An LAPD officer who filed a lawsuit with three other officers against the city of Los Angeles over an alleged sexual assault during a hazing ritual during a police league football practice has been silent for more than a decade. After experiencing this, he said he felt compelled to take action.
“I didn't want to die with my conscience tormenting me. I accept that because I realized that whatever happens is going to happen,” the officer said in his first appearance since the lawsuit was filed in late December 2023. He spoke publicly to the NBC4 I-Team.
He said he first reported the incident as a whistleblower in early 2023 and filed a complaint with the government in October 2023.
“As a police officer, why am I afraid to report what happened to me to the police?” the officer said in a phone interview.
“How can we expect from civilians and citizens? [report crimes]?It was an ethical decision in many ways,'' he said of the choice to take the case to court.?
NBC4 has agreed not to publish the officer's identity.
He and three other officers filed the lawsuit anonymously due to the nature of the allegations and fear of professional and personal retaliation, their attorneys said.
The lawsuit names both the city and LAPD Centurion Corporation as defendants, and alleges sexual assault, sexual harassment, retaliation and negligence.
“This is a lawsuit alleging that the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department fostered an environment in which their football team fostered an environment of ritualized sexual abuse and harassment of rookie football players over multiple seasons.” said attorney Michael Morrison. All plaintiff employees.
The organization Centurion, which was previously considered a nonprofit, did not respond to voicemail or email requests for comment about the allegations in the complaint, according to IRS records.
NBC4 attempted to contact the group's representative at the corporate address listed on its most recent tax return, which turned out to be a private mailbox store in Granada Hills.
An email sent to the team's officers, who are active Los Angeles Police Department officers, had not been returned as of late Friday.
The Los Angeles Police Department has said it typically does not comment on lawsuits, but now-former Chief Michelle Moore said earlier this week that the department takes allegations of hate by its officers seriously.
“We will conduct a thorough investigation,” Moore said Tuesday, two days before his retirement.
“I am confident that the investigation will uncover every rock and every piece of information to determine the validity and truth of the allegations,” Moore said.
The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office said Friday that it does not comment on pending litigation.
According to the complaint, the four officers experienced separate but similar hazing rituals in 2006, 2007 and 2009 after weekend team practices on the athletic field at Bishop Mora Salesian High School in Boyle Heights. said.
The police officers said in their lawsuit that they were led into a dark locker room, restrained by 30 to 40 other police officers and players, and forced to strip naked.
The deputy officer named in the complaint (DOE 1) said other officer-athletes shouted homophobic slurs, demanded to see his genitals, and forced him into a trash can filled with ice water. The officer said in the complaint that he felt someone trying to put something into his anus.
The fourth officer in the complaint, DOE 4, also said he was punched in the genitals during a ritual he experienced in 2007.
Salesian High School's principal did not return a message seeking information on whether the centurion still uses the school for events.
