Attorneys for a female Los Angeles police detective who was in a relationship with a colleague and later sued the city, alleging her career has been negatively impacted by department's attitude toward women who complain of sexual harassment, want access to the detective's personnel records concerning any of his past similar behavior.
Detective Kristin Cho's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges gender harassment and failure to prevent sexual harassment. Cho later broke up with her former beau, Det. Darren Lee Stauffer. On Friday, Cho's lawyers filed court papers with Judge Upinder S. Kalra seeking a bevy of internal records concerning Stauffer. The documents sought include information on all prior complaints of sexual harassment, inappropriate conduct, retaliation and/or hostile work environment against him as well as information from his Board of Rights hearing on the issue. A hearing is scheduled May 15.
Cho's lawyers say they need the information in order to support their upcoming request to update their the complaint and add new instances of alleged sexual harassment. The attorneys contend that female LAPD officers who report sexual harassment are unfairly stigmatized because the LAPD is still a "highly male-dominated paramilitary organization."
Cho was hired by the LAPD in 2008 and became a detective in 2019 assigned to the Newton Division. She was in an intimate relationship from July 2019 until October 2020 with Stauffer, according to the suit.
Shortly after the relationship ended, Cho began working at the 77th Street Community Police Station, where Stauffer also was assigned, according to the suit. Her former flame began sending her "unwanted and harassing" text messages with references to intimacy and he additionally glared at her in the detective squad room and ostracized her, the suit states.
Although Cho was new to the division, Stauffer had worked there for many years and was well-known, so her other colleagues began isolating her as well, according to the suit.
Cho repeatedly rejected Stauffer's alleged advances and requested that they conduct themselves in a professional manner, but he refused to do so, the plaintiff's lawyers maintain in their pleadings.
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Cho believes Stauffer had previously been the subject of one or more sexual harassment complaints dating back to 2011 or earlier, so the LAPD knew or should have known that he could subject the plaintiff and other women to harassing conduct, the suit states. Despite this alleged knowledge, the department failed to take appropriate action against the other detective that could have prevented his harassment of Cho, the suit states.
After having worked there for less than five months, Cho was forced to request a temporary transfer out of the 77th Street station to the Southwest Community Police Station from March 2021 to February 2022 to escape the increasingly hostile environment, the suit states.
The temporary transfer will hurt Cho's ability to promote or obtain preferred highly sought positions in the LAPD because her short-term stay at the 77th Street station will be viewed with suspicion by supervisors deciding on which candidates are promoted, according to the suit.
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