A longtime LAPD narcotics detective says he was ordered to stand down after raising alarms about the 2023 death of 18-year-old Amelia Salehpour in Van Nuys, and he is now suing the city over it. In a new complaint, Detective Alexander Tan alleges he and his partner saw signs that Amelia had been strangled, not overdosed, and that LAPD supervisors moved quickly to shut the case down, slashing resources, cutting overtime and shuffling officers out of position.
Detective alleges department retaliation
Tan's lawsuit, filed July 7 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claims department brass orchestrated what he calls a "coordinated cover-up" when he pressed questions about how Amelia's death was handled, according to the Los Angeles Times. The complaint alleges that Captain Chris Zine ordered detectives to cut off contact with the Salehpour family and that a lieutenant bluntly told Tan, "Essentially, if I help you, I'm actually helping the family sue the Department." Tan says he and his partner then saw their overtime for court appearances denied, their schedules changed in what he describes as a punitive way and, eventually, both were pulled from the narcotics unit.
Family's private probe and conflicting findings
Amelia's parents, Ali and Sue Salehpour, did not wait for the official story to change. They poured more than $1 million into private investigators, security work and a second autopsy that their attorneys say uncovered signs of strangulation and other forensic details that did not line up with an accidental overdose, as reported by The Spokesman-Review. The Los Angeles County medical examiner, however, ruled that Amelia died from a combination of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine. That stark split in conclusions has fueled the legal war now unfolding.
Legal fallout
On the criminal side, Deputy District Attorney Ranna Jahanshahi filed charges last year against seven people connected to the case, relying on evidence gathered by the family's investigators and the narcotics detectives. Those charges were later dismissed, according to the Los Angeles Times. Jahanshahi has since filed a government claim saying she was retaliated against inside the district attorney's office for pushing the investigation, and Detective Jose Verdin has filed his own retaliation suit that mirrors Tan's allegations. Both detectives are represented by labor attorney Matthew McNicholas, the complaint notes.
LAPD response and the missing footage
The LAPD has declined to comment on the pending litigation, and the city attorney's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to MyNewsLA. Tan's suit also accuses the department of refusing to turn over body-worn camera footage after charges were filed, a move the complaint says violated a court order and undercut the prosecution, as detailed in The Spokesman-Review.
What comes next
Tan's civil suit and the Salehpour family's pending claims against the city will now grind through Los Angeles Superior Court, where plaintiffs can seek damages and, more explosively, discovery that could pry internal records and footage into public view. However the judges rule, the fight has already put a spotlight on how overdose deaths are classified and what happens when grieving families, private investigators, prosecutors and police clash over which story gets to be the official one.
