L.A. city councilman’s former aide files retaliation claim

A former longtime aide to Los Angeles Metropolis Councilmember Curren Value alleges in a declare filed towards town that she was fired from her job after Value staffers accused her of being a “snitch” within the legal case introduced towards the councilman by L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón.

Angie Reyes English, a former senior area deputy for Value, filed the declare on Feb 1. Such claims are usually lodged earlier than a proper lawsuit.

The four-page declare, which was reviewed by The Occasions, alleges that Reyes English confronted intimidation by Value and his crew and was finally dismissed from her job in January.

Angelina Valencia-Dumarot, a Value spokesperson, denied the previous staffer’s allegations. Actually, Reyes English had been the topic of complaints from Value’s employees, Valencia-Dumarot stated.

“We deny these baseless allegations and have been working carefully with [the city’s Personnel Department] on this matter for months,” Valencia-Dumarot stated in an announcement. “Final yr, a number of district workplace employees members lodged separate formal complaints [with the Personnel Department] citing Angie Reyes English’s harassing and threatening habits, which induced some to change into anxious and depressed.”

Lawyer Greg Smith, who represents Reyes English, stated his shopper is “unaware of any complaints, and has by no means been notified of any complaints, formal or casual, towards her.”

Reyes English serves in Hawthorne as mayor professional tem and a Metropolis Council member, in keeping with that metropolis’s web site. She declined an interview request.

She labored for Value for 17 years, in keeping with her criticism. Value, a Democrat, beforehand served within the state Senate and Meeting.

Ivor Pine, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Metropolis Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto, declined to touch upon the declare.

Gascón charged Value in June 2023 with 10 counts of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest. The costs relate to medical advantages that his spouse, Del Richardson Value, obtained from town and votes that the councilman solid that allegedly benefited his spouse’s enterprise.

Value has vigorously denied the costs.

Reyes English’s declare alleges that almost two weeks after the district legal professional’s workplace filed its case towards Value, the councilman’s “right-hand man,” Jose Ugarte — a deputy chief of employees — known as Reyes English and informed her that he and different Value confidants believed she was a “whistleblower” and had disclosed data to “authorities companies.”

The following day, Reyes English informed her supervisors and human sources representatives that she had been “intimidated” by those that thought she was the “snitch,” in keeping with her declare.

Value and others “retaliated” towards Reyes English, in keeping with her declare. She was positioned on “involuntary medical go away” for about 3½ months beginning July 1, 2023.

When she returned to work, she stated, “extra actions have been taken to intimidate, harass, and hurt” her. She was terminated from her job on Jan. 9, in keeping with the declare.

The district legal professional’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark about her declare.

Value is due again in court docket in early March. Final month, a Los Angeles County Superior Court docket decide denied a request from Value’s protection crew to throw out the case towards him on the grounds that the prosecution had did not show Value’s votes have been motivated by his spouse’s enterprise dealings.

Value’s protection legal professional, Michael Schafler, had additionally argued that prosecutors inappropriately filed embezzlement expenses when Value’s alleged conduct associated to his spouse’s medical insurance didn’t meet the definition of the crime underneath California regulation.

Occasions employees author James Queally contributed to this report.