A former Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) officer, who sued the department after he claimed he was fired in 2011 for being gay, dismissed his lawsuit after three weeks of trial, the Long Beach City Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
Brent Record, who filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in June 2012 against the city and his two supervisors, Sgt. Scott Jenson and Sgt. Gerry Prieto, will not receive any award and will pay all of his court costs and attorneys’ fees, according to a statement from the city.
Record, who is gay, claimed Jenson and Prieto “stalked and harassed him” because of his sexual orientation.
Record’s attorney, David Tibor said Record was subjected to derogatory remarks about being gay from fellow officers and also found fliers mocking him for his sexual preference in the men’s restroom.
As the trial developed, however, Jenson and Prieto said Record’s sexual orientation was not the problem.
Deputy Long Beach City Attorney Haleh Jenkins said Record was not fired for being gay, but instead because he was “afraid to handle the most serious of calls and did his best to avoid them,” which “put the citizens of Long Beach in danger.” Jenkins said Record also resisted attempts by the LBPD management to correct the behavior.
When officers began complaining about Record, Prieto and Jenson monitored his behavior for a week and provided information to the department’s internal affairs division, Jenkins said.
Further, she said, Record never raised the issue of his sexual orientation until he filed the lawsuit.
“After initial efforts to counsel Record failed, and the pattern of failing to perform his job duties continued, the matter was referred to the City’s Internal Affairs Division,” said Monte H. Machit, assistant city attorney, in a statement. “After a lengthy investigation, IA confirmed that Record had a pattern of not timely responding to citizen’s calls for services and not backing up other police officers on more dangerous, high priority calls. Although a number of witnesses were called by Record’s attorney during the trial, Record offered no evidence that either Jensen or Prieto had any discriminatory animus against gay officers or were out to get Record.”
The Post has reached out to Record’s attorney, and is awaiting comment.