LAPD captain says he refused to lie for city

The city of Los Angeles had just been sued by the local chapter of Black Lives Matter and other advocacy groups when LAPD Capt. Johnny Smith claims he got a frantic call from an assistant city attorney asking for his help.

- BY LIBOR JANY

KYLE GRILLOT AFP/Getty Images

OFFICERS in Tujunga in 2020. The captain said he was asked to cover for reckless behavior by the force.

It was April 2021 and the LAPD was facing sharp criticism over its handling of mass protests against police brutality. The Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles complaint accused officers of firing less-lethal weapons at demonstrators who posed no threat, among other abuses.

Smith said the assistant city attorney wanted his signature on a prewritten sworn declaration that described how LAPD officers had no choice but to use force against a volatile crowd hurling bottles and smoke bombs during a 2020 protest in Tujunga.

He refused to put his name on it.

Instead, eight months later, Smith filed his own lawsuit against the city, alleging he faced retaliation for trying to blow the whistle on a range of misconduct within the LAPD.

Smith and his attorneys declined to be interviewed by The Times, but evidence in his lawsuit offers a revealing look at the behind-the-scenes coordination and friction-between LAPD officials and the city attorney's office in defense of police use of force at protests.

Smith's lawsuit says he felt pressured to give a misleading statement to cover up for reckless behavior by officers.

The captain's claim, filed in December 2021 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, has taken on new significance with the city facing fresh litigation over LAPD crowd-control tactics during recent protests against the Trump administration.

The 2020 protests led to a court order that limits how LAPD officers can use certain less-lethal weapons, including launchers that shoot hard-foam projectiles typically used to disable uncooperative suspects.

The city is still fighting to have those restrictions lifted, along with others put in place as a result of a separate lawsuit filed in June by press-rights organizations.