Another LA County DA’s Office employee sues for retaliation

A former employee of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is suing the county, alleging he was driven out of the office by intolerable conditions after the election of DA George Gascón and now does information technology work for the LA County Fire Department.

Brett Anthony Sereno’s Los Angeles Superior Court retaliation complaint seeks unspecified damages. The lawsuit brought Thursday adds to multiple others previously filed by plaintiffs who allege they also have faced retaliation and demotions from Gascón for opposing his policies, and a District Attorney’s Office representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

In March 2020, Sereno, now 58, was given the position of the District Attorney’s Office’s bureau director/administrative deputy for all of the administrative functions of the prosecutor’s office, in which he budgeted and oversaw contracts between the county and other nongovernmental people and agencies.

Dorinne Jordan became Sereno’s boss after she was hired into the District Attorney’s Office by Gascón and appointed to the newly created position of chief administrative in December 2020 after having previously worked for then-Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, the suit states.

Shortly thereafter, Gascón hired Lawrence Middleton, a private criminal defense lawyer, as a special prosecutor with a first-year salary of $750,000 whose job was to investigate officer-involved shootings that the office under former District Attorney Jackie Lacey declined to prosecute, according to the suit, which further states Middleton maintained his private practice defending criminal defendants.

“It is patently obvious that the contract was illegal and conflict of interest for Middleton was apparent,” the suit alleges.

Sereno told Jordan that the contract with Middleton, which was awarded without bidding, was illegal, ran afoul of civil service, county, state and federal laws and that a conflict-of-interest existed, the suit states.

Sereno also spoke out about Gascón hiring Los Angeles County deputy public defenders to grade 4 positions without having to serve for a time in grade 3 rankings, saying such moves violated civil service rules and the county charter, the suit states.

In November 2022, Sereno testified before the Civil Service Commission on the alleged illegality of putting deputy public defenders in district attorney grade 4 positions without having first served as a grade 3 for two years, the suit states.

Instead of acting on Sereno’s complaints, Jordan gave Sereno a poor performance evaluation in October 2021, according to the suit, which further states that although Jordan found the plaintiff was meeting his work expectations, she was highly critical of him in the written portion of the evaluation.

About a year later, Sereno was demoted to the IT manager 1, a position he held nearly 30 years earlier and which required him to drive a long distance to work, the suit states.

Part of the backlash against Sereno occurred because he took four months of family leave in 2022, according to the suit, which further states the plaintiff received another job evaluation written by Jordan in October 2022 “replete with false negative comments about his performance,” the suit states.

The next month, Sereno was offered employment with the county Fire Department that he accepted “in an effort to escape the ongoing retaliation which had made the work environment intolerable” in the District Attorney’s Office, the suit states.

Gascón’s office later withdrew its consent when Sereno refused to sign a release and waiver of damages in what he maintains was further retaliation, causing him a large drop in pay, but he was finally able to make the transfer to the Fire Department in February of this year, the suit states.

Sereno suffers physical and emotional distress and his reputation has been damaged, the suit states.

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