Jury awards $2.25 million to Riverside County sergeant forced to resign after reporting harassment
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Riverside County has been ordered to pay $2.25 million to a former sergeant who said he was pressured into early retirement in retaliation for reporting workplace harassment by a superior.Sgt.Frank Lodes was forced to leave the job he loved in 2022 — penning a resignation letter in a Del Taco parking lot — while a high-ranking department official threatened him with mounting investigations, according to the complaint.
On Tuesday a civil jury concluded that Lodes resigned involuntarily due to his reporting of a hostile workplace and was awarded the multimillion-dollar payment as compensation for his emotional damages.Lodes’ attorney Bijan Darvish said the award was a “significant number” that adequately represents the harm inflicted on Lodes, noting that the period since his forced retirement has been the “darkest four years” of Lodes’ life.He said that his client did not wish to comment on the verdict as discussing the events remained painful.
The Sheriff’s Department and the county did not immediately respond to a request for comment.“Being a cop was his life; he lived and breathed it 24/7,” Darvish said.“It was his entire identity, and that’s why it was so difficult for him when it was taken away.”The jury award comes amid a rare wide-open governor’s race that includes the head of the Sheriff’s Department, Chad Bianco, who is a leading GOP candidate for the seat.
Bianco has staked his campaign on his lengthy career in law enforcement, which spans more than three decades, including serving as the elected sheriff of Riverside County since 2019.Although high-ranking Sheriff’s Department officials were involved in Lodes’ case, Darvish said there was no evidence presented at trial that Bianco had direct knowledge of his client’s mistreatment.
Bianco was not a defendant in the lawsuit.His campaign did not respond to a request for comment.Darv...