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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Although a jury awarded no damages to a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who alleged he suffered retaliation for reporting that he saw a retired deputy involved in a sex act in a car parked on county property in 2015, he is now seeking more than $800,000 in attorneys' fees from the county as the "prevailing party" in the case.
Last Feb. 10, a jury found that while Deputy D'Andre Lampkin was subjected to an adverse employment action, the county would have taken the same measures against him anyway for independent, legitimate reasons.
Lampkin was not awarded damages and county attorneys maintained their client won and was entitled to $95,375 in legal costs. But Lampkin's lawyers maintained he was the "prevailing party" because he won the liability issue regarding the adverse employment action, despite not being given any money.
On Oct. 13, Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis concurred with the plaintiff's attorneys and also said the deputy can file his own costs bill. Lampkin's lawyers, who previously filed court papers asking for $52,045 in legal costs other than attorneys' fees, on Tuesday brought additional court papers seeking $832,275 to compensate them for their representation of the deputy. A hearing is scheduled Feb. 16.
"This court should exercise its discretion to award attorney's fees to Lampkin in a manner that would best effectuate the purposes of the whistleblower statute," the deputy's lawyers argue in their court papers.
Lampkin joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in July 2007, was assigned to the mental evaluation team and observed the retired deputy receiving oral sex on Sept. 4, 2015, the suit stated.
"Plaintiff approached the retired deputy to investigate and ultimately gave him a warning because plaintiff had to respond to an emergency call," the suit stated.
The retired lawman showed Lampkin a badge and warned, "I still know people and I'm very well-connected with the department," according to the complaint filed in August 2017.
Believing that keeping quiet would violate the law, Lampkin reported the former deputy's actions to his bosses, the suit stated.
Lampkin later learned that the retired deputy had made "baseless criticism" of him to the department "in an attempt to cover up his own illegal conduct," the suit alleged. A sheriff's lieutenant who was a friend of the ex-deputy warned Lampkin that his buddy "knows a lot of people who are high up in the department," according to the complaint.
In January 2016, Lampkin, a sergeant and the retired deputy met to discuss the incident, and the former lawman misrepresented what happened by saying he was "enjoying lunch with his girlfriend and worked there," the suit alleged.
"You're very young, I would hate to see you lose your job over something stupid," the retired deputy told the plaintiff, according to the complaint.
Lampkin claimed that when he refused to corroborate the former deputy's version of events, the latter slammed one hand on the table, began to rant and said he knew a department chief. The ex-deputy also said Lampkin would lose his gun and badge, "then stormed out of the room after obtaining plaintiff's business card," the lawsuit alleged.
After the former deputy left, the sergeant told Lampkin, "All you have to do is shut up about it," according to the lawsuit, which says he began experiencing retaliation in 2016.
Lampkin was suspended for three days for allegedly acting rude in his encounter with the retired deputy, his court papers stated. He alleged he also was removed from his coveted position as a mental health evaluator and his supervisors took no action when he complained that he was not given backup help from other deputies or provided proper equipment when he was at a domestic violence call.
Lampkin also was falsely accused of the theft of a badge, according to his court papers.
Attorney Nohemi Gutierrez Ferguson, on behalf of the county, argued that if the plaintiff had actually seen misconduct on the part of the retired deputy, he had an obligation to make an arrest.