After rising to change into one of many highest-ranking Latinos within the historical past of the Los Angeles Police Division — as soon as a attainable candidate to be town’s subsequent chief — Alfred “Al” Labrada was demoted and really helpful for firing within the span of some weeks.
Labrada’s precipitous fall got here amid allegations final 12 months that he had inappropriately monitored a feminine colleague with whom he was romantically concerned. However in a brand new declare filed towards the LAPD, Labrada argued former LAPD chief Michel Moore confirmed a double customary by not taking comparable motion towards one other high police official who had an inappropriate relationship with the identical lady as Labrada.
In a March 5 court docket submitting, the one-time assistant chief once more denied the allegations of LAPD officer Daybreak Silva, who mentioned he positioned an Apple AirTag below the bumper of her automobile so as to observe her actions whereas the couple was within the means of dissolving their home partnership. However Labrada’s sharpest barbs have been saved for his previous boss, Moore, whom he accused of violating his due course of rights by publicly discussing his case earlier than it was resolved.
Silva has sued town, alleging division officers failed to guard her from backlash after she accused Labrada. She has a brief restraining order towards him, which a decide on Wednesday agreed to increase for an additional 12 months. As a situation of the order, Labrada is barred from possessing any firearms except he meets sure circumstances.
After a police investigation into the AirTag allegations — which stemmed from a report filed in September with San Bernardino County authorities — prosecutors declined to file felony costs towards Labrada, 53, citing inadequate proof.
Labrada was downgraded to his civil service rank of commander and stays relieved of responsibility, pending the findings of an administrative panel that may decide whether or not he might be fired. That listening to has been rescheduled to later this 12 months.
In his declare, Labrada accused Moore — who retired on the finish of February, however mentioned he would proceed working for the LAPD as a marketing consultant — of main a marketing campaign to dam his profession development, saying his former boss felt threatened at a time when he confronted criticism over a drop in morale and staffing shortages. Labrada additionally cited an alleged tradition of cronyism on the LAPD below Moore that concerned trying the opposite manner when the chief’s allies have been accused of misconduct.
For instance, Labrada accused Moore of protecting up for an additional one in all his assistant chiefs, Jorge Villegas, who was caught by an LAPD surveillance squad engaged in a intercourse act in a automobile with Silva — the identical officer Labrada later grew to become romantically concerned with. Villegas retired quickly after the incident.
Moore didn’t reply to a cellphone name and a textual content message searching for remark.
LAPD spokeswoman Capt. Kelly Muniz mentioned in a short assertion that the division had investigated “all allegations raised by this former worker over the dealing with of the investigation” with oversight from the inspector basic’s workplace. She mentioned she couldn’t touch upon any particular claims made in Labrada’s submitting.
“The Division maintains procedural safeguards to make sure a radical and honest investigation for particular criticism varieties, together with these involving members of command workers or these involving potential office issues,” Muniz mentioned.
Labrada is among the many highest-ranking officers to publicly accuse the LAPD management of favoritism and bias, and his case has deeply divided the division, with factions forming between those that agree with a few of his allegations and those that discover his condemnations self-serving. Others have argued that the interior backlash towards Silva was symptomatic of the best way some girls within the division are handled.
Labrada has discovered assist amongst some present and former high-ranking Latino LAPD officers who’ve privately lobbied on his behalf, circulating copies of town’s response to Silva’s lawsuit and posting messages of assist on social media, based on a number of division sources. The sources requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to debate inside issues.
Labrada’s lawyer, Luis Carrillo, mentioned Wednesday that Moore “performed soiled” and disadvantaged his consumer of his proper to due course of enshrined in a state legislation aimed toward defending the privateness of officers.
“In my view, he didn’t need Al Labrada to change into chief of police,” Carrillo mentioned.
In February Silva sued town for sexual discrimination, harassment and retaliation, claiming her romance with Labrada from October 2017 to July 2023 ended “due to the poisonous nature of their relationship.”
