The union representing Los Angeles police officers has launched another strike against the department’s top official, filing a lawsuit this week accusing a key commander of improperly accessing the union’s internal communications.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union accuses Commander Lilian Carranza of illegally accessing computer data and fraud, saying she used fraudulent login credentials to access emails, surveys and other communications distributed by the league to its members.
Carranza, a commander in the LAPD’s Central Bureau, is represented by a separate union, the Los Angeles Police Command Officers Association. The Police Protective League represents sworn personnel below the rank of captain, which includes most officers, detectives, sergeants and lieutenants.
Carranza declined to comment on the lawsuit, telling The Times on Thursday that she was still considering her legal options. The city attorney’s office, which typically represents city employees who are sued in their official capacity, did not immediately respond to inquiries.
The Police Protective League’s lawsuit alleges that on at least one occasion Carranza misrepresented himself as a lieutenant so he could access and complete a survey that was intended to gather feedback from its members about labor contracts with the city.
League officials said a digital forensics firm was hired to investigate the matter, and reportedly found that between 2016 and 2024, Carranza opened approximately 49 of the 141 “confidential emails” sent by the union to its members. Officials allege the senior official read the emails in an effort to undermine the union’s credibility with the rank and file.
“We believe Commander Carranza’s fraud was motivated by an effort to discredit the results of our Captain Assessment Survey by claiming safety precautions were not taken that would have prevented (non-members) from taking the survey,” Police Protective League President Craig Lally said in a statement.
The Los Angeles Police Department says it does not discuss pending litigation.
Carranza High-profile legal battles with other LAPD officers And her descriptions of sexual abuse and discrimination within its ranks have made her one of the agency’s best-known — and most polarizing — figures.
He has sued the department several times over allegations of sexual harassment. The most recent lawsuit resulted in The jury awarded him $4 million in damages — a payment the city is appealing — over how former leadership handled a situation in which officers circulated a photo of a nude woman that some people falsely claimed was Carranza.
Tensions between the officers’ union and senior officers occasionally arise. dropped in public Look Over the past few years, most recently Debate about reforming the LAPD’s discipline process.
Union officials have long argued that the so-called rights board process favors leadership. That sentiment is echoed in dozens of government claims and policies. Lawsuits Each year there are allegations by authorities that senior officials and people with connections are given greater latitude when accused of misconduct or wrongdoing.
After recent Mayor Karen Bass Vetoed Under a proposed ballot measure that would allow the police chief to fire problematic officers, the union’s board of directors said in a statement that “the discipline system under the leadership of Deputy Chief Michael Rimkunas is broken and needs to be fixed.”
Rimkunas has appeared at City Council meetings several times in recent months, and has advocated for giving the police chief the authority to fire problematic officers directly, rather than going through the Board of Rights process, which can take months to resolve.
Rimkunas said this process has resulted in many officers remaining on the force despite credibility issues and being unable to perform police work.
At the same time, Rimkunas has defended the integrity of the department’s internal investigations, calling them “fair, reasonable and equitable.” He has spoken out strongly against the union’s push to adopt binding arbitration in disciplinary cases, arguing that other cities have adopted this approach in favor of accused employees.
The union has made Rimkunas the face of its fight against inequities in the way the LAPD disciplines people — featuring him on the July cover of its monthly magazine under the blistering headline: “Internal Affairs … is broken.”
In his monthly column, Lally, the union president, wrote about the case of an unnamed former Hollenbeck Division captain, in which he suggested the Leader had mishandled the case of an officer who was accused of using unnecessary force during an arrest.
Carranza was upset about the column, according to two sources familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because they feared retaliation for discussing personnel matters without permission. Carranza met with interim Chief Dominic Choi and discussed what he called Lally’s inaccurate portrayal of the captain’s actions, the sources said. The department later launched a personnel investigation against Lally, the sources said.
Lally addressed the complaint in a follow-up column in the August edition of the union’s magazine, Thin Blue Line, writing: “Clearly this captain must have skipped training at captain’s school over retaliation. The misconduct was reported to me, I acted according to my duty to report the misconduct. That’s it.”
When reached for comment Thursday, Rimkunas referred to a previous statement to a reporter in which he said he was “deeply disappointed by the police union’s misrepresentation of the internal affairs process.”
Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson called the union’s decision to file a civil suit citing the criminal code a “new” strategy that will face high legal hurdles to succeed, particularly because Carranza did not use a false name to access the union’s communications.
Levenson called the suit a case of the union “using all of its legal power.”
“I think a lot of this is framed as a public attack on (Carranza),” he said, while acknowledging the union isn’t showing all of its cards. “I think it’s going a little too far. It certainly seems like an extreme response to what happened here.”
Carranza sued the LAPD in 2017, alleging he was not promoted when he presented evidence that certain police departments Under-reporting of crime statisticsThe then chief, Charlie Beck, denounced the allegations “Damn lie.”
He was also mentioned, though not named as a defendant, in a lawsuit filed by a female LAPD detective alleging that she had been harassed and subjected to degrading treatment while working under Carranza’s supervision in the Gang and Narcotics Division.
Carranza, who was promoted to captain in 2012 and commander in 2023, has applied for the LAPD chief’s job, which became vacant after Michel Moore left office. Retired in February. Sources previously told the Times that Carranza, a perennial applicant, is one of several who have Candidates who were invited for second stage interview.
Times staff writer Richard Winton and City News Service contributed to this report.
