Attorney criticizes chief’s hush order

LOS ANGELES — In publicly announcing a discrimination lawsuit Monday against the Burbank Police Department, the attorney representing one lieutenant and four police officers took Police Chief Tim Stehr to task for ordering his staff to stay silent on all internal matters.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges myriad sexual and racial discrimination incidents, and that complaints to the command staff were greeted with retaliation and lost promotions.

Stehr issued a directive as early as May 10 in an internal memo that ordered officers to “immediately cease and desist from engaging in any personal (non-official) communications with anyone in regard to pending internal administrative investigation, as well as any future internal investigation(s) that the department may commence.”

The attorney for the five officers said the order was yet another example of how the department was infringing on his clients’ rights.

“As a lawyer, I believe the order is unconstitutional. I believe that it is contrary to their freedom-of-speech rights, freedom-of-association rights, and I don’t believe that ultimately it is lawful,” Solomon E. Gresen said at the news conference. “However, we’re in a situation now where for these officers to violate that order will allow the insider’s club the opportunity to retaliate in a way that they don’t have as I sit here before they speak.”

Lt. Omar Rodriguez and Officers Cindy Guillen-Gomez, Steve Karagiosian, Elfego Rodriguez and Jamal Childs, according to the lawsuit, “were subjected to discrimination and discriminatory policies, practices and procedures based upon race, ancestry, national origin, sex/gender, marital status and pregnancy, among other things.”

“Unfortunately, because of the gag order and other orders that I’ve been given, we are not allowed to speak among each other about this, and we’re not allowed to speak to you about it,” said Omar Rodriguez, alleging that the lawsuit was just the “tip of the iceberg.”

“I can tell you just from myself, and the people that are standing behind me, along with a lot of others at the Burbank Police Department, all we want to do is just be police officers and do our job, be able to go to work without any problems, without any retaliation,” he said. “We just want to serve the public. That’s all we’ve ever wanted to do. That’s certainly all I’ve ever wanted to do.”