According to a series of lawsuits filed against the department, several current and former Pasadena police officers and supervisors — all of them men of color — have faced assault, discrimination and retaliation by two factions of the department, one of which is called the Good Ole Boys Club.
All three alleged they were attacked by their colleagues. Officer Jarvis Shelby said a commander put him in a headlock in August. Lt. Sam De Silva said another lieutenant kicked him in the leg so hard he needed surgery. And retired Lt. Carolyn Gordon said she was shot in the groin with a paintball gun during training, causing internal bleeding.
Brad Gage, an attorney representing six Pasadena officers and former supervisors, said, “These are police officers who are supposed to protect the community, but they attack their own people.” Gage said four have already sued the department, and two others — Gordon and retired officer Omar Elhosainy — plan to sue.
The allegations further negatively impacted the department accused of stopping minorities And Use of deadly force on young black men Under suspicious circumstances.
At the center of the lawsuits are two police gangs that are accused of controlling the Pasadena Police Department. One is called the GOBC, or Good Ole Boys Club, and the other is known as the Veteranos, which includes officers who have been involved in police shootings.
People named in current and pending lawsuits say the Police Department is ruled by gangs.
Former Pasadena police officers Carolyn Gordon and Omar Elhosainy (right) share their experiences of assault and discrimination during a news conference with attorney Brad Gage (left) at police headquarters on Thursday.
(Myang J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“If there’s racism, retaliation and violence within the police department, it can certainly spill over into the community,” said Gordon, the department’s supervisor who retired in April.
She said she was called a crybaby after she was shot during a training exercise in 1998. “Sometimes in this building, I feared for my safety,” Gordon said, standing outside police headquarters at a news conference Thursday.
Retired Officer Elhosainy, who was awarded the department’s Medal of Courage, said he was ridiculed last year when he reported three officers drinking on duty.
“I was called ‘Taliban.’ I was told to park my car facing Mecca,” said Elhosaini, who is Muslim.
The series of lawsuits against the Pasadena Police Department began last year and gained public attention when Officer Taesin Crutchfield Alleged that he was unfairly punished when he attempted to defuse a situation involving another officer and a detained woman.
In the lawsuit, Crutchfield, 27, alleged she was punished after a situation on Feb. 20, 2023, in which additional officers were called to an argument involving two sons of Charles Towne, a Black man shot dead He was killed in Altadena by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in January.
Clockwise from top left: Pasadena Officer Omar Elhosainy, Officer Jarvis Shelby, retired Lt. Carolyn Gordon, Sergeant Milton White, Lt. Sam De Silva and Officer Taysin Crutchfield.
(Myang J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Crutchfield’s attorney said police were called to the scene when one of Towns’ sons, a teenager, “was extremely upset over his father’s death.”
The incident was captured on body camera video and shows her touching Officer Ralph Palacios’ arm and then his shoulder in what she described as an attempt to de-escalate a situation in which he was arguing with a black woman she had taken into custody. Palacios told her, “No, you don’t do that,” and then pushed her arm away and told her to move away from him. A supervisor then directed the officers to move away from each other.
Crutchfield was placed on administrative leave with pay following the incident. He said officers retaliated against him when he called for help with the gunman and did not respond to his calls for backup.
In her lawsuit, Crutchfield also alleged that while she was in training, Officer Al Garcia asked for her to be kicked out and removed from the department. After going on patrol, she was subjected to derogatory racial slurs and left without any backup, according to the lawsuit.
In another case, Crutchfield was dispatched alone to a domestic violence call, and Shelby said she responded as backup. She said in her lawsuit that the call caused her trouble at the department and put a target on her back, saying she was head-butted by a commanding officer last year.
Melvin White, now a sergeant, witnessed the headlock incident and reported what he saw to his superiors, he said in the lawsuit. White said that after his report, he became the subject of retaliation.
However, Pasadena Chief Gene Harris said of the incident: “There was no assault or violence directed at any member of this police department.”
Harris said in December that “a thorough investigation was conducted and completed before (White’s) claim was filed.”
“I take any complaint of assault or violence seriously, and I will not tolerate an internal culture of assault or violence,” Harris said at the time.
The Pasadena Police Officers Association, the union representing rank-and-file officers, called the allegations false. And Pasadena police officials have said they will defend themselves vigorously, adding that the department “takes pride in its diversity across all ranks.” Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Over the past decade, Pasadena has paid out millions of dollars in civil lawsuits arising from fatal police shootings and in-custody deaths of Black men.
In 2021, The city paid $7.5 million The three young children of a black man named Anthony McClain he was shot while fleeing during a traffic stop in 2020. In 2012, police Kendrick McDade shot and killedAnother unarmed black man was killed when a caller to 911 falsely reported he had a gun.
Times staff photographer Myung J. Chun contributed to this report.
