LA County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia is biased against Latinos, MALDEF claims

The promotion policies in Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia's office were criticized in a lawsuit filed Friday by a deputy defender, claiming that a standardized test used in hiring decisions discriminates against Latinos.

Fernando Nunez, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and counsel for plaintiff Miguel Rosales, called the test a "glorified personality test" and said it "historically disadvantaged Latino applicants who consistently score lower than non Latino applicants."

Garcia's office did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. He became the county's first Latino public defender in October 2018 after being chosen by the county board of supervisors.

According to the complaint, none of the 24 head deputy public defenders is Latino.

Rosales, 60, has been a deputy public defender for LA County since 1995 and claims that he has been passed over for a promotion to head deputy in favor of less experienced, non-Latino candidates due to the office's reliance on a personal characteristics test that he claims discriminates against Latinos.

In the federal complaint, Nunez wrote that the office required applicants seeking a promotion to score 70% or higher on the test and alleged that Garcia made the test a permanent part of the promotional process soon after he took office, "despite warnings from Latino senior managers that the test disproportionately disadvantages Latino applicants." Rosales v. Los Angeles County, 2:23-cv-05464 (C.D.Cal. filed July 7, 2023).

A news release from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund quoted Rosales as saying, "For years, Latino public defenders working for the LA county public defender's office have been shut out of management. The current L.A. County Public Defender ushered in an era of personality and psychological testing. The results of these tests enabled the public defender's office to freeze out qualified, experienced, and accomplished Latino public defenders in favor of less qualified, younger, and non-Latino applicants. With the help of MALDEF, we hope to bring an end to these discriminatory practices."