Pasadena police say police gang “good old boys” attacked and humiliated them

Several current and former Pasadena police officers and supervisors – all people of color – have been victims of assault, discrimination and retaliation by two cliques within the police department. One of those cliques is called the “Good Ole Boys Club,” according to a series of lawsuits filed against the police department.

Three of them claim they were attacked by fellow officers. Officer Jarvis Shelby said he was put in a headlock by a commander in August. Lt. Sam De Sylva said he was kicked in the leg by another lieutenant so hard that he had to undergo surgery. And retired Lt. Carolyn Gordon said she was shot in the groin with a paintball gun during training, an injury that caused internal bleeding.

“These are police officers who are supposed to protect the public, but they’re attacking their own people,” said Brad Gage, an attorney representing the six Pasadena police officers and former supervisors. Four of them have already sued the police department, and two more — Gordon and retired officer Omar Elhosseiny — are planning lawsuits, Gage said.

The allegations cast another shadow over a department accused of detaining minorities and using deadly force against young black men under questionable circumstances.

At the center of the lawsuits are two police gangs that allegedly control the Pasadena Police Department. One is called GOBC (Good Ole Boys Club) and the other is known as Veteranos, made up of police officers involved in a shooting.

The people named in the current and pending lawsuits say police gangs control the department.

Former Pasadena police officers Carolyn Gordon and Omar Elhosseiny (right) recount their experiences with assault and discrimination during a press conference with attorney Brad Gage (left) at police headquarters on Thursday.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

“When racism, retaliation and violence occur within the police department, it can certainly spill over into society,” said Gordon, a department chief who retired in April.

She said she was called a crybaby after she was shot during a drill in 1998. “Sometimes I feared for my safety in that building,” Gordon said at a press conference outside police headquarters on Thursday.

Elhosseiny, a retired officer who was awarded the department’s Medal of Valor, said he was ridiculed last year when he reported three officers for drunkenness on duty.

“They called me ‘Taliban,'” said Elhosseiny, who is Muslim. “They told me to park my car facing Mecca.”

The series of lawsuits against the Pasadena Police Department began last year and attracted public attention when Officer Taisyn Crutchfield claimed she was wrongfully disciplined for trying to deescalate a situation in which another officer and a woman had been arrested.

In the lawsuit, Crutchfield, 27, claims she was disciplined following a Feb. 20, 2023, situation in which additional officers were called to a dispute involving the two sons of Charles Towns, a black man who was shot and killed by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officers in Altadena in January.

Clockwise from top left: Pasadena Officer Omar Elhosseiny, Officer Jarvis Shelby, Lt. (ret.) Carolyn Gordon, Sgt. Milton White, Lt. Sam De Sylva and Officer Taisyn Crutchfield.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Crutchfield’s attorney said police were called to the scene when one of Towns’ sons, a minor, was “understandably upset about his father’s death.”

The incident was captured on body camera video and shows her touching Officer Ralph Palacios’ arm and then shoulder. She described this as an attempt to deescalate a situation in which he was arguing with a black woman under arrest. Palacios told her, “No, you don’t do that,” pushed her arm away and told her to get out of his face. A supervisor then instructed the officers to move away from each other.

Crutchfield was placed on leave with pay after the incident. She said officers subsequently retaliated against her by not answering her call for backup when they responded to a man with a gun.

In her lawsuit, Crutchfield also claimed that during her training, Officer Al Garcia asked to kick her out of the department and fire her. When she went on patrol, she was confronted with derogatory racist comments and left without backup, according to her lawsuit.

In another case, Crutchfield was sent alone to a domestic violence call, and Shelby said he rushed in as backup. The call got him into trouble within the department and made him a target, he said in his complaint, pointing out that a commanding officer put him in a headlock last fall.

Melvin White, now a sergeant, witnessed the headlock incident and described what he saw to his superiors, he said in a lawsuit. White said he became the target of retaliation after his report.

However, Pasadena Police Chief Gene Harris said of the incident: “There was no assault or act of violence against or by any member of this police department.”

Harris said in December that “a thorough investigation was conducted and completed before (White’s) claim was made.”

“I take all complaints of assault or violence seriously and will not tolerate an internal culture of assault or violence,” Harris said at the time.

The Pasadena Police Officers Assn., the union that represents rank-and-file officers, called the allegations false. And Pasadena police officers have said they will vigorously defend themselves, adding that the department is “proud of its diversity at all ranks.” Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo did not immediately respond for comment.

Over the past decade, Pasadena has paid millions of dollars in civil lawsuits related to fatal police shootings and the deaths of black men in custody.

In 2021, the city paid $7.5 million to the three young children of Anthony McClain, a black man who was shot and killed during a traffic stop in 2020 while running away. In 2012, police shot and killed Kendrick McDade, another unarmed black man, after a 911 caller falsely reported he had a gun.

Times photographer Myung J. Chun contributed to this report.