Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Jennifer Grasso’s 10-year track record of breaking down doors and apprehending armed suspects in SWAT makes her a strong candidate to lead this year’s tactical unit. Grasso, the department’s first female SWAT officer, said she gained more confidence after receiving the blessings of her outgoing boss.
But Grasso instead handed her over as an “officer in charge” when her superiors learned that she and others had agreed to cooperate in denouncing a deep-rooted culture of violence, secrecy and cover-up. , he claimed.
Grasso and several other SWAT members are scheduled to testify at the civil trial, which begins Thursday and is expected to last several weeks. The case stems from a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, alleging that the unit was run by a “SWAT mafia” of influential veteran police officers who “glorified the use of deadly force.” .
It was brought to me four years ago by a sergeant. Tim Colomey, who left SWAT and the department, alleges in his lawsuit that senior officers commanding the tactical unit punished him and others for speaking out about their actions.
The complaint alleges specific examples of excessive force and unjustified killings by SWAT teams, including the shooting death of an unarmed man by a sniper aboard a circling helicopter in 2017, and the shooting death of Carlos, a mentally ill homeless man, in 2014. They cited the fact that Okana fell to his death from a signboard. at a downtown building after officers shot him with a Taser. Kolomy said officers who did not adhere to the “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality were expelled or removed from the force.
Members of the so-called SWAT mafia were known to bring in young, inexperienced supervisors they could manipulate, the lawsuit alleges. Colmy alleges that SWAT veterans used their authority to dominate other unit commanders, and that they secured lucrative overtime pay for the city’s highest-paid employees. It is said that it became a part of it.
Kolomy served as a SWAT supervisor for 11 years before retiring in November 2019, and filed the lawsuit the following year. In 2022, a police officer was caught on video telling a fellow officer that he was having fun hunting before a police team shot and killed a suspect downtown. Former Chief Moore ordered an internal review of SWAT operations. The investigation rejected Kolomy’s claims of a violent company culture and found that the team used deadly force in a small number of incidents.
However, Mr. Colomei has decided to have Mr. Grasso and others give sworn testimony in support of his claims.
According to pretrial court filings, Grasso alleges that one of his SWAT supervisors, Lt. Lee McMillion, “improperly obtained” a copy of the internal affairs investigation into Colomey’s case. , which contained summaries of witness statements. What followed, she alleges, was months of retaliation by McMillion and those loyal to him.
Grasso said McMillion publicly disrespected her and others who spoke with the Interior Department. In one instance, Grasso claimed that a lieutenant called her a “platoon enemy” and also applied that label to Colomy and others. McMillion allegedly claimed that members of his unit turned internal affairs interviews into “couch sessions” to vent their grievances. She claimed that she heard McMillion make comments to the effect that “straight women can never work in SWAT.”
McMillion has denied the charges in court filings and is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
The city has filed a lawsuit against Colomy, and court documents say the city hired an expert to evaluate the former sergeant and determine whether his charges were caused by the testosterone injections he admitted to receiving. Or whether it was caused by depression brought on by work-related stress.
Grasso alleges that her top mentor, Lt. Gov. Ruben Lopez, told her in 2022 that he would “take over for her when she retires, as long as she agrees to distance herself.” [her]I made my own out of the whole Tim Colomey thing. ” Despite the alleged promise, Grasso later filed a written declaration on Colomei’s behalf. Lopez has denied wrongdoing in court filings and is expected to be the first to testify in a future civil trial.
After Mr. Lopez retired last year, Mr. Grasso applied for the position but was not selected. While the position remained vacant earlier this year, she claims she was called into a meeting with Interim Director Dominic Choi and asked if she would “get along well with McMillion” if she took over SWAT.
According to court filings, Grasso became “furious” and insisted he could work with anyone. Still, she couldn’t get a job. She filed her own complaint against the city earlier this year, alleging that she was denied a promotion in retaliation for agreeing to testify on Mr. Colomei’s behalf.
Mr. Kolomy’s attorneys may also call Jeff Weninger, the internal affairs investigator at the time of Mr. Kolomy’s allegations. Wenninger said in a pretrial deposition that LAPD leadership has been more lenient in considering shootings and other uses of force by SWAT officers.
Mr. Weninger’s deposition also called into question the department’s handling of a 2010 case involving a porn actor who was suspected of killing a co-worker with a samurai sword. Actor Stephen Clancy Hill fell nearly 40 feet to his death from a rocky hillside after a standoff in which SWAT officers fired less-lethal bullets at him.
Weninger said department leaders have done everything they can to cover up high-profile misconduct on the part, but the Police Commission, the civilian oversight body that reviews the most serious uses of force, has He said he believes people are starting to look at things critically. Regarding SWAT shooting.
“The situation is very different now. Things evolved while I was there and the police chief rubber-stamped it for all purposes,” he said in a deposition. “They didn’t really have their own independent reviews. That changed over time.”
Mr. Kolomy’s younger brother, Sean, is also expected to testify. Sean, who is also a SWAT supervisor, said he repeatedly heard some members refer to themselves as the “Mafia.”
In pretrial testimony, the Colomy brothers identified several junior officers as members of the SWAT mafia, and several force supervisors and police commanders, including McMillion and Lopez, who enabled the group to seize power. It is said that
In previous filings in the case, Lopez denied that the unit had a culture of violence. He replaced SWAT in 2008 after a commission ordered by then-Secretary William J. “Bill” Bratton produced an explosive report highly critical of the force’s operations. He said a major overhaul had been carried out. As a result, a series of reforms have begun, including expanding the scope of officer candidates, which had previously been limited to members of the metropolitan area.
The change also led to the hiring of outside supervisors, such as Kolomy, who had not previously worked in SWAT, and the selection criteria shifted from an emphasis on physical ability to an emphasis on problem-solving skills. It has been modified as follows.
For years, Colomei was a regular SWAT negotiator, often seen using a bullhorn to try to dissuade suspects holed up inside buildings.
About a year before he first came forward with SWAT charges, Kolomy was featured on the station’s podcast “Born in Boston: A SWAT Story.” In this episode, he details how he was promoted to unit leader despite being fatally injured when he was hit by a car while chasing an armed suspect. Choi was his partner at the time, and Jim McDonnell replaced him as chief last week.
