City Settles Suit Against LAPD for Firing One of Its Own
By John Millrany - August 16, 2001Declaring that the city of Los Angeles would not likely win in an appeal, city officials agreed Aug. 14 to fork over $3.75 million in the case alleging that LAPD retaliated against a veteran municipal employee.
In a 10-1 vote, LA City Council agreed to settle the case with Theresa Schell, who began with the city 29 years ago as a clerk typist and worked her way up to a supervisory level in computers after transferring to LAPD. In her suit, she claimed the police department fired her in retaliation for her testimony in the protracted class action donnybrook concerning overtime issues partially related to the 1992 Watts riots.
A federal court jury June 21 handed down a $3.6 million damages penalty against LAPD for firing Schell. Part of the penalty was personal liability damages of $500,000 against Police Chief Bernie Parks and $250,000 against Cmdr. Daniel Watson.
The good news for Parks and Watson was, those penalties were dropped as part of the settlement agreed on by the city and Schell.
Schell pronounced her satisfaction over the initial jury verdict by saying, "I am very happy (because) this sends a clear message to (LAPD) that it cannot retaliate against employees for truthful testimony.
"The most gratifying element is that even though these powerful people…came after me and pressured me to change my testimony, my convictions were that no matter what they said or did, I was not going to shade the truth or perjure myself. I feel strongly about what I did (but) I want all employees to know that they shouldn’t be fearful to tell the truth against anybody."
Schell had claimed that Parks and Watson retaliated against her after her testimony proved to be a key element in the $40 million class action suit, and she was demoted and later fired.
Parks, however, fired back yesterday during an appearance on "Ask the Chief" on radio station KFWB-AM. "She was terminated because she electronically broke into confidential files of the Police Commission. It had nothing to do with her testimony in the lawsuit," the chief said.
Given that the original 1992 class action suit cost the city $40 million, the tab for that fiasco now totals $43.75 million. | 
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