An OC Superior Court judge overturned a $2.9 million jury verdict in favor of former Santa Ana Police Administrative Manager Rita Ramirez after she alleged she was unlawfully retaliated against for refusing to pick sides between two feuding police factions.
Superior Court Judge Nathan Vu this month granted city officials’s motion for a judgement notwithstanding a verdict – vacating her awarded millions, after the court found there was insufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict.
In an April 10 minute order, Vu found that Ramirez being shunned by her boss for refusing to pick a side between two opposing camps in the police department was not a protected activity under state labor laws and did not legally constitute retaliation.
“Plaintiff’s reporting of such conduct does not constitute a protected activity because it is not a violation of law to show animus or take adverse employment actions against an employee on the basis of personal or social relationships unrelated to a protected class,” reads the ruling.
In a lawsuit filed in 2022, Ramirez alleged city officials failed to address, prevent and remedy the alleged misconduct she faced amid dueling police camps – one headed by retired Santa Ana Police Chief David Valentin and the other by former police union boss Gerry Serrano.
The lawsuit also painted a picture of a culture of discrimination against women in the department condoned by leadership and alleges Valentin was eager to retaliate against women who complained about him.
The alleged retaliation, discrimination and harassment eventually led Ramirez to resign in the summer of 2022.
It also led a jury to award Ramirez nearly $3 million last December until the judge vacated their verdict this month.
[Read: Santa Ana Failed to Prevent Retaliation Against Former Police Manager, Jury Finds]
Vu found while reporting discrimination is a protected activity under state law, the alleged retaliation Ramirez faced occurred a year or more prior to her raising alarms about gender discrimination.
“Plaintiff herself presented substantial evidence that any adverse employment actions against her were taken not in retaliation for protected activity, but for non-actionable reasons – namely, that she refused to join Chief Valentin’s camp, or clique,” reads the April 10 minute order.
“In the face of this significant evidence that there was no causal link between Plaintiff’s protected activity and any adverse employment actions taken against her, Plaintiff presented no evidence other than temporal proximity.”
Valentin is the current President of the Santa Ana College Foundation. Voice of OC reached out to the foundation for his email address as well as forwarding a request for comment on the ruling and allegations but Valentin didn’t respond.
In a Friday news release, city officials applauded the court’s decision and said separate similar lawsuits filed by Ramirez’s attorneys are still playing out.
“The court’s ruling reflects a careful review of the evidence at trial and confirms the City’s defense was well-founded in both fact and law. We are pleased with the outcome and remain fully prepared to defend the City’s interests in any further proceedings, including the additional matters still pending,” said City Attorney Sonia Carvalho in the news release.
John Barber, one of Ramirez’s lawyers, said they are seeking an appeal and expect an appellate court to reinstate the jury’s verdict.
“We believe the decision of the unanimous jury (who spent many weeks listening to the evidence) was correct and was supported by substantial evidence. We disagree with the court’s ruling to disregard the jury’s verdict as it appears contrary to the overwhelming facts presented at trial and the relevant law,” he wrote in a Monday email.
Ramirez’s lawsuit is one of a handful of complaints in recent years against a city hall that is becoming plagued by toxic workplace allegations while officials increasingly face police accountability questions from residents in a town where the police union spends heavily on local elections.
Mayor Valerie Amezcua, Councilmembers Phil Bacerra, Thai Viet Phan, Jessie Lopez and David Penaloza did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
City Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said even if the verdict was reversed, the allegations brought forth in Ramirez’s lawsuit need to be taken seriously.
“I do not support officers engaging in misconduct, harassing their peers, or having a cop gang that forces people to choose between serving the public or becoming a member of a camp of police officers,” he said in a Monday phone interview.
“I take all of the allegations extremely seriously, and they were alarming, and I’m going to continue to approach the department with the largest percentage of liability in the city – the police department – with the level of attention that it deserves.”
Councilman Ben Vazquez said he is happy the city won’t have to pay out the millions but the toxic workplace culture alleged in the lawsuit was created by city council members backed by the police union.
“It was the politicians that allowed the (Police Officer’s Association) to take over a city at one time. I blame those politicians that continue to feed into the POA and empower them to do this kind of work, so they could get their campaign funded,” Vazquez said in a Friday phone interview.
Current Santa Ana Police Officers Association president John Kachirisky said in a Monday email that as a union that represents 500 workers, they spend money to back candidates that support good wages and working conditions for their members.
“Unfortunately there are several current councilmembers who seek to roll back the benefits of working families of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association. We would argue they are the ones who contributed to this toxic work environment,” he wrote.
Kachirisky also said while they are not directly affected by Ramirez’s lawsuit, they will continue to monitor the appeals process.
“Rita Ramirez was not a SAPOA member since she was management, so it has no direct effect on us. There are several other lawsuits as a result from the mismanagement of the previous chief that we are watching closely,” reads his email.
“The SAPOA is not an active litigant in any of the lawsuits, they were filed individually by the officers, our role is purely observing the legal process as it proceeds.”
Vazquez said police officers shouldn’t be pulled between two camps.
“I want our officers to be sure that they can get promotions, not because they’re part of a group or a team, but because they’re doing good work. The morale of the department has been low,” Vazquez said.
“We need this department to heal.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.