White LAFD Captain Claims Racial, Gender Discrimination In Lawsuit

LOS ANGELES, CA — A white Los Angeles Fire Department captain is suing the city, alleging he was the victim of racial and gender discrimination when he was transferred to another station after complaining that a Black arson investigator had left a loaded firearm in an unlocked vehicle in 2023.

Capt. Brandon Taulli's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also alleges retaliation and failure to prevent discrimination and retaliation. He seeks unspecified compensatory damages against the city and the arson investigator, plus punitive damages from the investigator. A representative for the City Attorney's Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Friday.

Taulli, 47, was assigned to fire station 17 on Santa Fe Avenue southeast of downtown when on July 11, 2023, he found an unlocked car with a loaded firearm inside during a routine premises check, the suit states.

Taulli learned that the arson investigator had left the weapon in the vehicle and that she was a member and executive officer of executive officer of the Stentorians, which the suit dubs an "activist organization whose stated agenda is the favoring in the treatment, recruiting, hiring and promoting of African-Americans within the LAFD."

The suit further states that Taulli believes the arson investigator also is a member or associated with Los Angeles Women in the Fire Service.

"The stated agenda of the Los Angeles Women in the Fire Service is to implement the LAFD's affirmative action program disparately discriminating in favor of females in the recruitment, hiring and promotion of females," according to the suit, which further alleges that the group has "extensive influence in regard to issues regarding the LAFD, including recruitment, promotional and disciplinary matters, and substantial access to and influence with the mayor, City Council and ... (LAFD Fire Chief) Kristin Crowley."

In his lawsuit, Taulli says he told the investigator that having an unlocked vehicle and unstored firearm in or near the station was "dangerous and against protocol" and that the captain summed up events in a report to a battalion commander.

However, since coming forward the arson investigator and the city have "harassed, discriminated against and retaliated" against Taulli by, among other things, making false and malicious statements accusing him of an illegal vehicle search, theft, blackmail, extortion, racism and sexism, according to the complaint.

The arson investigator's gender as a female was a "substantial motivating reason for defendant city engaging in favoritism in favor of (the investigator)," the suit states.

Late that same month, Taulli was transferred to Fire Station 76 in Hollywood, which the suit states was an "adverse employment action" that has resulted in lost income and caused him emotional distress.

City News Service