Fire Watch: October 2025

Fire Watch

Cynthia O’Neill Partner Emeritus | San Francisco

Ronni Cuccia Associate | Los Angeles

firm victories

LCW Partner Scott Tiedemann And Associate Attorney Morgan

Johnson Convince Court To Uphold Police Officer Termination.

A police officer was added to a “WhatsApp” text group of officers who were all assigned to the same patrol shift. A district attorney discovered the text group while investigating another case. The officers had shared racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic texts and photos in the group chat. The DA notified the chief of police, and the department hired an outside investigator.

The investigation revealed that the police officer received and responded to discriminatory messages, but did not initiate them. The officer responded to racist texts with laughing emojis, links to Black Lives Matter-related social media posts that made light of the comments, and agreed to assist another officer in a charity event in response to the other officer’s use of anti-Semitic themes.

The chief reviewed the investigation and determined that the officer should be terminated for violating the

department’s rules regarding its policing philosophy, the city’s personnel rules, the social media policy, and the anti-harassment policy. The chief determined that although the officer did not initiate discriminatory messages, the termination was proper due to the officer’s participation in and failure to report the messages.

The officer appealed to the civil service commission. After a hearing, the civil service commission upheld the termination. The officer then appealed to the city council, which also upheld the termination. The officer appealed this determination to the California Superior Court.

The Court also upheld the termination. Partner Scott Tiedemann and Associate Attorney Morgan Johnson successfully argued that the officer’s behavior supported the findings that the officer had violated the rules in question. The Court found that the officer was on notice of his duty to report such harassing language, and failed to do so. The Court agreed that terminating the officer was not an abuse of discrimination, and denied the officer’s request for an additional hearing.

Harassment

Employer’s Poor Responses To Employee’s Complaint Could Support Claim For Hostile Work Environment.

Bakersfield Recovery Service, Inc. (BRS) provides substance abuse treatment. Steven Kruitbosch was an assistant corporate compliance officer. Lisa Sanders was Kruitbosch’s coworker, though the two did not work together or in the same location often.

Like many BRS employees, Kruitbosch was in recovery from substance abuse, and many employees, including Sanders, knew that Kruitbosch was sober. After Kruitbosch’s long term partner passed away, he took leave under the California Family Rights Act.

In the week leading up to Kruitbosch’s return, Sanders began sending Kruitbosch multiple unsolicited nude pictures and propositioning him. Kruitbosch firmly rejected these advances. Sanders went to Kruitbosch’s home uninvited, and again propositioned him. Kruitbosch told her to leave. Sanders eventually departed Kruitbosch’s property, but left behind a cucumber with a condom attached in his driveway. Sanders texted Kruitbosch and invited him to a hotel room to have sex and drugs. She sent him multiple sexually explicit images.

Upon returning to work, Kruitbosch immediately complained about Sanders’s conduct to acting program director Stephanie Carroll and HR representative Kimberly Giles. Carroll said there was not much she could do. Giles posted a video to social media depicting dogs whining that made a veiled reference to Kruitbosch’s complaint.

Kruitbosch’s employment became unbearable as he went to great lengths to avoid Sanders. He was fearful that he would be forced to see Sanders. He was overcome with anger and humiliation, knowing Sanders was free to continue harassing him. Kruitbosch resigned because he felt that continuing to work at BRS would be detrimental to his mental health, grief recovery process, and sobriety.

After resigning, Kruitbosch filed a complaint against BRS and Sanders under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). He included a claim for hostile work environment sexual harassment. The trial court granted BRS’s demurrer, finding that Sanders’s conduct was not attributable to BRS on the basis of their co-

working relationship alone. The court found that although Kruitbosch was unhappy with BRS’s response, the situation was not pervasive, and BRS took no adverse action. Kruitbosch appealed.

The California Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s ruling sustaining BRS’s demurrer as to Kruitbosch’s claims for sexual harassment and hostile work environment. The Court held that while Sanders’s conduct was not sufficiently work-related to be imputed to the BRS, but, BRS’s response to the Kruitbosch’s complaint— specifically, Carroll and Giles’s failure to act and Giles’s comment and social media post mocking him—could support a claim for hostile work environment sexual harassment. Giles’s comment, in conjunction with BRS’s ratification of Sanders’s conduct through inaction, materially altered his working conditions. There was no investigation of Kruitbosch’s complaint, no admonition to Sanders to cease her conduct, and BRS took no steps to shield Kruitbosch from having to interact with Sanders.

