A Los Angeles Police Department captain who was removed as commander of the Foothill Division for allegedly failing to act against officers accused of using excessive force during a videotaped arrest has been demoted and assigned to the LAPD's Northeast Division.
Capt. Joseph Hiltner filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing on Tuesday, NBC4 reported on its website.
"I have been demoted two substantial levels and transferred against my will without cause,'' according to Hiltner's complaint, a copy of which was obtained by the station. "I have and will continue to lose substantial financial damages and extensive damage to my standing and reputation in my workplace.''
Hiltner was removed from his command last week, with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck saying Hiltner was "severely deficient in his response'' to an arrest captured on surveillance video that appeared to show a handcuffed woman being thrown to the ground.
Hiltner is now working as the patrol commanding officer at the Northeast Division, which is below a division commander, according to the LA Daily News.
Michelle Jordan, a 34-year-old registered nurse from Sunland, was stopped in a Del Taco parking lot near Foothill Boulevard and Saluda Avenue in Tujunga around 11:15 a.m. Aug. 21 for allegedly using a cell phone while driving.
Police said Jordan got out of her car and was taken to the ground and handcuffed. After she was handcuffed, she was taken to the ground a second time. The video shows one of the officers landing on top of her during the second takedown.
Jordan was arrested and booked on suspicion of interfering and resisting arrest, and then released on her own recognizance, police said.
The officers involved, one with 22 years of service and the other a probationary officer with 10 months on the job, were reassigned to non-field duties pending the outcome of the investigation, police said.
But Beck took more severe steps against Hiltner, removing him from command of the station and initiating the process of demoting him.
"Proper steps were not taken, including appropriate notifications and the removal of the involved officers from the field,'' Beck said.
Hiltner's attorney told Channel 4 the demotion was in response to his involvement in an earlier, unrelated harassment case against another LAPD
captain who was eventually exonerated.
His assignment to Northeast comes at a time when the Division is facing abuse claims of its own. Brian Mulligan, a media executive for Deutsche Bank, has filed an abuse claim against LAPD, alleging that Northeast Division officers brutally beat him without cause during an arrest in Eagle Rock in May.
The LAPD disputes Mulligan's story.
