Williams v. City of Los Angeles

Appellant John D. Williams was discharged from his position as a police officer for misconduct. He appeals from a judgment granting a peremptory writ of mandate directing respondents, including the City of Los Angeles, to award him backpay from the date he was suspended from the police force in violation of his Shelly rights (Skelly v. State Personnel Bd. (1975) 15 Cal.3d 194 [ 124 Cal.Rptr. 14 , 539 P.2d 774 ]) to the date he was discharged from the police force, contending he should have been awarded backpay from the date of his suspension to the date of his trial de novo in superior court challenging his discharge. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment.

Procedural and Factual History

Officer Williams was a member of the 77th Street Vice Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department. In March 1980, as part of an internal investigation into the unit’s manner of making arrests for bookmaking, Williams was interrogated by the department’s internal affairs division, as were other members of the unit. Williams cooperated with the investigators and answered the questions put to him.

The investigation ultimately revealed that Williams and his partner officers, in…