A Los Angeles jury has awarded $2.67 million to Christine Jones, a former psychologist with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, finding that county supervisors retaliated against her after she complained about gender discrimination and mistreatment on the job. In her lawsuit, Jones described a campaign of harassment that she said escalated in 2019 when someone left a dead rabbit in her driveway and a dead rat in her work parking spot. She had worked in the department’s Psychological Services Bureau since 2007 before being reassigned and going on medical leave in 2020.
The verdict came down in the courtroom of Judge Maurice Leiter, with jurors siding with Jones on her claim that she was punished for reporting discriminatory treatment rather than for poor performance, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. The $2.67 million award caps a years-long dispute that pulled back the curtain on how one of the nation’s largest sheriff’s departments handles complaints from its own mental health staff.
Jones’ suit says an industrial and organizational consultant and other male colleagues filed 19 complaints against her, most of which were closed with no finding, with eight still pending, according to The Antelope Valley Times. That reporting also details the November 2019 incidents in which a dead rabbit was left in Jones’ driveway, and a dead rat appeared in her assigned work parking space, episodes she cited as part of the hostile environment she said she endured.
Lawyers for the county told jurors that an LASD commander believed Jones was not doing an adequate job and argued that her transfer was based on performance, not retaliation, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. Jones’ complaint, filed in October 2022, says that her 2020 reassignment to the coroner’s office “destroyed and crippled” her ability to move up in the specialized field of police psychology, according to The Antelope Valley Times.
What the ruling could mean for taxpayers
Large jury awards and settlements have been putting increasing pressure on local budgets and forcing officials to take a harder look at how internal investigations and discipline are handled, as the Los Angeles Times reported last year. That reporting found the city and county have paid out tens of millions of dollars in recent years to resolve workplace and whistleblower lawsuits, a trend county leaders will now have to weigh as they decide whether to pursue post-trial relief in Jones’ case.
While the verdict marks a clear win for Jones, it may not be the final chapter. The award could trigger post-trial motions or an appeal, and it stands as a rare public rebuke of how a senior department psychologist’s complaints were handled. Employment attorneys say cases like this often lead to follow-up fights over legal fees and damages, and they serve as a warning that disputed workplace investigations can carry steep financial and reputational costs for public agencies.
