Captain Sues City on LAPD actions taken in Track Club’s gun sales investigation

LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A Los Angeles police captain and his wife are suing the city, alleging that another LAPD captain and others conducted a search of his home in 2021 – knowing he would be absent and that only his wife and minor son are believed to be present – as part of a city investigation into gun sales and the conduct of Los Angeles Police Athletic Club employees and directors.

The Los Angeles Superior Court complaint filed by agent Jonathan Tom and his wife, Yoomi Tom, also names the Athletic Club – where Tom bought a gun in 2019 – and LAPD captain Lillian Carranza as accused. , who is herself suing the city for sexual harassment, alleging that a photo of a naked woman was circulated around the force that some LAPD members falsely claimed to be her.

Allegations of the Toms lawsuit include discrimination, retaliation, neglect, false light, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil rights violations. The Toms are seeking compensatory and punitive damages not specified in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

A representative of the city attorney’s office could not be reached immediately.

In his role as the staff officer of the Los Angeles Police Department, Tom manages and oversees the law enforcement duties and responsibilities of approximately 250 law enforcement officers and civilian support personnel, says the pursuit. A third-generation Chinese-American, Tom is one of the department’s longest-serving Asian-American sworn employees, according to his costume.

In November 2019, Tom purchased a handgun from the Athletic Club, completed the required government forms, paid for the weapon and took possession after the required 10-day waiting period, the lawsuit says. The Athletic Club, located in Elysian Park, primarily serves law enforcement officers.

However, an Athletic Club deputy director embezzled the money Tom paid for the handgun, the lawsuit says. In response, Carranza, head of the LAPD’s Commercial Crime Division, interviewed a number of LAPD police officers to determine whether they had purchased handguns that were not registered in the LAPD sales system. Athletic Club and were missing and diverted by the assistant manager, the costume says.

Tom, who has undergone several interviews, voluntarily handed over the gun he had purchased from the Athletic Club and cooperated with investigators, the prosecution says.

However, Carranza, his CCD investigators and uniformed Long Beach police officers searched Tom’s residence on February 18, according to the prosecution.

The prosecution does not dispute the validity of the warrant, but allege that those involved “strategically waited until (Tom) was known to be at work, where he was informed by his deputy chief that a warrant authorizing searches at his home, office, work vehicle, personal vehicles and cell phone would be carried out, ” according to the lawsuit, which further states that Tom’s wife and 11-year-old son were at home at the time .

All actions were “openly public and intentionally planned in order to directly subject (the Toms) to maximum humiliation, judgment and isolation from their neighbors, civilian personnel and junior officers, peers, superiors and the general public ”, the costume alleges.

Authorities seized 63 guns, many of which were heirlooms, antique rifles and shotguns that Tom had received from his father, but none were related to the investigation, the prosecution says. No evidence has been found linking Tom to a crime with the Athletic Club or the deputy manager, the prosecution says.

Five days after the search of his home, a newspaper article on the Athletic Club scandal “ strongly implied that there was an association or conspiracy between the (assistant manager) and Tom, who never even been charged with no crime related to theft. of firearms or embezzlement ” of the club, says the lawsuit.

The information in the newspaper article “could only have been provided by someone who mistakenly believed he had the authority to disclose the facts of a confidential CCD investigation and had intimate knowledge of all of them. details of the investigation by CCD, namely Carranza or others closely associated with the investigation, ” the prosecution alleges.