Protect and serve — themselves

Active federal case about a young man who was shot and killed. Officer Kerry Bernhard is alleged to have left her patrol vehicle unlocked, running, and with the keys inside; when James Blancocotto — an unarmed young man with observable mental health and substance issues — entered the vehicle, Bernhard confronted and fatally shot him at close distance. He died January 13, 2023. The 2011 Rufener Assessment commissioned by the City had named Bernhard specifically as a "liability" whose behavior was "unsafe" and who "spins people up for no reason" — twelve years of written notice before Blancocotto's death.

Officer Alexis Warbis and then-Corporal Kristen Parnell waited in their patrol cars at the bottom of the driveway after the spouse instructed them by phone to enter immediately. The Complaint contends that they did not knock, did not check the garage, and ultimately had Mrs. Heisler enter first; she found her husband hanging from the rafters. Both officers were retained after settlement.

Officer Thor — a member of the same small department already named in multiple prior lawsuits — accessed sensitive law-enforcement databases more than 45 times to cyberstalk, track, and harass a private woman who had no law-enforcement connection to him. The Complaint alleges Thor repeatedly accessed criminal justice databases for personal purposes unrelated to law enforcement. The conduct was not a one-time mistake; it was repeated, deliberate, and predatory.

The Brunner complaint frames the case as a systemic failure, not merely one bad officer. Plaintiff alleged the City had no meaningful monitoring, auditing, or early-warning system in place to detect database abuse, even though LSPD had already been sued for warrantless searches, racial targeting, and workplace retaliation in the years immediately preceding this case. The City had notice that its officers were mishandling protected information and sensitive records, yet it failed to implement basic safeguards, failed to discipline offenders, and failed to protect the public from the predictable consequences.

The lawsuit also highlights a discriminatory double standard: when citizens report misconduct, LSPD opens OPS investigations against the complainants and leaks damaging labels to other agencies; when officers misuse government power against vulnerable women, the response is delay, silence, and eventual confidential settlement. The Brunner case fits the same pattern seen in Jamison, Taylor, Bloom, and the OPS files — a department that shields its own and retaliates against those who challenge them.

The case was resolved in Ninth Circuit mediation on confidential terms. Because the settlement was sealed, the public has never seen the full scope of Thor's conduct or whether any supervisor was ever disciplined for allowing it. The officer and the department walked away with their reputations intact; the settlement terms remain confidential, limiting public access to the complete factual record. 

Officer Dennis Taylor was forced out for supporting Sgt. Jamison's sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit. Then-City Administrator Jan Berg notified Taylor on or about August 6, 2015 that she was recommending discharge and issuance of a Brady letter under Lexipol Policy #606 — a career-ending credibility-destruction mechanism. The Brady-letter tactic parallels the "false reporter" label LSPD later relayed about Plaintiff Bloom to other agencies.

Defamation and failure-to-defend action brought by Officer Warbis after the City publicly described his earlier conduct as "indefensible." Warbis's November 12, 2014 deposition is a primary source on LSPD culture — including Chief Celori's instruction to drop the grievance ("it's just a little letter in your file… I will have the thing removed by the end of the year") and confirmation that Jim Barnes served as Guild President at Loudermill hearings while simultaneously investigating OPS complaints.

Sgt. Julie Jamison — a 17-year LSPD veteran and one of the highest-ranking women the department has ever employed — reported sustained sexual harassment by Detective Lambier, including sexualized comments, unwanted contact, and a pattern of behavior other female employees had quietly flagged for years. Chief Celori refused to refer the complaint to an outside investigator, ran the investigation in-house, and returned a finding of "not sustained." Lambier kept his caseload and his schedule. Jamison was instructed to work from home.

What followed is a textbook retaliation timeline: sudden schedule changes, surprise internal audits of her cases, public second-guessing at briefing, removal from supervisory duties, and ultimately demotion to graveyard patrol — a shift she had not worked in over a decade. Coworkers who corroborated her account, including Officer Dennis Taylor, were themselves targeted for discipline and pushed out. Mayor Vern Little and City Administrator Jan Berg are quoted in the record directing command staff: "No more personnel problems, no more complaints." The message inside the building was unmistakable — the problem was not the harassment, the problem was the woman who reported it.

The complaint pleads sex discrimination, hostile work environment, and unlawful retaliation under Title VII and Washington's Law Against Discrimination (RCW 49.60). The City settled for $325,000 in July 2014 without admitting liability — and without disciplining Lambier, Celori, or any of the supervisors who carried out the retaliation. Every officer named in the Jamison retaliation chain remained on payroll and several were later promoted, which is why the same names keep surfacing in the OPS files a decade later.

Detective Wachtveitl, Sgt. Brooks, Officer Warbis, and Detective Thomas allegedly directed a private citizen, Douglas Montzingo, to first enter Plaintiff Janet Moreno-Toro’s residence and search it for approximately 30 minutes before police arrived. The officers then barged through the front door of her home of 14 years, forced Mrs. Moreno and her sick nearly one-year-old baby out of the house, and searched every room for 3–4 hours — including bedrooms, bathrooms, drawers, closets, kitchen, living room, dining room, and the attached garage — while photographing her belongings. A warrant was obtained only after the initial unlawful entry and search had already occurred. Mrs. Moreno, who has no criminal record, called 911 during the incident to report that she was being harassed by police and that officers were searching her residence without a warrant.

Civil rights claim arising from a warrantless vehicle stop by Officers Steve Warbis and James Wellington under Sgt. Ron Brooks. Settled for $100,000; the underlying conduct was later described publicly as "indefensible."