West Oakland native and former Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong has sued the city of Oakland and Mayor Sheng Thao, alleging that he was wrongfully fired in 2023 and that a federal monitor pressured the mayor to do it.
According to the lawsuit filed Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, Armstrong had been unfairly punished for speaking critically about Robert Warshaw, who has served as federally appointed monitor overseeing the Oakland Police Department since 2010.
The lawsuit states, “Chief Armstrong’s disclosure of Warshaw’s self-dealing and fraud in serving as the monitor for his own financial benefit and to the detriment of the city and its taxpayers was a contributing factor in the city’s decision to place Chief Armstrong on leave, discharge him, and fail to rehire him.”
Warshaw was appointed monitor as part of a settlement of the 2000 class-action civil rights case Allen v. City of Oakland regarding allegations that OPD turned a blind eye to officer misconduct including planting evidence and beating citizens.
The Allen lawsuit resulted in a negotiated settlement agreement that specifies approximately 52 tasks for the OPD to accomplish in order to reach compliance with federal oversight.
Renewed investigation
In the timeline in Armstrong’s suit, Warshaw investigated Armstrong in 2021 for weak leadership. A former OPD officer had posted a racist, sexist meme on Instagram and Armstrong issued a department email saying to avoid engaging in the social media thread.
According to the suit, OPD was just five months away from exiting federal oversight when Warshaw hired an outside law firm to investigate him again. The investigation summary contained three underlying reports.
Two detailed the actions of OPD Sgt. Michael Chung, who was involved in a hit-and-run while off duty and also allegedly accidentally discharged a firearm in an OPD elevator. The third report alleged that Armstrong failed to respond to Chung’s wrongdoing.
Oakland has been without a permanent police chief since LeRonne Armstrong was fired on Feb. 15, 2023. In October, Mayor Sheng Thao rejected his nomination as a finalist for his former position.
The suit describes Armstrong as being “walled off” by Warshaw from supervising the elevator incident and that investigators did not conclude that Armstrong violated any policy.
As federal monitor, Warshaw’s job was to examine whether OPD had met the reform goals. In 2014, a judge appointed him to also serve in the role of compliance director. In that role he was supposed to be working with OPD to implement reforms and achieve common goals. The suit argues that the two roles conflict. If the OPD were to meet compliance, Warshaw would be out of a job.
“On information and belief,” the suit states, “Warshaw has not actually visited Oakland as part of his duties for five years despite receiving pay as the compliance director.”
‘Milking Oakland for money’
Armstrong’s predecessor, Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, had publicly stated that “the only reason the police department is out of compliance is not because of its officers, policies or procedures. It is because Warshaw wants to keep milking Oakland for money,” according to the lawsuit.
To date, Oakland has paid over $17 million in monitor and compliance fees and costs.
When Kirkpatrick was police chief, Warshaw overrode Kirkpatrick’s decision not to terminate officers involved in the killing of a 31-year-old homeless, mentally ill man. Then-Mayor Libby Schaaf terminated five OPD officers in connection with the case. The officers appealed and all five officers were reinstated with back pay, according to the suit. Kirkpatrick later sued Oakland for unlawful termination and Oakland settled for $1.5 million. In 2016, Schaaf also fired previous Chief Sean Whent over allegedly covering up an incident between officers and a sexually exploited teenager.
Oakland then went through four police chiefs in nine days, relying on the city administrator to lead the department until Kirkpatrick was hired in 2017.
Today, Oakland is still without a permanent police chief. Darren Allison has served as acting chief since Armstrong was fired Feb. 15, 2023. In October, Armstrong reapplied to be Oakland’s police chief. He was one of three candidates nominated by the Police Commission, but Thao rejected their recommendation.