Nearly two years after her black mother sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, the deputy filed similar lawsuits after Palmdale’s aide said she punched her in the face during an illegal arrest.
Timothy Gardner, fired in the 2022 case, filed a complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday. He accused the sheriff of accidentally firing him because it was “bad optics” for white officers to attack black women.
“As the suspect threatened to break the baby’s leg, Deputy Gardner saved the baby,” the lawsuit alleged. “If Apex Gardner wasn’t white, he wouldn’t have finished.”
In an emailed statement Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Office said that no lawsuit has been provided yet, but all use cases will take place seriously.
The county has not yet responded to court claims, but the county’s attorneys have previously defended Gardner’s actions in their response to a 2023 federal lawsuit filed by Yeyo Russell, punched by young mother Gardner.
“The actions of the lawmakers involved were objectively reasonable,” the county lawyer wrote in a legal response two years ago, adding that “the agent was acting in the self-defense and defense of others.”
Tuesday, assn. The Los Angeles deputies (a union representing rank and file deputies) said Gardner was “admired” in handling the case and criticised the department’s decision to fire him.
“The LASD administration had little understanding of the situation and fired Deputy Gardner for its decisive action in saving a 3-week-old child from the aggressive grip of an angry suspect who resisted arrest,” Vice President Thomas Ferguson told the Times in a statement emailed. “ALADS is confident that if the public knew all the details of this case, the lieutenant would agree that immediately should be restored to duties.”
The lawsuit comes from a late-night traffic stop in July 2022 when Palmdale’s agent found a vehicle driving without the headlights on. After they pulled the driver, deputies noticed a smell of alcohol coming from inside and found four women.
Lawmakers arrested a female passenger on suspicion of child danger as a felony. They arrested a male driver on suspicion of child danger, drove under influence and drove with a suspension of licenses.
During the course of those arrests, deputies used force on two women, one of which was Russell.
Most of the eight-minute body camera video of the incident, announced by the Sheriff’s Office, shows a tense exchange between several deputies and a woman holding the baby. The deputies repeatedly asked the women to give up on their children.
“Forcing a child from you is not the best,” one aide said.
“Take my child from me is not the best,” the woman replied.
After a few minutes of interaction, deputies pryed the woman’s hand open and took the child out of her arm.
Deputies then said they were planning to arrest Russell.
At the heart of the controversial video, Yeyo Russell listens to her attorneys discussing the filing of cases against LA County and its representatives in 2023.
(Brian van der Bragg/Los Angeles Times)
“Yeah, you have to die and shoot me to take the baby out of my arm,” she said before the struggle continued.
At least two deputies were holding her in their wrists and arms, but the video shows them throwing two punches into her head as they clung to the baby with one arm.
The confused video footage does not provide a clear perspective, but at one point Russell’s baby was hanging upside down as another deputy pulled the child’s leg, according to the lawsuit.
The court application entered as part of the lawsuit indicates that the matter reached a temporary settlement last year, but the agreement is still awaiting approval by the LA County Board of Supervisors. The records did not specify the dollar value of the settlement, and Russell’s lawyers did not immediately provide comment.
Gardner’s filing draws the cases differently.
“On July 13, 2022, Deputy Deputy Gardner rescued the baby from a suspect who was resistant to instability and threatened to break the baby’s leg,” Suit claims. “Deputy Gardner called to assist with the handling agent.”
The on-site representatives “do everything they could” to escalate the situation, but their efforts failed, the lawsuit says. Ultimately, believing that “the baby’s health and life are at risk,” Gardner said, “we used our hands instead of using guns or tasers.”
Initially, the administration of Alex Villanueva (sheriff in the summer of 2022) considered the case and determined that Gardner had done nothing wrong, the lawsuit said. Then, in July 2023, newly elected Sheriff Robert Luna called a press conference to release body camera footage of the incident and announce his decision to hand over the case to the FBI for further investigation.
“I discovered that the women’s punches and the situation were completely unacceptable,” he said at the time, adding that he “acted swiftly” after finding it a few days ago. The online fundraiser later won more than $39,000 in donations to support Gardner and his family.
Eventually, Gardner was not only released from duties, but was fired after being initially suspended. Vincent Miller, currently representing Gardner, responds to Russell’s lawsuit, says the rushed fire doesn’t match departmental arguments.
“Deputy Gardner was fired for not being wrong,” Miller wrote in this week’s legal complaint. “As a result of his firing, he lost 30 years of future income as a peace officer, costing him millions of dollars in salary and retirement.”
In addition to the damage, Gardner demands work.
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