LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Los Angeles Police Department detective who says he was subjected to physical and sexual abuse while playing for an amateur football team composed of LAPD officers has filed a legal claim with the city, it was announced Wednesday.
The claim was filed Monday on behalf of the detective, who has been with the department for more than 10 years, his attorneys said.
"It's ironic that LAPD officers sworn to protect the public engage in barbaric hazing conduct against each other, purportedly as a `bonding' exercise," said employment and civil rights attorney Bernard Alexander, who helped file the claim. "It is time to end these and all hazing rituals."
Alexander said sexualized and abusive hazing is emblematic of "a culture of physical and mental abuse" suffered by LAPD officers including other LA Centurion football players.
An LAPD spokesperson said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
The announcement was made Wednesday at the offices of the Los Angeles law firm that filed the claim. The alleged victim was not present "due to privacy concerns, fear of retribution," attorneys said.
Attorneys said the detective was training at the Police Academy in 2009 when officers and supervisors recruited him to play on the Centurions, stating that participation would help his career, and that rejecting the invitation would hurt his chances at promotion.
The plaintiff alleges he was pressured into joining the team, and from the first tryouts was harassed by senior players.
The claim contends that one day after practice, veteran teammates instructed the rookies to head to the locker room where 10 to 15 young officers were herded into a small room and prevented from exiting.
As the alleged victim stood waiting, rookies were selected one at a time to be taken away. He heard yelling, laughing, crying and screams of pain echoing into the room, until he was the last one left, he says. He entered a dimly lit locker room, allegedly confronted by roughly 30 to 40 LAPD officers, who screamed at him and ordered him to strip naked. When he refused and resisted, officers allegedly bombarded him with liquid and objects.
When forced to expose his genitals, fellow officers giggled and berated him as others probed his body with an object, likely a beer or a water bottle, the detective claims.
After the alleged assault, officers allegedly pressured the detective to remain silent by referencing the aftermath of the 2004 shooting death of LAPD Officer Ricardo Lizarraga, a Centurion who was killed on duty. The man charged with murder in Lizarraca's death was pronounced dead after he was found hanged in a Los Angeles jail cell, according to Alexander.
The alleged victim contends that multiple officers told him that the jail cell death was arranged as retribution for the shooting of Lizarraga, at the direction of Centurion Chairman Donald Payne, the claim asserts. Through such threats, the detective says he was led to believe that retribution against him would be swift if he reported the abuse he allegedly suffered in the locker room.
As a probationary officer who was just beginning his career, the officer understood the power of the Centurions to set him up for failure and end his career, or worse, harm or kill him, he alleges.
The claim states that the detective suffered an injury that prevented him from finishing the Centurions' 2009 season, and he never returned to the team.