A jury last month ordered Riverside County to pay $2.25 million to a former Riverside County Sheriff’s Office (RSO) sergeant who said he was forced out of the department in retaliation for reporting workplace harassment.
“We hope that there’s change within the organization,” Bijan Darvish, attorney for former Sgt. Frank Lodes, said in an interview with The Riverside Record following the verdict. “Hopefully they recognize there were mistakes made, and instead of holding grudges, they make some changes. That would be the ultimate outcome.”
The retaliation began after Lodes, a 25-year veteran of the department, filed a formal complaint with human resources in March 2022 about ongoing harassment that he said started around October 2021 when a captain called him “mentally ill” in front of his peers during a promotability meeting, according to the lawsuit.
A few months after that meeting, the lawsuit stated Lodes found degrading flyers with photos of his face superimposed onto a child’s body stuffed inside his uniform pockets and gun holster and plastered all over the station walls.
“Frank would take them out, throw them away, and they’d come back,” Darvish said. “This went on for about a month, and he’s hoping it will go away, and then finally he had enough.”
After filing the formal complaint, Darvish said the department launched an investigation into Lodes, alleging that he had illegally used informants and threatening him with possible criminal prosecution related to a prior traffic stop.
“That was back in February, and once they received that information, Frank remained at work,” Darvish said. “Frank remained a supervisor. Frank remained sitting as a watch commander, as a station boss.
“He would go out in the field, still as a sergeant, and supervise deputies,” Darvish continued. “He continued to do all of that until the time he filed his harassment complaint.”
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A few days after the internal investigation was launched, Darvish said a sergeant with the department packed up Lodes’ stuff from his locker, brought it to his home and pressured Lodes to accept early retirement. The pair then went to a Mexican restaurant down the street, Darvish said, where the conversation culminated in Lodes handwriting a letter stating his intent to retire early on the hood of a car in the parking lot.
The following day, Lodes was ordered to meet a high-ranking department official in the parking lot of a Del Taco. That official, Darvish said, spent another three hours pressuring Lodes to resign immediately and withdraw his harassment complaint. Lodes complied with the demand, handwriting his resignation, and Darvish said the department never investigated the harassment complaint and the internal investigation against Lodes was not pursued further.
“Their position was that Frank said, ‘I don’t want anything to do with the department anymore, I want to quit,’” Darvish said. “He obviously disputed that, because why would he risk everything to complain, and then all of a sudden, five days later, withdraw the complaints? It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Though the complaint centered on issues within RSO, neither the department nor Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is running for governor, were named in the suit, and Darvish said there was no evidence presented at trial that Bianco had any direct knowledge of the incidents.
However, Darvish said, what happened to his client was indicative of the culture within the department.
“I think they have a culture of a good old boys network, because every single person that was involved in this has been promoted, and there’s never been any accountability,” Darvish said. “The sergeant who met him at a Mexican restaurant for three to four hours, watched him consume alcohol and still had him sign the form was promoted to lieutenant afterwards.”
Bianco did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Record.
The jury awarded Lodes $1.25 million for past emotional distress and $1 million for future emotional distress.
“The county is currently considering all options, including the potential for appellate review,” the county said in a statement to The Record. “Any decision will be made before the court’s deadline to file.”
The county has 60 days after the judgement is entered to file a notice of appeal. If the verdict holds, the $2.25 million will be paid out of the county’s risk management reserve fund, which includes a mix of general funds and other departmental revenue.
The trial was overseen by Judge Dorothy McLaughlin, who Darvish said made a habit of hearing out both sides during the trial before making a ruling on objections and other legal proceedings.
“She ruled against us on some issues, and she ruled for us on some issues, just like she did with the [county],” he said.
McLaughlin was originally assigned to oversee Attorney General Rob Bonta’s legal challenge against Bianco’s now-paused election fraud investigation, but was removed following a motion by Bianco to disqualify her from the case due to a perceived bias.
Bianco previously told The Record he felt she had an “absolute documented history of political activism,” but Darvish said her conduct in court was beyond reproach.
“To me it appeared that she took the time to consider everything and then make her ruling, even if the rulings were against us,” he said. “And I think that’s all you can ask for in judges is are they fair, and, at the end, I can say I think she was fair.”
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