LAPD captain claims city suppressed misleading description of protest tactic

It was April 2021 and the LAPD was facing heavy criticism for its handling of mass protests against police brutality. The Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles complaint accuses officers of firing less-than-lethal weapons at protesters who posed no threat, among other violations.

Smith said the Los Angeles city attorney wanted his signature on a written affidavit explaining how LAPD officers had no choice but to use force against an unruly crowd during a 2020 rally in Tujunga with bottles and smoke bombs.

He declined to reveal his name.

Instead, eight months later, Smith filed his own lawsuit against the city, claiming he suffered retaliation for trying to whistleblow about a series of misconduct within the LAPD.

Captain Johnny Smith of the Los Angeles Police Department.

(LAPD)

Smith and his attorneys declined to be interviewed by The Times, but evidence at his trial offered a revealing look at the behind-the-scenes coordination — and conflict — between LAPD officials and the city attorney’s office in defending police use of force at protests.

Smith’s lawsuit says he felt pressured to make a misleading statement to cover up reckless behavior by officers.

The captain’s claim, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in December 2021, has taken on new significance with the city facing a new lawsuit over the LAPD’s crowd control tactics amid recent protests against the Trump administration.

The 2020 protests led to a court order limiting how LAPD officers could use certain less-lethal weapons, including launchers that fire hard foam projectiles typically used to incapacitate uncooperative suspects.

The city is still fighting to remove those restrictions, along with others put in place in June as a result of a separate lawsuit by press rights organizations.

Last month, City Atty. Heidi Feldstein Soto was reprimanded by the City Council after seeking a temporary stay of an order issued by U.S. District Judge Hernan De Vera.

Soto argued that the rules — which prohibit officers from targeting journalists and nonviolent protesters — are too broad and impractical. Vera denied Soto’s request, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering the matter, with a hearing scheduled for mid-November.

A counter-protester has been arrested after approaching Trump supporters at a rally in Tujunga in 2020.

(Kyle Grillot/AFP/via Getty Images)

Smith said in his lawsuit that he would not be named in Tujunga’s declaration because he had reviewed evidence showing officers were violating LAPD rules regarding beanbag shotguns, as well as launchers that fire 37mm and 40mm projectiles — about the size of a small soda can — at 200 mph.

Smith’s lawsuit said the launchers are “target specific” or fired at individuals who pose a threat — not to disperse crowds.

Smith said he raised the alarm for months after the Tujunga protests, which came amid outrage over police killings of black and Latino people across the country at the end of President Trump’s first term.

But it wasn’t until the city was sued, Smith’s complaint said, that the incident that flagged him began to get attention.

The city has denied the allegations in Smith’s lawsuit, saying in court filings that the LAPD’s use of force case was thoroughly investigated.

Smith’s lawsuit highlights emails to top LAPD officials that he says show the department’s efforts to clean up its handling of excessive force complaints from protesters.

An internal task force deemed many of the public’s complaints “baseless.” Yet nearly two dozen of those cases were reopened after Smith and a small group of officers discovered that a department review had missed policy violations, his lawsuit says.

Smith also pointed out what he saw as a “problematic bias” in what was reported to be the chain of command at the Tujunga protest.

His complaint describes a presentation to then-Chief Michelle Moore that downplayed the damage caused by less lethal projectiles. According to Smith, the report omitted photos of “extensive injuries” from a woman, who said in a lawsuit that she had to undergo plastic surgery after being shot near the round of a bean bag around the chest.

The LAPD stopped using bean bag shots at protests after a state law banned the practice, but the department still allows officers to use the weapon in other situations, such as when subduing an uncooperative suspect.

Los Angeles police officers try to break up a fight between Trump supporters and opponents during a pro-Trump rally in Tujunga in 2020.

(Kyle Grillot/AFP/via Getty Images)

Alan Scobbin, a former police commissioner and friend of Smith’s, told the Times that he was in the room when Smith received a call in April 2021 from the city attorney’s office about an ad he had refused to sign.

The exchange appeared to turn tense, Scobbin noted, as Smith repeated that the details contained in the document were “false.”

Scobbin said he wondered if the assistant city attorney “went back and examined the videotape and all the other evidence.”

“That’s what I hope will happen,” Scobbin said.

Karen Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, provided the Times with a California State Bar report that said there was insufficient evidence to warrant discipline for the attorney; The case was closed in June 2024.

Richardson declined further comment, citing Smith’s pending trial.

According to Smith, other top LAPD officials went along with the misleading story that officers in Tujunga acted in response to being mobbed by a hostile crowd.

Smith claims he faced retaliation for reporting a fellow captain who said police were justified in using force against a protester who held up a placard “so that the pole could be used as a weapon against the officers.”

Body camera footage showed a different version of events, Smith said, with the officers launching an unprovoked attack on the man and others around him.

The colleague to whom Smith reported, German Hurtado, has since been promoted to deputy chief.

The city has denied the allegations in court. When reached for comment Friday, Hurtado said he was limited in what he could say because the case is ongoing.

“From what I know they’ve all been investigated and they’re baseless,” he said, referring to Smith’s allegations.

“The trial, I don’t know where it is and I don’t know anything about it. Nobody talked to me, nobody fired me.”

Critics argue that the LAPD continues to violate rules that prohibit targeting reporters during protests.

After a peaceful day of “No Kings Day” in the city on October 18, around 100 to 200 people stood outside the city’s Metropolitan Detention Center late at night. Police declared an illegal assembly and officers opened fire with 40mm rockets.

Lexus-Oliver Ray, a reporter for the news site LA Taco who regularly covers the protests, was among those affected by the protests.

Hundreds of people take part in the Day of the Kings non-peaceful action in downtown Los Angeles on October 18.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

In a video widely shared online, an LAPD officer can be heard justifying the incident by saying they were shooting at “fake” journalists.

An LAPD spokesman said the incident with Ray is under internal investigation and could not comment further.

Ray said it was not the first time he had encountered less-than-lethal protests at protests despite years of legislation and court orders.

“It’s very disappointing that things like this continue,” he said.

Jim McDonnell was nominated by Mayor Karen Bass during a news conference at City Hall on October 4, 2024 for the position of LAPD Chief.

(Ringo Chiu/For The Times)

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell defended the department at the Police Commission’s weekly meeting on Tuesday, saying “no kings” as protesters who stayed downtown after dark shone lasers at officers, and threw rocks, bottles and fireworks.

Asked about the incident on Roy, the leader said he did not want to comment on it publicly, but would do so “offline” – mocking some viewers who asked for clarification.

McDonnell told the commission he supports the city’s efforts to lift the court order. He said loosening the restrictions would “allow our officers to have access to less lethal force options so that we don’t escalate beyond that.”

Times staff writer Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.