LOS ANGELES, CA — A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy and his wife have settled a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles concerning an off-duty traffic stop.
Deputy Tavin Padilla alleged in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that he and his wife, Edith Padilla, were driving in separate private cars in the San Fernando Valley while he was off-duty in Sun Valley in 2020 when he was pulled over in his vehicle by Los Angeles Police Department officers.
Padilla contends that despite identifying himself as a deputy, the officers and their backup help pointed guns at him and told him to lie on the ground. He says he was released when the officers found his badge.
On Oct. 12, the couple's attorneys filed court papers with Judge Teresa Beaudet notifying her of a "conditional" settlement in the case with the expectation a request for dismissal will be filed by April 12, 2027.
No terms were divulged and final approval is up to the city's claims board.
The city and the two individual officers who also were sued denied the plaintiffs' allegations and said Tavin Padilla's detention, including the holding of him at gunpoint, was "lawful and reasonable under the totality of the circumstances."
The Padillas' suit was filed in March 2021 and alleged multiple causes of action ranging from unlawful seizure and excessive force to false imprisonment and battery. Edith Padilla alleged loss of consortium.
"This is a case where the inter-agency rivalry between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles (County) Sheriff's Department led LAPD officers to exert unnecessary dominance over a harmless LASD deputy," the Padillas' lawyers stated in their court papers.
What started on April 24, 2020, as an unjustified traffic stop "needlessly transformed into the firearms of about eight police officers pointing (guns) at Sheriff Deputy Plaintiff Tavin Padilla and significant backup was called, including aerial support and numerous officers bearing deadly weapons, with his guiltless wife, Mrs. Padilla, closely witnessing the profoundly humiliating and terrifying encounter" while sitting in her car directly ahead of that of her husband, the plaintiffs' attorneys further stated in their court papers.
Tavin Padilla and his wife had been headed to an auto repair shop in order to drop off Edith Padilla's car. Upon being stopped, Tavin Padilla immediately identified himself as an off-duty deputy, offered to show his badge and right away told the officers that he had a gun securely stored in his car, the Padilla attorneys further stated. The plaintiffs' lawyers pleadings said the gun was mounted near Tavin Padilla's right knee.
The officers called for backup and when reinforcements arrived, they ordered Tavin Padilla out of his car and to lie on the ground "like a plane in the middle of the street" before he was then handcuffed, the Padilla attorneys further wrote in their court papers.
After one of the officers pulled Padilla's LASD badge out of a pocket a sergeant on the scene said Tavin Padilla's handcuffs could be removed, the couple's attorneys further stated. One of the original two officers acknowledged that Tavin Padilla fully complied with their orders, the Padilla attorneys further stated in their court papers.
City News Service
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