Kruitbosch v. Bakersfield Recovery Services, Inc., 2025 Cal. App. LEXIS 569 (Sep. 8, 2025.)

Retirement

County Employee Unsuccessfully Challenged The Effective Date Of Her Retirement Benefit.

Catherine Baker worked for San Mateo County as a Social Worker III. She reported back pain that prevented her from performing some essential job duties. She went on medical leave in 2009. In 2015, she returned to work in a different position as a Screener Trainee. The Screener Trainee job had the same pay rate as her original position. On January 21, 2016, Baker left County employment.

In 2017, Baker applied for a “service-connected” disability retirement. The County Employees Retirement Association (SamCERA) recommended that, pursuant to the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 at Government Code section 31724, the effective date of her retirement benefit was January 22, 2016, the day after her last receipt of “regular compensation.”

After SamCERA’s Board approved her application and set the effective date, Baker sought administrative review. She felt that her compensation as a Screener Trainee did

not qualify as “regular compensation” because she had not returned to her Social Worker III job. She argued that her effective date of retirement should have been in 2009 when she left her Social Worker III job. An administrative law judge recommended denial of her request to change the effective date, and the Board adopted this recommendation. Baker then filed a petition for writ of administrative mandamus in the California Superior Court, which denied the petition and confirmed the January 22, 2016, effective date.

The California Court of Appeal reviewed whether “regular compensation”, as used in section 31724, included Baker’s pay as a Screener Trainee. To make its decision, the Court looked at the ordinary meaning of the words “regular compensation” and to prior case law. The prior case law held that the term “regular compensation” includes compensation for sick leave taken as time off because, during such periods, employees receive their “regular salary” or “full wages.” The Court held that “regular compensation” refers to regular salary or full wages, regardless of whether the position is the employee’s original job.

Because Baker’s Screener Trainee pay matched her original position’s pay rate, it qualified as “regular compensation.” The court affirmed the trial court’s judgment, upholding the effective retirement date that SamCERA had set.

Baker v. San Mateo County Employees Retirement Association, 2025 Cal.App. LEXIS 563.

Labor Relations

PERB Denies DSA’s Improper And Untimely Severance Petition.

The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association (DSA) filed a severance petition that requested to remove four classifications from the SEIU Local 1021-represented bargaining unit at the City and County of San Francisco (City), and to place them into the unit that DSA exclusively represents. Both the City and SEIU opposed the petition to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).

PERB’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) tentatively concluded that DSA’s petition could not go forward because severance petitions may not be used to add employees to an existing bargaining unit; a severance petition must propose a new unit consisting only of the severed employees. In response, DSA amended the petition to place the affected employees in a new bargaining unit consisting only of themselves. However, by this point, the City and SEIU had already entered into a successor MOU. OGC determined that the amended petition was untimely because PERB Regulation 61400(b) requires that severance petitions or amendments be filed during the narrow 29-day “window period” before an MOU’s expiration. The amended petition was filed outside that window period and was barred. DSA appealed.

On appeal, DSA argued that its amendment was permissible under PERB Regulation 61260(a), which allows petitions for certification or recognition to be amended to correct technical errors or adjust classifications at any time before a hearing notice is issued. DSA claimed its change was a harmless, technical correction. PERB rejected this argument, holding that the more specific Regulation 61400(b) controlled in severance cases and contained the window period rules.

PERB also found that DSA’s amendment was material rather than technical. PERB agreed with OGC that the original petition itself was invalid because it attempted to transfer employees into an already existing unit, which severance petitions cannot do. PERB reiterated that severance petitions must create a new bargaining unit “consisting of” only the employees to be severed, not reassign them to another established unit.

PERB concluded that both the initial and amended petitions failed to comply with governing regulations. PERB denied DSA’s appeal, dismissed both petitions, and closed the case.

City and County of San Francisco (2025) PERB Dec. No. A532-M.

Freedom of Religion

No Religious Accommodations Required For Employee’s Secular Judgments.

Sherry Detwiler worked for the Mid-Columbia Medical Center in Oregon (MCMC). Detwiler is a Christian who believes her body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that she has a duty to avoid defiling her ‘temple’ with substances that the Bible explicitly condemns or which could potentially harm her.

