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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A jury has awarded $700,000 to a former Los Angeles police commander who sued the city, alleging he was chastised by Chief Michel Moore for maintaining his Air Force Reserve status and was forced to retire in 2021 because of the department's hostility toward his military service.
Edward Prokop's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleged discrimination based on military service. He maintained he was repeatedly passed over for promotion to deputy chief in favor of less qualified candidates due to his refusal to give up his military duties.
"Plainly, (Prokop) was being frozen out of a continued successful career at the LAPD based on his military status," the suit states.
A jury concurred and found in favor of Prokop on Monday. In their court papers, attorneys for the city denied Prokop's allegations of discrimination and maintained that the promotion of another commander to deputy chief over the plaintiff was based on the competitor's superior qualifications and credentials.
In his suit, Prokop maintained that he was forced to retire early than he planned in January 2021 "due to the wrongful actions of his LAPD superiors targeting him based on his military status."
Prokop, who was a 27-year LAPD veteran, reenlisted in the Air Force Reserve in 2017 and attended a five-month Federal Police Academy training course as part of his military service in 2018, the suit stated.
Shortly thereafter, Prokop's LAPD superiors subjected him to hostility in the workplace and discrimination based on his military status, including unwarranted and excessive scrutiny of the plaintiff's time and repeated denigrating comments about Prokop, the suit stated.
Prokop met with Moore in October 2018, a few months after the chief's appointment, and shared his experiences in the military, saying he believed it provided him valuable opportunities to acquire skills and knowledge useful for his LAPD work, the suit stated.
However, Moore responded with words to the effect of, "That's all well and good, but I believe you can't serve two masters," the suit stated.
Moore also said, "I need and expect you here as a commander" and "I don't want you going off to Guam on some investigative follow-up for three weeks," the suit stated.
"Prokop was shocked and distressed to hear the chief of police condemn his decision to reenlist in the military in this way," the suit stated. "Moore's statements made clear to (Prokop) that his successful LAPD career was in jeopardy because of his military service."
Prokop felt powerless to alter his superiors' negative perception of his military service as inherently in conflict with his LAPD commitments and duties, thinking to himself, "I can't get out of this," the suit stated.
He was just as committed to his LAPD duties as he was to the military, perceiving both to be complementary, the suit stated.
"In particular, (Prokop) was eager to contribute to the LAPD the specialized skills and training he was gaining in the military that had direct application to law enforcement functions," the suit stated. "It pained him that his superiors portrayed him as disloyal and maligned him because of his military service."
After using two weeks of military leave in February 2019, Prokop was removed from the position he had held since 2016 as commanding officer of the LAPD Special Operations Group, where he managed the SWAT diving and air support units, to the Support Services Group, relegating him to overseeing the functioning and maintenance of the LAPD's vehicle fleet, 911 operators and jails, according to the suit.
"Virtually overnight after he returned from his military training, he found himself in a dead-end assignment being maligned by his superiors who apparently perceived his military commitments as a threat," the suit maintained.
Further, Prokop's superiors in December 2019 denied him an outside work permit and deprived him of a valuable professional networking opportunity without any legitimate basis because of his military service, preventing him from taking advantage of his selection by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to provide consulting services to another law enforcement agency, the complaint alleged.
The permit denial was "evidently part of the broader effort by (Prokop's) superiors to sideline him and render him irrelevant because of his military service," the suit stated.