Ex-LASD chief drops remaining claim in suit vs. Villanueva, county

A judge has dismissed the remaining claim in a lawsuit brought against Los Angeles County and former Sheriff Alex Villanueva by a retired sheriff’s department chief who alleged Villanueva directed a coverup of a 2021 video recording of a deputy who for three minutes kept one knee on the head of a man in custody.

Before she sued, plaintiff LaJuana Haselrig was often seen standing next to Villanueva during news conferences. But she filed her Los Angeles Superior Court complaint in September 2022, alleging whistleblower retaliation, racial discrimination, failure to take all steps to prevent discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation and violations of the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights.

Only the POBR claim remained in the suit before Judge Rupert A. Byrdsong dismissed it on Dec. 6 at the request of the plaintiff’s attorneys, who stated in their court papers they were doing so due to the two sides “resolving their issues.” No further information was offered.

Hasilrig alleged Villanueva was hostile to her because she is black and that the ex-sheriff had “a long history of making racist, resentful statements toward African-Americans including in the media.”

Villanueva believed there were “enough” Blacks in sheriff’s department management and wanted to increase the number of Latinos in the department, the suit alleged.

Villanueva also “maliciously targeted plaintiff for being a whistleblower as she exposed the sheriff’s ongoing corruption and lack of ethics,” the suit filed stated.

Haselrig has a master’s degree in emergency management administration and a long, successful 35-year history working for the department, the suit stated.

Villanueva retaliated against Haselrig and other whistleblowers after they “exposed Villanueva’s coverup of the use of excessive force on March 10, 2021, by Deputy Douglas Johnson against an inmate, Enzo Escalante,” the suit stated.

A sheriff’s commander found out about the Escalante incident, so he and his supervisor, Haselrig, took all the necessary steps to handle the matter promptly and properly,” the suit stated.

“However, Sheriff Villanueva obstructed justice and covered the (use-of-force) incident up and retaliated against the plaintiff and others for blowing the whistle on the illegal conduct,” the suit stated.

In March 2022, Villanueva forced Haselrig to “end her long illustrious career with LASD” by pressuring her to retire, giving her “two poisonous options — retire immediately without contemplation or be demoted to captain with her career permanently destroyed under either scenario,” the suit stated.

Video of the Escalante incident shows Johnson kneeling on the handcuffed inmate’s head and neck for more than three minutes, even after he had allegedly stopped resisting.

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