Detwiler sought a religious exemption from MCMC’s policy requiring healthcare workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, absent an approved exemption. Detwiler, relying on sources she found online, believed that COVID-19 vaccines were created from fetal cell lines and contained potentially harmful substances. She informed MCMC that her religious beliefs against abortion and the use of harmful substances conflicted with the vaccine requirement.

MCMC approved Detwiler’s request for a religious exemption from vaccination. As part of that accommodation, MCMC required Detwiler to wear personal protective equipment while in the office and to submit to weekly antigen testing for COVID-19 through a nasal swab. Detwiler informed MCMC that she believed that nasal swabs contained a carcinogenic substance and reasserted her religious beliefs.

Detwiler proposed that MCMC allow her either to submit to saliva testing for COVID-19 or to work remotely full-time. MCMC’s Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) responded that MCMC had granted her request for an exemption from the vaccine requirement, but denied her requested accommodations of saliva testing or full-time remote work. CHRO advised her that saliva testing would be impractical due to the delay for test results. In addition, MCMC might ask Detwiler to appear for same-day, in-person work because of dissatisfaction with Detwiler’s work during her remote work periods. MCMC placed Detwiler on unpaid leave until she complied with the vaccine mandate, the terms of her approved religious exemption, or accepted reassignment. Detwiler chose none of those options, and MCMC terminated her employment.

Detwiler sued MCMC for religious discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. MCMC filed a motion to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim. MCMC

argued Detwiler’s objection to antigen testing stemmed from her secular, medical judgment rather than a bona fide religious belief. The District Court dismissed the complaint, accepting Detwiler’s bona fide religious beliefs but noting that Detwiler’s specific determination of what is harmful was not premised on her religion. Detwiler appealed.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit opined that it had not yet endorsed a test for determining the nature of a religious belief underlying a Title VII claim. The Court ultimately held that an employee seeking a religious exemption must plead a clear connection between her faith and the specific belief that conflicts with her work requirement.

The Court emphasized that an employee does not need to show that their belief is consistent, rational, or widely shared, but it must demonstrate that the requested accommodation flows from a truly religious principle rather than a personal or secular concern. The panel rejected the notion that generic references to broad religious tenets, such as treating one’s body as a temple, can automatically transform a secular preference into a religious belief. The Court reasoned that allowing such assertions would permit employees to bypass workplace requirements by reciting “magic words.” The Court concluded that judges must verify whether the asserted belief is religious in nature, as opposed to merely secular, but may not question the sincerity or reasonableness of the belief.

Applying that standard, the Court found that Detwiler’s complaint was not sufficient. Although the Court accepted her general Christian conviction that her body is a temple, the Court determined that her actual objection—the belief that antigen test swabs were carcinogenic—rested on her personal interpretation of medical research. Because her belief arose from a secular judgment rather than a religious doctrine, the Court ruled it was not protected under Title VII. The Court stressed that Detwiler had no religious conflict with the testing policy apart from her secular opinion about chemicals she believed to be in the swab materials. The Court warned that adopting Detwiler’s proposed lenient approach would create an unmanageable expansion of religious accommodation claims and force employers and courts to treat ordinary personal preferences as matters of faith.

Detwiler v. Mid-Columbia Med. Ctr., 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 24567 (9th Cir. 2025).

First Amendment

Ordinance That Barred Spectating Side Shows Violated Journalist’s First Amendment Rights.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance prohibiting anyone from knowingly spectating a sideshow event on a public street or highway from within 200 feet of the event (Ordinance). A sideshow involves drivers taking over intersections and performing stunts with their cars; sideshows typically draw large crowds, which further impede traffic and create very hazardous conditions.

Jose Antonio Garcia was a reporter for The Oaklandside. Before the County adopted the Ordinance, Garcia had published an article mapping every report of a sideshow made to Oakland police from January 2019 to November 2022. Garcia planned to conduct on-site reporting on sideshows by personally observing and recording the events within 200 feet.

After the County passed the Ordinance, however, Garcia cancelled his reporting plans. He was concerned that the Ordinance applied to the type of on-site reporting he planned to conduct. Garcia feared citation, arrest, and criminal prosecution if he continued as planned.

