Los Angeles County attorneys have asked a judge to sanction Dr. Melani Cargle, telling the court she has not answered written discovery questions in her long-running employment lawsuit against the county and UCLA Health. The attorneys say they have neither seen nor heard from Cargle in more than a year, and that she has effectively vanished from the case after relocating to Virginia.
According to MyNewsLA.com, county lawyers filed papers asking Judge Randolph M. Hammock to impose sanctions against Cargle, arguing her answers are essential to preparing a motion to dismiss the case. In court papers, the attorneys said Cargle left California for Virginia and “vanished from this case,” and that they had repeatedly served her by mail at her Virginia address while also sending courtesy electronic copies of pleadings.
The county’s filing comes after Judge Hammock ordered Cargle on September 15 to answer the county’s written questions within 30 days, per the county’s lawyers. Cargle filed no written opposition to the county’s discovery pleadings that day, the outlet reports, and her attorneys had already withdrawn from the case back in February. The proposed sanctions could limit the evidence Cargle is allowed to present to a jury if the case ever reaches trial.
A Lawsuit That Has Dragged Through Years of Litigation
Cargle’s lawsuit alleges retaliation, failure to engage in the interactive process, and defamation, naming UCLA Health as a defendant alongside the county. The case has already been through several rounds of legal wrangling. The court dismissed a defamation claim within the suit back in December 2023 on anti-SLAPP grounds, according to earlier reporting from the same outlet.
More recently, a May 2025 tentative ruling from Judge Hammock addressed a dispute over a subpoena seeking records from one of Cargle’s subsequent employers, as detailed by rulings.law. The ruling denied Cargle’s motion to quash that subpoena, finding that the requested employment-record categories were relevant and not overbroad, and ordering the third party to turn over the documents.
Allegations of Discrimination and Harassment
Cargle has maintained throughout the litigation that she was a victim of racial and disability discrimination. Her case traces back to her medical training at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine between 2015 and 2020, during which she was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder by a UCLA psychiatrist in 2015.
The allegations, as described in Cargle’s own lawsuit and summarized in the same report, include a claim that a supervisor at a UCLA Health facility carried a gun while on duty. During an orthopedic surgery rotation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance in July 2019, Cargle alleges her supervisor carried a firearm, sometimes concealed and other times in a fanny pack, and that when she asked what was in the fanny pack in the operating room, he responded by laughing. She further alleges the same supervisor made sexist, sexual, and homophobic comments to her and others, and that she was aware he used a racial slur to refer to some patients, residents, and students. Cargle says she complained to hospital management about her supervisor, but alleges management did not resolve the issues despite assurances that it would.
Earlier coverage of the same lawsuit, reported by audacy.com, described the suit as alleging race and disability discrimination, retaliation, failure to engage in the interactive process, and defamation.
Allegations Continued at USC/Keck
Cargle’s lawsuit also describes experiences after she entered USC/Keck’s orthopedic surgery residency program in 2020. She alleges a hand surgery chief resident at USC/Keck called her “stupid,” “useless” and an “idiot.” She further alleges that USC/Keck supervisors refused her request to use a charting system suited to her disability and instead demanded she chart in their preferred way. Around that time, Cargle used social media outlets including Twitter to discuss her negative experiences, and she began an orthopedic trauma rotation at Los Angeles General Hospital in December 2020.
The lawsuit states that in May 2022, Cargle received a letter from the county’s Department of Human Resources stating the mediation period for her claims against her UCLA supervisor had closed. About a week later, she received a notice of intent to terminate from her residency program, according to the same account.
What Comes Next
Under California Code of Civil Procedure section 2023.030, courts may impose discovery sanctions, but only when authorized under the rules governing the specific discovery method at issue, and only after notice and an opportunity for a hearing, according to California Legislative Information. Sanctions are not automatic simply because a party has gone silent.
It remains unclear whether Judge Hammock will grant the county’s request, and the record reviewed does not establish whether Cargle has resurfaced to respond to the sanctions motion. For now, the case sits in a holding pattern, with county attorneys pressing to move toward a motion to dismiss while Cargle’s side of the litigation has gone quiet.
