he City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) have settled with an LAPD firearm instructor for $1.5 Million for failing to accommodate his injuries and retaliating against him based on his disability.
Jeffrey Shoemaker, a nine-year LAPD veteran and former marine, worked as a firearms instructor. The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyer Matthew McNicholas and Douglas Winter of McNicholas & McNicholas LLP, represented him in this case.
Shoemaker fractured his left knee while at training division and required surgery and six months of recovery. After only two months of recovery, Shoemaker received a call from his Lieutenant demanding he return to work and threatened he would be transferred out of the Division if he did not.
Shoemaker returned to work and advised his supervisors of his work restrictions, however, the LAPD failed to engage in the interactive process to determine his work restrictions and failed to accommodate them. LAPD continued to assign Shoemaker as a primary range instructor.
Shoemaker objected the department re-assigned him as a secondary instructor. However, his new assignment was just as physically demanding as a primary instructor and violated his work restrictions. Shoemaker’s existing injuries were exacerbated, causing additional injuries.
[sws_pullquote_right] See also: Retaliation Remains the #1 Employment Law Claim [/sws_pullquote_right]
Shoemaker complained about his situation and in response the Department harassed and retaliated against him. He brought claims against the City and LAPD for failure to engage in the interactive process, failure to accommodate and discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims based on his disability, in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act.
The City and LAPD settled the claims with Shoemaker for $1,500,000.
