Former Police Officer Files $500,000 Legal Claim Against Huizar After October Accident

A former Huntington Park police officer has filed a legal claim for $500,000 against the City of Los Angeles in connection with what he alleges was "serious multiple physical injuries" that he suffered in October, when his vehicle was rear-ended by a city-owned SUV driven by Los Angeles City Council member Josè Huizar in Boyle Heights, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Huizar was given a sobriety test, which registered a zero, after the traffic, according to the Los Angeles Police Department as and Huizar’s office. However, the Times quoted Humberto Guizar, the attorney for the litigant, David Ceja, as saying that “Huizar repeatedly asked that the matter be handled without alerting the Los Angeles Police Department.”

Huizar’s director of communications, Rick Coca, declined to discuss the legal claim as well as provide details about the  breathalyzer, the Times reports. "However, I can say that the council member called LAPD himself and they advised him, since there were no serious injuries, to exchange information with the other driver," he said.

Guizar, too, confirmed that Huizar called the LAPD on his own account after Guizar refused to settle the matter without police intervention because of his alleged injuries and the involvement of a city vehicle in the accident, according to the Times.

Click here to read the full Times story.