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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A female Los Angeles Police Department helicopter pilot who sued the city Wednesday, alleging she was subjected to gender and disability discrimination by supervisors who considered her overly emotional and incompetent to perform her job, won a round in her bid to review the personnel records of multiple LAPD colleagues.
Officer Sara Marin's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges sex and disability discrimination, retaliation and failure to prevent discrimination and retaliation. Marin seeks unspecified damages. On Tuesday, Judge Maurice A. Leiter granted Marin's records inspection motion in which he will review the documents in chambers on April 26 and decide if any of them should be turned over to Marin's attorney.
In opposing the plaintiff's motion, the City Attorney's Office called it "overreaching" and said it should be denied because the requests were "impermissibly vague" and failed to give proper notice to the affected officers.
According to her lawsuit, Marin was hired by the LAPD in 1997 and she joined the department's Air Support Division in 2004, starting as a tactical flight officer and she currently is a command pilot, a non-supervisorial position. She is one of about three females out of some 50 ASD pilots and one of about two female command pilots out of about 38.
Marin was named the LAPD's pilot of the year in 2015 and is one of about eight department pilots, and the only female, who make up the group of pilots certified to fly sniper missions for the SWAT Team.
In September 2019, Marin was assigned to the special flights section, which conducts surveillance and support for detectives and undercover operations. Sgt. Janet Kim became the officer in charge of special flights and Marin's immediate supervisor in January 2020 and two months later, Kim began arbitrarily singling out Marin and the other female officer in the unit by unfairly criticizing their performances, the suit filed last June 20 states.
Kim maintained that something went wrong every time Marin and the other female pilot worked together, according to the suit, which further states the second female pilot eventually left the unit.
Kim and ASD Capt. Sean Parker, who is now retired, removed Marin from the sniper unit for several weeks and threatened to order her to stop flying, falsely alleging the plaintiff' was distracted, the suit states. Kim and Parker considered Marin to be "overly emotional and incompetent to perform her duties as a pilot based on nothing more than obvious sex stereotypes," the suit alleges.
Plaintiff complained that she believed Kim was singling her out and trying to push her out of special flights even though Kim admitted she did not have any genuine safety or performance concerns about the plaintiff, according to Marin's court papers, which further state that the Kim and Parker personnel records are among those the plaintiff's attorney wants to peruse for any prior complaints or discipline.
Kim and Parker subsequently caused Marin to be passed over for an instructor pilot position even though the plaintiff had more seniority than the male candidates selected, the suit states.
The unit's chief pilot told Marin that Kim and Parker prevented the plaintiff from being selected and that he could not justify their decisions, according to the suit, which further states that Marin's chances to promote and obtain highly desired positions in the LAPD elsewhere have been negatively impacted ever since.
Marin became temporarily disabled in March 2021 after suffering a neck injury common among pilots and Kim removed the plaintiff from special flights when she could not confirm a prompt return to work, the suits states. Marin underwent major neck surgery and remained on medical leave for more than 10 months.
A male special flights pilot who also was on leave for the same injury was not transferred out of the unit, the suit states.
The LAPD's Special Operations Division, which investigates officer misconduct allegations, sustained "frivolous charges" against Marin and recommended she be fired allegedly engaging in fraud, according to the suit, which further states Marin was once again not selected for an instructor pilot position in June 2022.
The chief pilot subsequently told Marin, "If Parker leaves, I'll make you an instructor pilot," the suit states.