Former LAPD captain accepts reduced emotional-distress award of $4.5 million
A retired Los Angeles police captain has accepted a 50% reduction of her $9 million jury verdict in a discrimination-retaliation lawsuit against the city, avoiding a new trial.
Former Capt. Stacey Vince was granted $9 million in past and future emotional distress damages by a jury on March 17, an amount Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher K. Lui found excessive and the “product of passion or prejudice.”
The judge said that the city was entitled to a new trial on those damages unless Vince agreed to have them pared down to $4.5 million. The city and the judge did not challenge the award to Vince of $1.1 million in past and future economic losses.
On Wednesday, July 5, Vince’s lawyers filed court papers confirming her acceptance of the $4.5 million award.
Vince was a lieutenant in the detective bureau when a new deputy chief, Kris Pitcher, became her direct supervisor in 2019 and eventually began shunning her, her suit filed in October 2020 stated.
Vince’s husband, LAPD Lt. Lou Vince, had previously worked under Pitcher at the Operations Valley Bureau and suffered retaliation and discrimination on account of a physical disability, Lou Vince alleged in his lawsuit.
When Lou Vince complained, the LAPD command staff threatened him that his wife’s career would be adversely affected, his suit stated. Stacey Vince reported the retaliation against her husband, including the allegations against Pitcher, according to her suit.
In 2022, another jury heard Lou Vince’s allegations and awarded him $4.37 million for retaliation and discrimination.
In addition to reporting and opposing the department’s alleged discrimination and retaliation against her husband, Stacey Vince was a witness in an Internal Affairs proceeding concerning her husband’s claims, according to her court papers. She also complained about how she was treated while assigned to the detective bureau, her court papers stated.
“Plaintiff was retaliated against in multiple ways, including … being administratively transferred out of the detective bureau against her will,” Stacey Vince’s court papers stated.
“(Stacey Vince) had pride in her career being a good police officer and excelling at her job, but that was taken away from her by the department through its covert, reprehensible retaliation and discrimination, all because she and her husband had the audacity to report retaliation as she was trained to do,” Stacey Vince’s attorneys stated in their court papers.
Stacey Vince, who was promoted to captain in November, says she chose to retire rather than accept a transfer to a less prestigious position. She also is seeking $1.2 million in attorneys’ fees and $11,710 in related costs. A hearing on those requests is scheduled for Sept. 1.