LOS ANGELES – A former Montebello police chief has filed a whistleblower retaliation suit against the city, alleging the city manager fired him earlier this year for refusing to pressure the police union to accept a contract offered by the administration in the southeast Los Angeles County community.
Former Chief Paul Espinosa’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for his alleged physical, mental and emotional injuries as well as damage to emotional distress. City Manager Raul Alvarez is named in the pleadings, but not as a defendant. Alvarez did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Thursday.
“As a … result of the city’s retaliation against plaintiff, his reputation and career prospects have been and will continue to be substantially and adversely impacted,” according to the suit.
Espinosa served 28 years in the Los Angeles Police Department and was serving as a captain when he was hired as the Montebello chief in April 2022.
In June 2024, while contract talks were ongoing between the city and the police officers’ union, Alvarez pressured Espinosa to push the union to accept the city’s proposed contract, stating, “It’s a good contract, you need to make them realize that” and “This is a contract they should accept, and it starts at the top, it starts with your leadership and the tone you’re setting,” according to the suit.
Espinosa believed Alvarez wanted him to misuse his authority as the chief to coerce union leadership into accepting the contract and he refused, telling the city manager that he had already encouraged both the union and the administration to engage in fair talks and that he could not get any further involved in the negotiations, the suit states.
Alvarez subsequently retaliated against Espinosa by denying him needed manpower and resources and creating false information about the chief’s work performance, the suit states, while also alleging that Espinosa was stripped of various authorities, including hiring, firing and promoting.
Espinosa also told Alvarez that the city had an obligation to report the negative finding of an investigation involving an MPD supervisor to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, but Alvarez stalled on doing anything and told Espinosa not to make the report himself, according to the suit, which further states the supervisor is now retired.
Alvarez twice emailed Espinosa in December asking the plaintiff to confirm he had not reported the supervisor to the commission, but Espinosa did not reply because he believed that doing so would mean taking part in a violation of the law, the suit states.
Alvarez fired Espinosa on Feb. 6, and the plaintiff believes the action was in retaliation for his stands against the city manager, according to the suit, which further alleges that the plaintiff has suffered lost income and benefits and that he also has suffered emotional distress.
