It took the Los Angeles Police Department more than a year to fully begin disclosing domestic violence allegations against officers after the state passed a law in California that required reporting and could permanently ban officers from their jobs.
This was revealed in testimony last month at an administrative hearing for a rookie Los Angeles Police Department officer who was fired for committing time card fraud and physically assaulting his ex-girlfriend and fellow officer.
A sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Major Misconduct Unit testified in the case against Tony Ramirez, according to evidence in a closed hearing reviewed by Ramirez’s lawyers and the Times. The sergeant said the department only began reporting certain spousal abuse cases to the state after Ramirez was fired in early February 2024. It comes more than a year after the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies were required to promptly report officers accused of “serious misconduct” to the state’s police accreditation agency, which allows them to work in law enforcement.
Senate Bill 2, passed in 2021, makes domestic violence one of nine categories of “serious misconduct” that police agencies are required to report to the state’s Police Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST), which includes excessive force, fraud, sexual assault, and acts of bias based on factors such as race, sexual orientation, and gender.
An LAPD sergeant testified that the reporting practices were based on guidance from the Post’s former compliance director, according to inquest evidence reviewed by Ramirez’s attorney Nicole Castronovo and the Times. The chief said during a training session that authorities do not have to “report first-time misdemeanor domestic violence cases.”
Ramirez appealed the grounds for his dismissal, insisting he had not committed any wrongdoing. She denied allegations that she abused her ex-partner.
According to Castronovo and hearing evidence, Los Angeles Police Department officials believed the partial POST report was “contrary to best practices” and tried to obtain written instructions, but the sergeant testified that he still followed the agency’s advice.
When the department asked the successor to the POST compliance director for further clarification, officials were informed that nearly all domestic-related incidents must be reported, Castronovo said.
She tried asking the Los Angeles Police Department how many of those cases may have gone unreported, but said the city didn’t know.
When SB 2 went into effect in January 2023, law enforcement agencies were to begin disclosing “serious misconduct” to POST within 10 days of learning of a credible allegation.
The sergeant who testified declined to comment and referred questions to the department’s press office, which said in a statement that at the time SB 2 was being rolled out, the LAPD “consulted” with POST to determine “what types of misconduct would require reporting.”
“The Department received a recommendation that a first-time, non-serious domestic battery did not meet reporting criteria,” the statement said. “The Department followed this guidance and only reported cases with aggravating factors. In 2024, the Department adopted new standards for reporting all allegations of domestic violence, regardless of severity.”
Ramirez’s lawyers said the testimony raises questions about LAPD’s compliance with the law and whether it retroactively reported past crimes of other officers.
“It’s very scary to think that that crime went unreported,” Castronovo said.
The Los Angeles Police Department accused Ramirez of assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Jorge Alvarado, in May 2023 based on text photos he provided, according to hearing evidence. The photo showed a yellowish bruise from where she squeezed her arm. Ramirez claimed Alvarado suffered the bruises during consensual sex, and countered her at an administrative hearing that authorities were unwilling to consider emails, text messages and other evidence she tried to provide that cast doubt on her accuser’s account.
Ramirez said the two began dating in 2022 while attending the police academy. She claims Alvarado tried to end the relationship several months later when he became overbearing and possessive. Ramirez said a colleague at the Topanga Division helped him fill out an application for a temporary restraining order.
A judge denied the curfew order because Ramirez did not pose an immediate danger, and Alvarado was not charged with any crime.
Mr. Alvarado did not respond to a request for comment sent via email from his department.
According to hearing evidence, Mr. Alvarado first disclosed the alleged abuse by Mr. Ramirez during a January 2024 interview with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau. Ramirez was fired less than a month later — just weeks before the end of his 18-month probationary period — after the department said he lied about why he was absent from work.
POST spokeswoman Megan Pross said she was not familiar with Ramirez’s case, but that if anything, state officials are grappling with “over-reporting” of misconduct by law enforcement agencies. Ploss said data on serious misconduct reports from the Los Angeles Police Department was not immediately available for review.
He added that spousal abuse cases that are immediately deemed unfounded or do not require an internal affairs investigation are not required to be reported, suggesting that LAPD officials may have “misunderstood” that to mean such cases do not need to be reported.
“I don’t know if that’s the case in this particular case, but I can tell you it’s not something the Post would advise any government agency not to do,” she said.
In 2023, there were more than 250 law enforcement agencies, most with fewer than 50 officers, and none of them reported any serious misconduct, according to Poulos and the agency’s data. She said the agency sends out regular reminders of its obligations under SB 2.
Larger agencies like the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have their own coordinators or independent departments tasked with referring eligible cases to state authorities for consideration. In a brief statement, the Department of Security said there had been “acts that violate the law since the inception of SB 2.”
POST decertified 57 officers this year, compared to 84 last year. An additional 43 officers voluntarily surrendered their certifications, and 77 had their certifications suspended at least temporarily.
A POST notification does not automatically cause an officer to lose their police certificate. Cases are reviewed by a disciplinary board comprised of civilians with professional or personal backgrounds related to police responsibilities. The committee convenes every few months to review investigations into POST’s alleged misconduct and recommend whether the committee should seek revocation of accreditation.
Ramirez told the Times that the LAPD initially said domestic violence had nothing to do with her firing. She said she was wrongly accused of violating department policy when she and another officer used force to take a man into custody during a 2023 incident in Canoga Park. Ramirez said photos of Alvarado’s bruises were later used against her, along with charges of time card fraud, which Ramirez also denies.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, when Ramirez applied for a job with the Beverly Hills Police Department, he lied to his boss that he needed time off to care for his sick brother.
Ramirez said she was a caregiver for her brother, who is now deceased, and was applying for a job in Beverly Hills to get away from Alvarado.
Mr. Alvarado was placed on administrative leave following Mr. Ramirez’s report, but has since completed his probationary period and been promoted to Police Officer II.
A decision by the Los Angeles Police Department’s disciplinary review process on whether Ramirez can be fired is pending. She believes it is unfair that her ex-husband is allowed to return to work while she is at a loss.
“I’m still trying to get back to work, but he’s a happy police officer with benefits while I’m going through this nightmare,” she said.
Times staff writer Connor Sheets and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
