RIVERSIDE COUNTY — A civil jury in Riverside County concluded that Sgt. Frank Lodes was forced to resign after reporting a hostile workplace and ordered the county to pay him $2.25 million in damages. The award, intended to compensate Lodes for emotional damages, will be paid from county funds. The jury also found that the Riverside County Sheriff's Department's allegations against Lodes regarding the unlawful use of informants were manufactured to cover up retaliation.

According to the complaint, the retaliation began after Lodes formally reported workplace harassment to human resources in March 2022. In October 2021, a captain had called Lodes mentally ill in front of his peers during a promotability meeting, the complaint stated. A few months later, degrading posters of Lodes' head on a child's body were placed inside his uniform pockets and gun holster and plastered over the station walls, according to the complaint.

The complaint stated that a high-ranking sheriff's department official threatened Lodes with investigations after he reported the harassment. An Internal Affairs sergeant packed Lodes' personal belongings in a box and delivered them to his house within days of the harassment complaint being filed, and then spent hours pressuring Lodes, then 47, to accept early retirement, according to the complaint.

The following day, a high-ranking official met Lodes in a Del Taco parking lot and instructed him to resign immediately and withdraw his harassment complaint, the complaint stated. Lodes submitted his resignation letter from that parking lot in 2022. According to attorney Bijan Darvish, the Sheriff's Department responded to Lodes' harassment report by investigating him for allegedly unlawfully using informants and threatened him with possible criminal prosecution.

"Being a cop was his life; he lived and breathed it 24/7." Darvish said. "It was his entire identity, and that's why it was so difficult for him when it was taken away."

"When there's a harassment complaint made against the captain and they never investigated, and they pressure someone to resign and withdraw the complaint, then that's a systemic issue," he said.