Edhat Staff
UC Police Station on UC Santa Barbara’s campus
By edhat staff
A fifth UC Police Department (UCPD) officer at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) has filed a lawsuit against the department, making it the fourth lawsuit since November 2018.
The latest lawsuit filed on May 17, Jonathan Lee Reyes v. University of California Regents, contains similar claims as to the former lawsuits. UCPD officer Jonathan Lee Reyes alleges whistleblower retaliation for reporting misconduct in the department relating to the retention and promotion of an unqualified police trainee, reports The Daily Nexus.
The lawsuit alleges UCPD Lieutenant David Millard and UCPD Sergeant Gregory Smorodinsky blocked Reyes from receiving a promotion and provided Reyes unfair poor performance reviews. It goes on to state UCPD “retaliated against other employees based on the same protected class [as Reyes]” and UCPD failed to “discipline other employees outside [Reyes’] own protected class as severely” for the same actions, reports The Daily Nexus.
Reyes’ lawsuit makes it the fourth lawsuit filed against the police department. All lawsuits allege similar forms of retaliation against officers who spoke up about misconduct within the department.
UC Police Department Lieutenant Mark Signa filed the first lawsuit in November 2018 claiming whistleblower retailiation. Married couple and Officers Tiffany and Michael Little filed another case in early March claiming they were retaliated against by their superiors and co-workers after reporting violations and suspected illegal activity conducted by other officers. Another former UC Santa Barbara police officer filed the third suit against the UC Police Department on March 27 for violations of the California Whistleblower Protection Act, failure to take corrective action and emotional distress.
The Daily Nexus, UC Santa Barbara’s student-led newspaper, broke the story and continues to investigate. Read more at dailynexus.com
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If I’ve read this correctly, a Los Angeles lawyer has filed a lawsuit against the largest employer in our county because a line level employee disagreed with management’s decisions related to hiring and promotions—including his own promotion.
If this is correct, it seems to me that if this is the worst dirt a disgruntled employee could dig up on a police department, the department is actually in pretty good shape. Hiring and promoting officers capable of developing and maintaining good relations is a critically important goal in law enforcement these days and I expect the officer Reyes complained about may be uniquely well-qualified in accomplishing that goal.
Should any of the decision-makers at UCSB be reading this, I encourage you to not settle this case as a matter of convenience. Our community does not need any more desperate LA attorneys trying to make a buck off of our community.
The mere fact of the filing of a lawsuit does not tell us much except that the attorney doing so analyzed the claim and decided it was worth proceeding. The fact that he is an “LA attorney” is completely irrelevant. The readers of this blurb should just hold back with uninformed opinions that are based on apparent bigotry or bias and let the process proceed. Why do we need to blast out with uninformed opinions and hostility?
This is much more than a “promotion” issue. I was also about officers not qualified for the job, not grasping how to do it in a safe reasonable way and who got promotions easily. A lot more serious when the job requires grasping and understanding their training.