Facts

In March 2006, plaintiff police officers Ryan Moreno and Chuck Garcia were reassigned from their positions within the Los Angeles Police Department's ("LAPD") Southeast Division. Moreno was reassigned to detective work in the burglary unit and Garcia to a crime-suppression unit. The plaintiffs sued defendants city of Los Angeles, William Bratton, Earl Paysinger, George Gascon, Michael Berkow, Richard Meraz and Horace Frank for free speech retaliation under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 and the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act under Government Code section 3300 et seq.

Defendants Bratton, Paysinger, Gascon, Berkow, Meraz and Frank prevailed on summary judgment, leaving only the city of Los Angeles as the defendant at trial.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS:
The plaintiffs contended defendants reassigned them because they had criticized to their captains and to a deputy city attorney in charge of enforcing gang injunctions of internal affairs' misconduct. Specifically, plaintiffs criticized internal affairs for either considering or utilizing a high-ranking gang member and major drug dealer to work with internal affairs in conducting "sting" audits of officers. The department then retaliated by reassigning plaintiffs.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
The defendants contended plaintiffs' reassignments were proper and placed plaintiffs in highly sought-after positions without causing them economic damage. The defendants denied improperly initiating a citizen complaint against plaintiffs.

Damages

Plaintiffs sought $250,000 each in damages at trial.

Injuries

The plaintiffs suffered emotional distress.

Result

In special verdicts, the jury unanimously found that plaintiffs were subjected to an adverse employment action by the LAPD, by being reassigned and because of impropery encouragement of citizen complaints. However, the jury returned a verdict for the defense because it did not find that plaintiffs' speech was a substantial or motivating factor in the actions taken by the LAPD.

Length

five days