A jury Wednesday found in favor of the city of Los Angeles in the trial of a whistleblower lawsuit in which a city auditor contended she was bypassed for special investigator positions in a backlash for reporting what she believed was unlawful activity.
Plaintiff Soledad Gomez maintained she discovered the alleged wrongdoing during her 2019 temporary appointment as a special investigator in the City Controller’s Office. But the Los Angeles Superior Court panel found that Gomez’s disclosure of what she believed was unlawful activity was not a contributing factor to her not being given a permanent civil service position.
Attorneys for the city stated in their court papers that Gomez performed “routine investigative work” and that the Controller’s Office, Ethics Commission and City Attorney’s Office all had legitimate, non-retaliatory reasons for selecting candidates other than the plaintiff for the positions for which she applied.
“Even if plaintiff could establish protected activity, she presented no substantial evidence that the City’s Controller’s Office declined to offer her a permanent position because of it,” the city’s lawyers contended. “To the contrary, the evidence showed that the city itself authorized referral of her findings from her investigation of (the) DWP to the FBI, undermining any inference of retaliatory animus.”
The case was cleared for trial in March when Judge Dean J. Kitchens denied the city’s motion to dismiss Gomez’s single claim for whistleblower...
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