Heterosexual Ex-LAPD Officer Alleges Discrimination By Gay Supervisors

LOS ANGELES - A heterosexual former Los Angeles police officer is suing the department, alleging she was fired after complaining about alleged discrimination by her gay supervisors, according to court papers obtained Monday.
Cindy S. Perez, who alleges wrongful termination, sexual orientation discrimination and retaliation, is asking for unspecified general and punitive damages.
Lt. Paul Vernon, an LAPD spokesman, declined to comment on the lawsuit filed last Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
"Being that this is a court case is in litigation, there is nothing I can really say about it," Vernon said.
Perez, 38, of Buena Park, was hired by the LAPD as an officer in July 1994 and was assigned to the Pacific Division in 2000, according to her court papers.
"(Perez) was aware that LAPD's Pacific Division was and had been a lesbian-friendly environment and had treated non-lesbian females ... differently," her lawsuit states.
Heterosexual female officers at the division were targeted for harassment and negative employment actions and were not given the same opportunities as lesbians, she alleges.
When Perez filed a misconduct complaint against a lesbian sergeant with a history of sex discrimination complaints against her, Perez was "ostracized, harassed and transferred to another assignment," according to her lawsuit.
When Perez asked the same sergeant a question about a sex crime investigation, the sergeant responded with a sexually explicit comment about a woman's private parts, according to her court papers.
The lawsuit also alleges that Perez was falsely accused by a lesbian lieutenant and a male sergeant of pointing her gun at an officer she was training in December 2003. Those allegations ultimately led to Perez's firing by Chief William Bratton in July 2005, according to the lawsuit.
"This termination was discriminatory and was in retaliation for reporting and opposing discrimination and harassment," Perez stated in papers filed with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing last November.
from NBC4 TV