A Los Angeles County jury awarded a former LAPD commander nearly $6 million on Wednesday, finding in her favor in a lawsuit against the department that claimed she was wrongfully fired over an alcohol-fueled incident in 2018.<\/p>\n
The commander, Nicole Mehringer, argued she was held to a different standard than her male LAPD colleagues, who she claimed were allowed to keep their jobs under similar circumstances, sometimes with department officials going to extreme lengths to cover up their wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
The jury ultimately agreed with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel grateful and vindicated,\u201d Mehringer told The Times after the verdict. \u201cThis verdict means everything to me and in my mind it restores my reputation.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of her attorneys, Greg Smith, said testimony by former Chief Michel Moore was key. Smith said he showed jurors that Moore lied when the ex-chief, who retired in 2024, testified that he hadn\u2019t sought to overrule a disciplinary panel\u2019s decision in Mehringer\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe jurors believed that our client was clearly treated differently,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Smith said the case partly hinged on how his client was treated by police officials when she sought to expose others for misconduct. <\/p>\n
During trial, Smith played jurors a videotaped message from a former LAPD deputy chief, John Sherman, in which Sherman spoke about Mehringer\u2019s sterling record and made an argument for why she should keep her job. But Sherman later withdrew his support, openly declaring that he was doing so because Mehringer had chosen to expose the department\u2019s dirty laundry, Smith said.<\/p>\n
Mehringer\u2019s case dates back to April 27, 2018, when she and her subordinate, Sgt. James Kelly, were arrested<\/a> by Glendale police officers. The two were found in an unmarked police Dodge Charger that had come to rest against a parked vehicle in the middle of the road.<\/p>\n Kelly, who was behind the wheel, appeared to be under the influence, while Mehringer also showed signs of intoxication and argued with the officers, who needed about 20 minutes to get the pair out of the vehicle, Glendale police told The Times in 2018. Mehringer was charged with a single misdemeanor count of public intoxication, while Kelly was booked on charges of driving under the influence.<\/p>\n Mehringer\u2019s charge was later dismissed,<\/a> after she completed a 30-day outpatient recovery program. Kelly later pleaded no contest.<\/a><\/p>\n At the time of the incident, Mehringer was considered a rising star in the LAPD. She ran the department\u2019s employee relations group, which handles contract negotiations, grievances and other union-related issues. <\/p>\n