Top Gascón aide receives $10,000 settlement for Azusa public intoxication arrest
The city of Azusa has paid a $10,000 settlement to Joseph Iniguez, the top aide of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who in July dropped his federal civil rights lawsuit against the municipality stemming from his 2021 arrest for public intoxication.
The seven-page settlement agreement finalized last month states that Iniguez and the city of Azusa are each responsible for their own attorney fees and costs.
In an email Tuesday, Sept. 12, Azusa City Manager Sergio Gonzalez said the settlement is “purely a business decision” to resolve litigation at a “minimal cost.”
“The settlement in no way represents any admission of liability or wrongdoing on the part of the City of Azusa or any of our officers,” Gonzalez said. “The City of Azusa and Chief (Rocky) Wenrick fully support the actions of our dedicated officers and are happy to have this matter come to a mutually acceptable resolution.”
Iniguez did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He has previously stated that he will donate the entire settlement amount to the nonprofit Law Enforcement Action Partnership in support of “good cops and modern policing strategies.”
Iniguez, 37, questioned police and advised his husband not to cooperate with an officer who pulled over his black Tesla just after 11:30 p.m. Dec. 11, 2021, in the 900 block East Alosta Avenue in Azusa, according to an eight-page police report obtained by the Southern California News Group.
Iniguez, who was a passenger in the car, “exited the vehicle and began telling (the driver) that he did not have to answer any questions nor did he have to conduct any field sobriety tests,” says the report submitted by Azusa police Cpl. R. Martinez. “I could see that his (Iniguez) eyes were bloodshot and watery, he had slurred speech, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath and person, he admitted to consuming alcoholic beverages and he was not listening to commands from officers.
“He also was pointing out the fact that we (officers) did not have body cameras and told (the driver) not to believe everything the police were saying.”
Iniguez also purportedly shot video of the encounter with Azusa police, but has refused to release the footage.
Police eventually put Iniguez in handcuffs, placed him in a patrol car, and drove him to the Azusa jail, where he was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor public intoxication. However, there are no records on file with Los Angeles County Superior Court showing that Iniguez was charged in connection with the arrest.
About three hours later when he was released from jail, Iniguez told Martinez he would see him again and called him “Brady,” the report says. Law enforcement officers who have a record of knowingly lying in an official capacity are placed on a so-called Brady list under a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland. Prosecutors then must notify defendants and their attorneys whenever an officer on that list is involved in their case.
Iniguez filed a lawsuit in January 2021 in U.S. District Court against the city of Azusa and Martinez, alleging his civil rights were violated during his unjust arrest. He sought unspecified damages.
“The extent and falsity of this reporting caused plaintiff extraordinary shame and embarrassment, emotional and psychological distress and the physical manifestations of such distress and embarrassment,” the lawsuit states. It also alleges the incident caused Iniguez to suffer “sleeplessness and debilitating anxiety.”
Iniguez, a former defense attorney who joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 2015, had planned to challenge former District Attorney Jackie Lacey in 2020, but later threw his political support behind Gascón. He was named chief of staff in 2021.