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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Attorneys for a retired police captain are asking a judge to order the city of Los Angeles to pay by early May a total judgment of nearly $7 million related to a jury's award in her favor in her discrimination/retaliation suit against the city in 2023.
In court papers filed Tuesday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher K. Lui, who presided over former Capt. Stacey Vince's trial, the plaintiff's lawyers want the judge to order city to pay the money owed by May 7, including interest accrued on the judgment.
"If (the city) claims ... that it does not have the funds, it is obligated to raise the funds and has several avenues by which it can do so," Vince's lawyers state in their court papers.
Vince originally was granted $9 million in past and future emotional distress damages by the jury in March 2023. Lui found the amount was excessive and the "product of passion or prejudice." Lui said that the city was entitled to a new trial on those damages unless Vince agreed to have them pared to $4.5 million. The city and the judge did not challenge the award to Vince of $1.1 million in past and future economic losses.
Vince consented to the 50% reduction. The $6.9 million now due includes interest on the judgment plus $750,000 in attorneys' fees and other fees and costs, according to Vince's attorneys' court papers, which further state that the city had promised to pay the money due by mid-April.
"California law is clear that public entities must satisfy judgments against them," according to the court papers of the plaintiff's attorneys, who further state that the city is "not immune from this law."
Vince was a lieutenant in the detective bureau when a new deputy chief, Kris Pitcher, became her direct supervisor in 2019 and eventually began shunning her, her suit filed in October 2020 stated
Vince's husband, LAPD Lt. Lou Vince had previously worked under Pitcher at Operations Valley Bureau and suffered retaliation and discrimination on account of a physical disability, Lou Vince alleged in his lawsuit.
When Lou Vince complained, the LAPD command staff threatened him that his wife's career would be adversely affected, his suit stated. Stacey Vince reported the retaliation against her husband, including the allegations against Pitcher, according to her suit.
In 2022, another jury heard trial of Lou Vince's claims and awarded him $4.37 million for his retaliation and discrimination claims.
In addition to reporting and opposing the department's alleged discrimination and retaliation against her husband, Stacey Vince was a witness in an Internal Affairs proceeding concerning her husband's claims, according to her court papers. She also complained about what she believed to be disparate treatment of her while was she was assigned to the detective bureau, her court papers stated.
"As a result of her protected activity, plaintiff was retaliated against in multiple ways, including ... being administratively transferred out of the detective bureau against her will," Stacey Vince's court papers stated.
Stacey Vince's discrimination claim was based upon her association with her husband and his disability claims, according to her court papers.
"(Stacey Vince) had pride in her career being a good police officer and excelling at her job, but that was taken away from her by the Department through its covert, reprehensible retaliation and discrimination, all because she and her husband had the audacity to report retaliation as she was trained to do," Stacey Vince's attorneys stated in their court papers.
Stacey Vince, who was promoted to captain in November 2022, says she chose to retire rather than accept a transfer to a less prestigious position.