This year has been a year of budget violation lawsuits and settlement payments for the city of Los Angeles, but there is no shortage of hit movies.
On Wednesday, a jury found in favor of the former Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Timothy Colomey is suing, alleging he was retaliated against for reporting misconduct, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was ordered to pay $3.5 million in damages.
“Kolomy, 55, alleges that SWAT members committed an ‘unlawful killing’ and that the police department covered up the alleged illegal activity,” the Times reported. “He believes that a cadre of senior officers, the so-called ‘SWAT mafia,’ wields ‘godlike power’ over who is allowed to join the elite force and how its operations are carried out, resulting in deadly He claimed that he had created a “culture of violence” that glorified violent force.
Controller says LA could exceed annual liability budget and go bankrupt in just three months
The paper specifically cited three murders that Kolomei described as “illegal”: “The shooting of an unarmed man by a sniper aboard a circling helicopter in 2017; a non-fatal shooting of a man who was in the hospital, and a 2014 murder.” A mentally ill homeless man named Carlos Ocana died after falling from a billboard on the roof of a downtown building after being shot with a Taser by a police officer. ”
This latest $3.5 million judgment further exacerbated the city’s litigation woes, as the budget for such payments was exhausted in just three months.
During that three-month period, more than half of the payments were solely to the LAPD.
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