying over her house in helicopters.

Result

$1.25 million.

Deliberation

two weeks

Poll

9-3 (gender discrimination), 9-3 (retaliation), deadlock on hostile work environment

Length

four weeks