She alleged that Labrada stored messaging her, even after a extremely publicized Oct. 7 press convention throughout which he vehemently denied the allegations she made towards him. Labrada mentioned on the time that information protection of his case had brought about him “important emotional and bodily misery.”
“No matter disgraced Chief Labrada claims, none of it justifies what he did to one in all his subordinates, my consumer, Daybreak Silva,” mentioned Matt McNicholas, an lawyer for Silva in her civil case towards town. “The irony is that he claims that he was abused by Command, when it was in truth he was Command that was abusing Officer Silva.”
In its response, town lawyer’s workplace mentioned it was unclear what “hostile employment motion” Silva allegedly suffered.
“The LAPD undertook a immediate investigation into the allegations,” town wrote in a court docket submitting, including that “corrective measures” had been taken towards Labrada.
Silva mentioned she discovered the monitoring machine known as an AirTag on Sept. 3 throughout a getaway with associates at a resort in Palm Springs. She mentioned she made the invention after receiving an electronic mail from Labrada that made her suspect that he was monitoring her actions.
When Moore introduced final 12 months that he wouldn’t serve out his full second time period, Labrada’s identify started circulating across the division as a attainable successor. From time to time, he served as performing chief whereas Moore was out of city. Moore urged that Labrada was being groomed for the highest job in an interview with The Instances final 12 months when he expressed his disappointment in “latest occasions” involving “folks… you thought have been certified for taking the reins.”
That modified after Silva filed a report with Ontario police. However once they took the case to the San Bernardino County district lawyer’s workplace, prosecutors declined to file costs.
A confidential declination memo obtained by The Instances exhibits {that a} prosecutor concerned within the case mentioned she had doubts about Silva’s account of occasions, together with the officer’s declare that somebody discovered the monitoring machine on her automobile “inside a pair moments” of on the lookout for it.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Gina Florick wrote of Labrada and Silva within the memo: “there isn’t a proof suspect is actively monitoring her.” Florick mentioned Labrada “by no means exhibits up at her location, unannounced, or confronts her with data doubtlessly acquired from the AirTag.” The prosecutor additionally mentioned that she discovered it “extremely problematic” that Ontario police had allowed Silva to evaluate a draft of the preliminary police report.
After The Instances reported on the Silva allegations final September, Labrada mentioned, Moore used that as pretext to take away him from his place of assistant chief.
He mentioned Moore additionally took the weird step of publicly asserting Labrada’s demotion at a Police Fee assembly and issuing a information launch concerning the division’s inside probe earlier than the felony investigation towards him had been accomplished. Moore then ordered him to a board of rights listening to, indicating that the chief needed to fireside him.
Those that operated inside Moore’s orbit had not been subjected to the identical therapy up to now, Labrada mentioned.
For instance, Labrada cited Moore’s dealing with of a romantic encounter involving Silva and Villegas, bringing to mild an episode that years later stays a subject of fascination and controversy round police headquarters. Villegas had come below suspicion in 2018 and was positioned below surveillance by Inner Affairs, who have been tipped off by former police commissioner Steve Soboroff that Villegas might have been seen driving below the affect.
A workforce of detectives tailed Villegas to the parking zone of a bar in Pomona, the place officers caught him engaged in a intercourse act inside Silva’s white Honda Accord, Labrada alleged. When Moore was knowledgeable of this, Labrada mentioned, he reportedly “known as off” any additional surveillance. And as an alternative of revealing the potential violation of the division’s coverage towards sexual relationships between senior workers and lower-ranking officers, Labrada alleged, the chief allowed Villegas to retire quietly — with out struggling the embarrassment of his alleged improprieties enjoying out within the press.
Whereas division sources detailed the episode to The Instances, Moore and different officers declined to remark.
Labrada additionally alleged anti-Latino bias, notably within the division’s increased ranks. Whereas the LAPD is greater than half Latino, Labrada pointed to an absence of illustration inside Moore’s inside circle, alleging a “sample and follow” of Moore selling white males into positions on the expense of “extremely certified” Latinos.
