Two Valley Retired LAPD Officers Awarded $1 Million in Retaliation Lawsuit

Two retired Los Angeles police officers -- including one who survived a hail of gunfire in the 1997 North Hollywood bank robbery shootout -- were collectively awarded more than $1 million by jurors who found the former lawmen were retaliated against for reporting alleged misconduct within their unit.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned the verdict Wednesday in favor of former Lt. Loren Farell and ex-Detective Juan Baello, who were awarded $308,000 and $723,500, respectively.

Farell and Baello were supervisors in the LAPD’s Valley Financial Section, which investigated financial crimes, identity theft and similar wrongdoing. Farell supervised the entire unit and Baello was a lead detective.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Gregory W. Smith said Farell looked into the files of detectives within the unit and determined they were not complying with “due diligence” rules required under the 6th Amendment governing the timely service of arrest warrants. The rules had to be followed to assure that suspects were prosecuted within a timely manner.

“These subordinates were generally lazy individuals who cheated on their time records and spent more time chatting and doing nothing in their official duties,” Smith alleged in court papers.

Farell and Baello reported the alleged misconduct to their commanders. But instead of being praised for their work, they were transferred to inferior positions far from their homes in what is sarcastically known as “freeway therapy,” according to Smith.

Both were forced into early retirement, Smith said. He said a motive for the transfers may have been that their commanders were embarrassed by the plaintiffs’ revelations about their unit.

Attorneys for the city maintained the plaintiffs could not show a connection between their disclosures and any negative employment actions against them. The city lawyers also argued that Baello and Farell were transferred for legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons.

Farell was a nine-year veteran when he and his then-partner, Officer Martin Perello, made the initial observation of the Feb. 28, 1997, holdup at the North Hollywood branch of the Bank of America. Farell was writing in his administrative log while his partner drove and scanned the area closely as they cruised by the Bank of America.

Farell picked up his radio and called for assistance after Perello saw two men dressed like Ninja turtles pushing a hostage into the bank. After fully automatic weapons fire started coming from the bank, it pinned Farell and his partner down in their positions.

“It’s training, pure and simple,” Farell was later quoted as saying. “We adapted very quickly to what we needed to do. Every single officer acted the way he needed to without being told. A media guy asked me if I had the chance, would I have gone the other way. I gave him a one word answer: ‘Never.”’

PHOTO Patch file photo.