A new whistleblower lawsuit against the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department in general, and Sheriff Alex Villanueva specifically, was filed Tuesday morning in behalf of Sergeant Vanessa Chow.
It begins like this:
“Routine retaliation against whistleblowers did not start in LASD with the current sheriff, Alex Villanueva. Former sheriff Lee Baca and former undersheriff Paul Tanaka both served prison terms. But Villanueva has picked up the torch and has taken retaliation against whistleblowers to a whole other level.
“Sheriff Villanueva has held himself out as above the law and immune to accountability, with leadership operating with the lack of transparency and audacity of a third world dictatorship and evading any oversight.”
Chow, like a list of recent whistleblowers, is bringing the lawsuit because of the retaliation she has experienced simply, it appears, for having done her job correctly and professionally.
According to Tuesday’s 54-page complaint, written by civil rights attorney Vincent Miller, the retaliation took a variety of forms, including allegedly having Chow’s test score altered downward when she took the lieutenant’s exam at the urging of one of her superiors in the department.
The alleged sabotage was reportedly done by a Villanueva accolite, Captain Yvonne O’Brien, who is also known to be quite close to the sheriff’s wife, Vivian Villanueva. O’Brien’s reported involvement with the alleged rigging of departmental promotions based on favoritism and/or...
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