Years after a controversial additional time fraud probe, a Los Angeles County jury has awarded a former California Freeway Patrol worker $1 million in damages after she sued the company for mishandling sexual content material discovered on her cellphone.
Doris Peniche, a former CHP additional time coordinator on the East Los Angeles workplace, claimed her colleagues improperly seen and shared her sexual images and movies after acquiring the fabric by a search warrant.
She sued CHP and a number of other people for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional misery and distribution of personal sexual materials, amongst different fees. The jury dominated in her favor late Thursday afternoon after a three-week-long trial.
The additional time probe that led to Peniche’s telephone being searched first turned public in 2019, when CHP Southern Division Chief Mark Garrett held a press convention alleging dozens of officers had bilked the company for unworked hours. The search warrant for Peniche’s telephone information, together with images and cell tower pings, was issued in July 2018.
Garrett mentioned officers assigned to guard Caltrans employees repairing Southern California freeways billed CHP for eight-hour additional time shifts even when the safety element didn’t take that lengthy. Officers on the East L.A. station claimed at the least $360,000 value of fraudulent additional time, Garrett mentioned.
Dozens had been relieved of obligation and the California lawyer basic’s workplace filed felony fraud and theft fees in opposition to 54 officers from the station. The roster cleave was so broad that it triggered an agency-wide shuffling of workers as a result of the station was residence to solely roughly 100 officers to start with.
Although the case gained headlines and was touted as a significant corruption investigation by the CHP and lawyer basic, fees in opposition to all however one defendant have since been dismissed.
Peniche was fired from the CHP in Could 2019 amid the investigation, her lawyer, Charles Murray, mentioned.
Murray argued throughout the civil trial that CHP investigators improperly shared the sexual content material from her machine with one another and with at the least one different worker outdoors of the case, Murray mentioned.
Members of the felony investigation staff uploaded the content material onto a shared drive, witnesses testified, and likewise shared it with directors.
Lt. Martin Geller, who was creator of the search warrant, found images and movies of Peniche giving and receiving oral intercourse upon his preliminary evaluation of the proof. He informed different investigating officers in regards to the content material with a purpose to alert them, he testified.
Geller was following CHP coverage that potential proof be shared with the executive staff, he mentioned.
Murray questioned that coverage, arguing it didn’t make sense and in the end harmed Peniche.
“You will have an investigator that is aware of there’s intercourse materials and it’s extremely delicate,” Murray mentioned in court docket. “It doesn’t seem like related, however he goes forward and uploads it to the felony shared drive. You resolve if that coverage is smart.”
A CHP spokeswoman declined to remark.
The place inside investigators noticed corruption within the additional time investigation, attorneys for the accused officers and quite a few former CHP leaders noticed “customary working process.”
Officers assigned to Caltrans additional time particulars routinely remained on name for a full eight hours even when they weren’t within the area and had been entitled to the additional pay as a result of they may very well be known as again to the restore web site, attorneys argued in a dismissal movement filed in 2022. That method had been the process established by CHP since at the least 2010, in line with quite a few former CHP executives together with ex-Southern Division Chiefs William Siegel and Artwork Acevedo.
In late 2022, an L.A. County Superior Courtroom choose decreased the costs to misdemeanors, granting the 54 officers entry right into a diversion program so long as they glad sure necessities together with paying restitution.
All however one have paid restitution and had their circumstances dismissed, in line with the lawyer basic’s workplace. The remaining officer, Pedro Chavez, is due again in court docket in August.
Former L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who represented a few of the officers at disciplinary hearings, known as the additional time prosecution “shameful” and “one of many nice frauds by corrupt regulation enforcement in California historical past.”
Mockingly, he mentioned, the state spent more cash making an attempt to prosecute officers than they ever alleged was stolen.
CHP Sgts. Robert Ruiz and Matt Lentz on the executive staff shared the fabric with Capt. Melissa Hammond, who was a lieutenant on the time, Peniche’s grievance mentioned.
The grievance additionally mentioned Hammond informed CHP Sgt. Connie Guzman that the photographs “confirmed” rumors that had been circulating about Peniche having a number of sexual companions, together with her brother-in-law.
Murray denied the rumors and mentioned that the photographs didn’t present Peniche together with her brother-in-law or with a number of males. He additionally mentioned that Hammond and others acted outdoors the scope of their duties to deliberately hurt Peniche.
“They’re making an attempt to see if there’s sufficient materials to fireplace over 50 individuals,” he mentioned of the additional time investigation. “Why was my consumer’s folder the one one with a subfolder of images? Was it as a result of she was the additional time coordinator or was it as a result of she was disliked immensely?”
Protection lawyer Joseph Wheeler mentioned his shoppers appropriately reviewed the content material as a part of their investigation.
“You may’t decide whether or not one thing’s related until you truly evaluation it,” he mentioned throughout the trial.
Wheeler tried to put some accountability on Peniche, arguing that she mustn’t have allowed sexual images of herself to be taken.
“As soon as that search warrant is issued for the information in your telephone, any expectation of privateness is gone,” he mentioned. “In the event you wished to maintain your physique non-public, why would you let different individuals take images of you?”
Though Peniche testified that she was involved about the place her sexual materials was unfold and who had entry to it, Wheeler mentioned there was no proof the content material was leaked outdoors of CHP.
Earlier than deliberations, Murray informed the jury to look past CHP’s proof insurance policies when deciding the case.
“You may ship a message and say, ‘I don’t care what your coverage is, that ain’t proper what you probably did,’ ” he mentioned.
