In the case of Flores v. City of Carlsbad (Case No. 37-2014-00015129-CU-OE-NC), Mitch Dean and Garrett Smee successfully defended the City of Carlsbad at trial. The plaintiff, Jesse Flores, a Carlsbad police officer, claimed he was subjected to generally bad behavior by a fellow officer and a supervisor. Ultimately, Flores complained that the behavior was motivated by racial discrimination against him as a Hispanic officer. An internal investigation was performed by a third party neutral investigator who found there was “not even a hint of racial discrimination.” Close in time to the beginning of that investigation, Flores was the subject of an internal affairs investigation which accused him of untruthfulness. He was terminated as a result of that internal affairs investigation. Flores appealed his termination and was successful in getting his job back. Flores then sued the City, claiming that his termination and some other adverse employment actions were the result of retaliation in violation of the FEHA, Govt. Code section 12940. That retaliation case was tried in March 2018. The trial lasted 10 days. The jury rendered it verdict on March 21, 2018. The jury found that Flores did NOT oppose what he reasonably believed to be racial discrimination and therefore, his retaliation claim failed. This case lasted about 4 years, and involved a hotly contested motion for summary judgment, which was denied. The team was proud to successfully defend the City of Carlsbad and its police department in this very complicated matter.
