Lawsuit claims LAPD commander tried to ‘discredit’ police union. Is it part of a broader rift?
The union that represents Los Angeles police officers has fired another salvo against a member of the department’s top brass, filing a lawsuit this week that accuses a prominent commander of inappropriately accessing the union’s internal communications.
In the suit, filed Thursday by the Los Angeles Police Protective League in L.A. County Superior Court, the union accuses Cmdr. Lillian Carranza of unlawful computer data access and fraud, saying she used fake login credentials to access emails, surveys and other communications that the league distributed to its members.
A commander at the LAPD’s Central Bureau, Carranza is represented by a different union, the Los Angeles Police Command Officers Assn. The Police Protective League represents sworn personnel below the rank of captain, which includes most officers, detectives, sergeants and lieutenants.
Carranza declined to comment on the suit, telling The Times on Thursday that she was still exploring her legal options. The city attorney’s office, which typically represents city employees who are sued in their official capacity, did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
On at least one occasion, the Police Protective League’s lawsuit alleges, Carranza falsely identified herself as a lieutenant in order to access and complete a survey that was intended to collect feedback from members about labor contracts with the city.
League officials said a digital forensics firm was hired to investigate the matter, and reportedly found that between 2016 and 2024, Carranza had opened approximately 49 of the 141 “confidential emails†the union had sent to its members. The officials allege that the senior officer read the emails in an attempt to undermine the union’s credibility with the rank and file.
“We believe that Commander Carranza’s fraud was motivated by an effort to discredit our Captain Assessment survey’s results by claiming that security precautions were not in place that would have prevented [nonmembers] from taking the survey,†the Police Protective League‘s president, Craig Lally, said in a statement.
The Los Angeles Police Department says it does not discuss pending litigation.
Carranza’s high-profile legal fights with other LAPD brass and her descriptions of sexual abuse and discrimination within its ranks have made her one of the agency’s best-known — and most polarizing — figures.
She has sued the department several times on allegations of sexual harassment. The most recent suit resulted in a jury awarding her $4 million in damages — a payout the city is appealing — over how former leadership handled a situation in which officers circulated a photo of a nude woman that some falsely claimed was Carranza.
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Tensions between the officers’ union and senior officials have occasionally spilled into public view over the years, most recently amid a debate about reforming the LAPD’s discipline process.
Union officials have long argued that the so-called board of rights process favors leadership. The sentiment is echoed in dozens of government claims and lawsuits by officers each year alleging that senior officials and those with connections are given more leeway when accused of misconduct or wrongdoing.
After Mayor Karen Bass recently vetoed a proposed ballot measure that would have allowed the police chief to fire problem officers, the union’s board of directors said in a statement that the “discipline system under the leadership of Deputy Chief Michael Rimkunas is broken and needs to be fixed.â€
In her veto letter to the City Council, Bass said the proposal risked creating ‘bureaucratic confusion’ within the LAPD’s disciplinary system.
Rimkunas has appeared at City Council meetings several times in recent months, arguing for giving the chief of police the authority to fire problem officers outright instead of going through the board of rights process, which can take months to resolve.
The process, Rimkunas said, has resulted in many officers with credibility issues remaining on the force despite being unable to do police work.
At the same time, Rimkunas has also defended the integrity of the department’s internal investigations, calling them “impartial, fair, and equitable.†He has spoken out firmly against the union’s push for adopting binding arbitration in disciplinary matters, arguing the method has been shown in other cities to favor accused employees.
The union has made Rimkunas the face of its fight against what it sees as inequality in the way discipline is meted out by the LAPD — featuring him on the July cover of its monthly magazine under the blaring headline: “INTERNAL AFFAIRS ... IS BROKEN.â€
In his monthly column, Lally, the union’s president, wrote about the case of an unnamed former Hollenbeck Division captain, suggesting the leader had mishandled the case of an officer who was accused of using unnecessary force during an arrest.
Carranza was upset about the column, according to two sources familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because they feared retaliation for discussing personnel issues without authorization. The sources said Carranza met with interim Chief Dominic Choi to discuss what she considered Lally’s inaccurate portrayal of the captain’s actions. The sources said the department subsequently initiated a personnel investigation against Lally.
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Lally addressed the complaint in a follow-up column in the August edition of the Thin Blue Line, the union’s magazine, writing: “Apparently this captain must have skipped the training on retaliation at captain’s school. Misconduct was brought to my attention, I acted in accordance with my duty to report misconduct. Period.â€
When reached for comment on Thursday, Rimkunas referred a reporter to a previous statement in which he said he was “incredibly disappointed by the misrepresentation of the Internal Affairs process†by the police union.
Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson called the union’s decision to file a civil suit that cites a criminal code a “novel†strategy that will face a high legal bar to succeed, especially because Carranza did not use a false name to access the union communications.
Levenson called the suit a case of the union “flexing whatever legal muscles they have.â€
“I think a lot of it is just designed as a public attack on [Carranza],†she said, while acknowledging that the union may not be showing all of its cards. “I do think it’s a bit of a reach. It certainly seems like an extreme reaction to what occurred here.â€
Carranza sued the LAPD in 2017, alleging she was passed over for promotion when she brought forward evidence of some police divisions underreporting crime statistics, allegations that then-Chief Charlie Beck denounced as “damn lies.â€
She was also referenced, although not named as a defendant, in a lawsuit by a female LAPD detective who alleged she’d been harassed and treated disparagingly while working under Carranza’s supervision in the Gang and Narcotics Division.
Carranza, who was promoted to captain in 2012 and made commander in 2023, has applied for the LAPD chief’s job, which was vacated when Michel Moore retired in February. Sources previously told The Times that Carranza, a perennial applicant, was among a number of candidates who were invited for a second round of interviews.
Times staff writer Richard Winton and City News Service contributed to this report.
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