Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León has joined his former colleague, Gil Cedillo, in suing two ex-employees of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor in connection with the 2022 release of a secret recording where racist language was used during a discussion of redistricting plans for the city, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Similar to Cedillo, de León filed his lawsuit on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, using some of the same language to allege that the recording was an invasion of privacy and the result of negligence.
Unlike Cedillo, de León is not suing the Federation, only the two former employees, Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez, who are married. The two are also named in Cedillo’s lawsuit.
At the time of the recording, Vasquez worked as an executive assistant to then Federation president Ron Herrera, and Leon was the organization’s accountant. Both have since resigned.
An ongoing investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department aims to determine who recorded the conversation, and neither Leon nor Vasquez has been publicly identified as suspects.
Representatives of the Federation, Leon, and Vasquez could not be reached for comment.
Although filed separately, the two lawsuits claim that the recording, which became public on social media on October 9, 2022, was made without their knowledge or consent and was a “textbook ‘October surprise’” designed to damage their reputations.
Furthermore, both lawsuits argue that the most offensive remarks on the recording were made by others, not Cedillo or de León.
Cedillo’s filing states that others on the recording “made comments that were perceived as highly offensive by many people,” but some of the statements were taken out of context or improperly translated from Spanish slang.
It further states that Cedillo regrets remaining silent while others made racially insensitive and derogatory comments about Blacks, Oaxacans, and others.
In de León’s lawsuit, the filing argues that the weeks of protests, including people camping outside his Echo Park home and occasional physical altercations, and the calls for those on the recording to resign were misguided.
“Nuance was ignored, context was hijacked, and a frenzy was manufactured,” according to the report by the LA Times.
The recording was made during an October 2021 meeting at the Federation’s headquarters, where de León, Cedillo, former City Council President Nury Martinez, and former Federation president Ron Herrera were discussing ways to preserve Latino electoral influence amid efforts to revise City Council district boundaries.
Martinez and Herrera stepped down from their positions shortly after the recording became public. Cedillo had already lost his bid for re-election four months before the recording was released but remained in office until his term ended in December.
Only de León remains in office and has announced plans to seek re-election.
Cedillo’s lawsuit states that his “entire lifetime of service was jettisoned because he failed to object to comments made by his colleagues” and that he has lost employment opportunities.
He is seeking punitive damages, general damages, and compensatory damages.
In de León’s complaint, it is stated that the release of the recording has caused him to become the “target of verbal assault, ethnic slurs, death threats, being spat on, and permanent damage to his reputation and political future.”
He is seeking unspecified damages.
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