Wednesday, October 29, 2025

LA County Wins Dismissal of Former Probation Chief’s Retaliation Suit

Photo courtesy LACounty.gov

A judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by the former Los Angeles County Probation Department chief, in which the plaintiff alleged he was terminated for coming forward about staffing shortages.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Shultz heard arguments in the county’s motion to dismiss plaintiff Adolfo Gonzales’ case on Tuesday, then took the case under submission before ruling on Wednesday that there are no triable issues.

Gonzales was fired in March 2023. In his lawsuit brought 11 months later, Gonzales contends he “candidly reported to … (Board of State and Community Corrections) inspectors” that there were staffing shortages in the Probation Department that violated state regulations and mandates.

Thereafter, the BSCC issued an audit report critical of juvenile halls based, in part, on the disclosures Gonzales made to the BSCC, which demanded corrective action to be taken to address violations caused by staffing shortages and which ultimately prompted Gonzales’ firing, the suit stated.

However, in their court papers, county attorneys argued that during Gonzales’ tenure, the department struggled with regulatory violations, staffing shortages and public scandals and therefore his one claim for retaliation should be dismissed.

“Plaintiff’s performance declined, his communication with the Board of Supervisors was sporadic and ineffective and his handling of a use-of-force incident, along with public criticism following the release of related video footage, prompted an oversight body, the public and members of the board to call for his resignation,” according to the county attorneys’ pleadings.

When Gonzales was hired in October 2021, the board expected him to, among other things, stabilize the department’s juvenile operations and implement a “care first, jails last” approach to serving the youth in juvenile hall, according to the county lawyers’ court papers.

“Instead, plaintiff careened the department from one self-created crisis to the next,” they argue. “The problems that plaintiff was hired to address persisted and metastasized.”

Rather than take responsibility, Gonzales sued “in an attempt to recast himself as the victim of some kind of whistleblower retaliation,” the county attorneys’ court papers further state.

In his ruling in favor of the county, the judge echoed the defense’s claim that Gonzales was not a whistleblower.

“Plaintiff admitted at deposition that he never made any type of protected disclosure,” Shultz wrote. “His declaration conflicts with sworn deposition testimony. There is no evidence that any protected activity contributed to his termination.”

The judge also found that Gonzales did not comply with legal claim filing requirements prior to bringing his lawsuit.

With more than 6,500 employees and a budget of nearly $1 billion, the county’s Probation Department is the largest probation services agency in the United States.