Facts

Plaintiff Delores Simpson is a Children's Social Worker for the County of Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services ("DCFS"). Simpson, who describes herself as Black-American, has worked for the County since 1986. In March 2020, Kimberly Cardozo, an assistant regional administrator (ARA), was transferred to the Glendora office. Simpson accused Cardozo of having a bias against black people based on rumors she had heard from other black coworkers. Cardozo had multiple disagreements with Simpson regarding her performance. According to Simpson, shortly after she complained about racial harassment and discrimination, Cardozo retaliated by assigning her difficult Continuing Services ("CS") cases in addition to her full caseload. Cardozo assigned cases to Simpson and another caseworker, because a trainee, who is also African-American, was failing probation and needed more mentoring by Cardozo and others. The reassignments were based on caseload, as Simpson had the lowest caseload in the unit.

Cardozo and Simpson's direct supervisor, Veronica Ochoa, were working with Simpson to improve the quality of her court reports but Simpson refused to follow their instructions. On Nov. 10, 2020, Simpson received a "Notice of Expectation" due to deficiencies in her cases. She didn't follow the procedures of children's interviews when she did not interview them privately or interview the caregivers. Also, the documents supporting the court reports were not complete, generating delays in the decisions. Simpson refused to follow orders from her direct supervisors, Christina Golan and Veronica Ochoa, answered emails in a disrespectful and discourteous manner, and did not follow the County policies regarding filing court reports. Cardozo sent multiple emails regarding Simpson's performance, and when she tried to schedule a conference with Simpson, Simpson answered that Cardozo was a "racist slave owner."

Simpson repeatedly complained that her supervisors did not want to authorize overtime. Her supervisors sent many emails explaining the reasons for the denials and the way she should file the appropriate form so that her overtime could be processed. Simpson simply refused to follow directions and alleged discrimination and retaliation. Simpson filed approximately 26 internal discrimination complaints against her supervisors.

On May 13, 2021, Simpson's supervisor sent her a letter confirming the County's performance expectations: court reports should be filed completely and in a timely manner in order to avoid delays that can prejudice children and the caregivers should be notified of the next hearings. She answered the letter denying the facts and expressing her disagreement regarding her performance below expectations. According to her, her performance was highly rated overall.

On July 23, 2021, Simpson was put on desk duty because she filed two court reports without her supervisor's authorization, in violation of the County policy rules. Despite numerous attempts by Christina Golan to have Simpson make corrections to the court reports, Simpson refused and, instead, filed the court reports with the notation that her supervisor "refused to sign." This was untrue. Golan was then forced to file a last minute information ("LMI") with the court. The form contained electronic signatures stating "Christina Golan for Delores Simpson." Simpson then claimed that Golan forged her signature and filed a police report with the Glendora Police Department.

Simpson's performance evaluations for 2021 were below expectations; among others, she needed to improve in following instructions to the supervisors, submitting the court reports timely and completely, and being respectful to her supervisors and the public.

On April 18, 2022, Simpson was suspended for 30 days due to repeated insubordination, discourteous and disrespectful conduct, personal attacks against her supervisors and managers, failure to follow instructions given by the management, and submission of court reports without her supervisor's knowledge, approval, or signature.

In 2022, at Simpson's request, the County replaced her desktop computer with a Chromebook laptop. She believed that she would be allowed to have both computers, but later acknowledged that one was to replace the other. She nonetheless alleged that the removal of her desktop was disability, racial and age discrimination. Simpson filed an internal complaint accusing her supervisors of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation due to its removal despite the fact that she had requested the laptop.

In June 2022, Simpson worked unnecessary overtime without authorization, when she checked on a newborn baby on her caseload after hours, even though there was no urgency because the baby was in the hospital and therefore, receiving appropriate care. This resulted in an Internal Affairs investigation into misuse of overtime, which Simpson claimed was discriminatory and retaliatory.

Simpson's performance evaluation for 2022 was again below expectations. She struggled to perform some tasks, refused to meet with her supervisors, did not meet the time frame for the reports, did not complete reports, and made decisions without consulting her supervisor.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff alleged that in March 2020, while she was working at the Glendora office, a new Assistant Regional Manager ("ARA"), Kim Cardozo, who did "not like black people" began supervising her. She alleges that she suffered excessive transfers, denial of overtime, assignment to desk duty, investigations, and a 30-day suspension based on racial and age-based discrimination, harassment, and retaliation by various DCFS supervisors, managers, and directors. She alleged that she was the victim of the "cat's paw" theory, based on the Cardozo's alleged influence with other decisionmakers. She alleged that her job performance was excellent and had been so for more than two decades, until she came under Cardozo's supervision.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: The County proved that Simpson had no evidence of any racist or ageist remarks or conduct by Cardozo, but that her case was based entirely on purported rumors and Simpson's self-serving conclusions. Nor was there any evidence that Cardozo influenced other decisionmakers or participated in their decisions. All of the alleged adverse employment actions were either not material, or the County had taken them for legitimate business reasons and Simpson lacked evidence that the reasons were a pretext for discrimination or retaliation. As for harassment, Simpson lacked sufficient evidence of race or age based remarks or conduct to prove that her work environment was severely or pervasively hostile.

Result

Summary Judgment in favor of defense.