In 2024, Garcia filed a complaint against the County, arguing that the Ordinance violated his First Amendment rights. He then sought an injunction prohibiting the County from enforcing the Ordinance against him. The trial court denied the motion, finding that the First Amendment did not apply as the Ordinance did not specifically bar recording a sideshow event, and that the ordinance was more concerned with the location of bystanders. Garcia appealed.

The California Court of Appeal reversed and held that Garcia was entitled to an injunction as he was likely to prevail on his First Amendment claim. The Court found that Garcia’s activities, including his observation and recording of sideshows, were protected speech under the First Amendment because newsgathering is integral to expression. The Court rejected the County’s argument that Garcia’s “mere observation” was non-expressive. The Court found that observing events is inseparable from recording and reporting them, and restricting Garcia’s observations allowed the government to suppress speech indirectly. The Court concluded that the Ordinance directly burdened Garcia’s First Amendment rights.

The Court also found that the Ordinance was presumptively unconstitutional because it contained a content-based restriction. The Ordinance singled out those who watched sideshows within 200 feet, while allowing others to gather within 200 feet for any other purpose. That flaw meant that officials had to look at the purpose of someone’s presence and speech within the 200-foot zone of a sideshow to decide if the law applied.

The Court explained that although protecting public safety was an important goal, the County already had many other laws to address dangers like reckless driving, violence, or vandalism without restricting speech so broadly. The Court concluded that the Ordinance violated Garcia’s First Amendment rights because it unfairly targeted spectators, lacked proof that they were more dangerous than others at the scene, and was not carefully tailored to its safety goals.

Garcia v. County of Alameda, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 22860 (9th Cir. Sep. 4, 2025).

For more information on some of our upcoming events and trainings, click on the icons:

Consortium Call Of The Month

Members of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore’s employment relations consortiums may speak directly to an LCW attorney free of charge regarding questions that are not related to ongoing legal matters that LCW is handling for the agency, or that do not require in-depth research, document review, or written opinions. Consortium call questions run the gamut of topics, from leaves of absence to employment applications, disciplinary concerns and more. This feature describes an interesting consortium call and how the question was answered. We will protect the confidentiality of client communications with LCW attorneys by changing or omitting details.

Question:

Our agency received a complaint from a member of the public about an employee’s private social media post. Is the agency barred from investigating and disciplining the employee because the post was on a private account?

Answer:

The agency may investigate the post if the complaint alleges some nexus to the workplace. However, discipline for such a post might be appropriate only if: the employee appears to speak for the public employer (e.g., through statements or the use of agency logos or uniforms); or if the post creates a disruption so egregious that it affects the agency’s operations.

Did you know?

Whether you are looking to impress your colleagues or just want to learn more about the law, LCW has your back! Use and share these fun legal facts about various topics in public safety.

• AB 1075 would prohibit privately contracted fire prevention outfits from hooking up their equipment to public water sources, unless: approved by a public department incident command or authority having jurisdiction over an active fire incident; and the equipment includes a backflow prevention device.

• In Escondido, California, builders and insurers collaborated to create the nation’s first “fire-resilient community,” incorporating fire-safe materials, designs, and landscaping to protect homes and even act as a buffer for surrounding areas. The development demonstrates that modest changes in construction can significantly reduce wildfire risk and may help lower insurance costs.

• Los Angeles County now trains and equips residents to stay behind and defend their homes against wildfires under “community brigades,” challenging the long-held norm of automatic evacuation. Fire officials argue that with proper training, equipment, and defensible space, some residents can safely protect structures if professional resources are unavailable.

Harassment Prevention Training for Fire Agencies

Protect Your Department. Empower Your Team.

Is your fire agency compliant with California’s harassment prevention training laws?

LCW’s tailored Harassment Prevention Training for Fire Agencies is built exclusively for fire service management and staff. With firespecific scenarios, legal insights, interactive discussions, and practical tools, this training doesn’t just meet compliance—it fosters a culture of respect and accountability.

• Meets all SB 1343 & SB 778 mandates under California Government Code section 12950.1

• 2-Hour Supervisory & 1-Hour Non-Supervisory Options

• Fire-specific content delivered by attorneys who understand your world

• Available in-person or On-Demand, with certification and LMS compatibility

www.lcwlegal.com

Schedule Today: info@lcwlegal.com