Photo courtesy of the Glendale Police Department
A female Glendale Police lieutenant is suing the city, alleging she was denied a promotion to captain because of her gender and Armenian ancestry, even though she was the best qualified candidate.
Lt. Ludmilla Abrahamian’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, filed Monday, alleges racial discrimination, gender discrimination and whistleblower retaliation. She is seeking unspecified damages.
“We have not been served nor reviewed the lawsuit so we are unable to comment at this time,” Glendale City Attorney Michael Garcia said Tuesday.
According to the complaint, the GPD held interviews for the captain position last December and Abrahamian competed along with six other candidates. The interviewers were chosen by Chief Robert Castro, according to the complaint.
“The chief of police made clear to the interviewers that he did not want a female or minority to be ranked in the top three positions,” the lawsuit alleges.
After the interviews were completed, the top three candidates were ranked “in the exact order as requested by an email sent from Chief Castro’s email account,” according to the suit.
On Dec. 22, Abrahamian served the city with a notice to preserve evidence and also stated she would file a lawsuit disputing the fairness of the interview process for captain, according to her lawsuit.
After the city received the notice, Abrahamian was told there would be a second round of interviews, according to her lawsuit, which alleges those interviews “occurred after it became public that Chief Castro had unlawfully instructed the original interviewers to select the candidates in a specific order.”
However, the new interviewers also were chosen by Castro and one of them was “an admitted racist and mysogynist,” the suit alleges. Another interviewer was linked to the chief, according to the complaint.
“After the second selection process, plaintiff was once again scored low and denied the position of police captain even though she was the most qualified candidate,” the suit alleges.
Abrahamian says she is a whistleblower because she reported alleged state Labor Code violations regarding the first round of interviews, then received backlash from the city by again being denied a promotion.
In March, a government watchdog group, the Glendale Coalition for Better Government, maintained that the promotion process for captain was decided beforehand and that changes are needed to do away with internal biases, the Los Angeles Times reported.
—City News Service
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