A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has refused to shut down a fired sheriff's sergeant's bid to get his badge and back pay restored, keeping alive a legal fight rooted in a 2017 Boyle Heights crash that killed two young boys. Judge Tiana J. Murillo denied Los Angeles County's motion to dismiss former Sgt. Vincent Moran's petition, meaning his case can proceed for now even as a separate administrative appeal grinds on.
County's Dismissal Bid Rejected
According to MyNewsLA, the county had argued that Moran could not seek court relief over his Jan. 22, 2024, termination while the administrative appeal process he initiated before the Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission remained pending. Murillo disagreed, finding that ripeness is a barrier only where a petitioner seeks review of an administrative decision that has not yet become final. The commission, she noted, has not yet heard any evidence in Moran's case.
Moran, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department sergeant, filed his petition on Jan. 8, alleging that his termination violated the Peace Officers' Procedural Bill of Rights Act, the station's report states. His petition seeks both reinstatement and back pay, though the outcome of that underlying claim remains undecided.
The Fatal 2017 Collision
The case traces back to a Boyle Heights sidewalk on Nov. 16, 2017, when an LASD vehicle driven by then-Deputy Carrie Robles-Plascencia struck Maria Munoz and her two sons, killing two children. Moran was training Robles-Plascencia at the time the vehicle she was driving struck the family, per the same account. No criminal charges were ever filed against either Robles-Plascencia or Moran in connection with the collision.
Earlier reporting from the Los Angeles Times described Moran as the training officer supervising Robles-Plascencia from the passenger seat when the crash occurred. Investigators found that Robles-Plascencia had crossed a busy intersection against a red light without activating the patrol car's siren. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office ultimately decided not to prosecute the driver, and a separate Times report from November 2018 said prosecutors did not have enough evidence at that time to charge Robles-Plascencia with vehicular manslaughter.
A Department Already Facing Fallout
The Sheriff's Department had moved to fire both deputies involved in the wreck, the Times reported in December 2023, years after the crash claimed the boys' lives and injured others. A lawsuit brought by the boys' mother settled for $17.5 million in 2019, according to the same Times account. Robles-Plascencia was terminated in January 2024, around the same time as Moran.
Moran had been with the department since he was hired in May 2006. He was promoted to sergeant in 2022 and assigned to the Norwalk station, a post he held for two years before his termination. His petition now moves forward in Superior Court even as his parallel appeal awaits a hearing before the Civil Service Commission, with no timeline yet for when that body will take up evidence in his case.
