Public Domain
By Audrey Sawyer
LOS ANGELES, CA – A jury awarded $13.1 million in damages July 12 to two Los Angeles police officers who sued the city for gender discrimination, alleging they were singled out in an internal investigation into what officers drew—a Hitler-like mustache—on an arrestee, according to story in the Los Angeles Times.
A motorist who had been arrested by Officers Stephen Glick and Alfred Garcia, along with two female police partners, was found passed out in his jail cell, before being taken to an area hospital, alleges the suit.
Two days after going to the hospital, the man had contacted the police department, stating that his eyebrows and mustache had been shaved off, that various objects had been drawn on his body using a sharpie, including a Hitler-style mustache, a Spanish slur that essentially translates to “male prostitute,” and other markings on the eyebrows and male genitalia.
The LA Times wrote that Attorney Matt McNicholas, filing the suit on behalf of the officers, argued the evidence pointed to gender discrimination by “focusing on the males to the exclusion of the females.” When the incident was examined by the department, internal affairs detectives looked towards the pair instead of the two women.
According to the suit, the two male officers had never been alone with the arrestee. It is noted in the LA Times story that Glick’s body camera was on for the majority of the arrest, excluding 12 minutes when the accused was being booked at Newson Division Station by Glick and one of the female officers.
At the time, current police chief Charlie Beck had recommended that the officers should be fired for battery allegations, and they were directed to a disciplinary panel, titled a board of rights, noted the Times.
After four days of testimony, the jury agreed (via unanimous verdict) to award the officers damages. Both Glick and Garcia had been cleared of any wrongdoing without appearing before the panel, but claimed to still be suffering career setbacks as a result of the incident, according to the suit. The city could still debate the monetary amount, according to the LA Times.
Los Angeles Police Protective League director James McBride, whom the suit references in regard to his testimony, mentions in the Times story he was told by a department official that the officers were being investigated because, “This is what guys do, not females.”
McBride added that he discovered that for years, paramedics have been known to scrawl messages on the patients that they are transporting, which he explained to department officials, said the Times story.
