RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIF. — A Riverside County jury awarded former sergeant Frank Lodes $2.25 million on April 21, 2026, after finding that the Riverside County Sheriff's Department retaliated against him for reporting workplace harassment in 2022. Jurors deliberated for a little less than two days at the Riverside County Historic Courthouse before ordering the county to pay $1.25 million for past emotional distress and $1 million for future emotional distress, according to his attorney.

The lawsuit, filed in 2023 by attorney Bijan Darvish, named only the county as a defendant. Sheriff Chad Bianco was not mentioned in the filing.

Lodes was assigned to the Jurupa Valley station, where as senior sergeant he was responsible for training new sergeants. In a March 2022 discussion about promotions, Capt. Mike Koehler said, "Don't worry about Frank. He's mentally ill," according to the lawsuit. After Lodes complained to Koehler about the remark, Koehler told him that being mentally ill was not something to feel bad about, the lawsuit says.

Lodes reported the comments to a lieutenant. Around the same time, someone posted flyers around the station, including in Lodes' uniform pants pockets, at his workstation and inside his holster, depicting a child in a patrol car with Lodes' face over the child, the lawsuit says. He also reported the flyers, requested a transfer that was denied, and in January 2023 was removed from his training assignment.

Internal affairs Sgt. Mike Hamilton later drove to Lodes' home, delivered his personal property from the station and informed him of an investigation. Hamilton then spent about four hours at a restaurant attempting to persuade Lodes to retire at about age 47 or face a departmental probe, the lawsuit says. Lodes wrote his retirement letter on the hood of his car.

The next day, Assistant Sheriff Matthew Jimenez met Lodes in a Del Taco parking lot and pressured him to resign and withdraw his harassment complaint. Lodes briefly left Jimenez's car to adjust the IV of his ailing wife, then returned to sign a pre-written resignation letter, the lawsuit says.

"That's not where we have employees sign life-changing forms," Darvish said. He said the department dropped its planned investigation into Lodes and never investigated his harassment complaint after he resigned.

In a court response, the county's attorneys said Lodes' superiors did not retaliate against him, that internal affairs had already planned to investigate Lodes, that his performance was poor, and that he failed to follow internal procedures for filing a complaint. In its court filing, the county said it did not confirm or deny the actions alleged in the lawsuit and argued that if they occurred, they were outside the deputies' authority and the county would not have known about them.

Jimenez retired in 2023 and received a proclamation from the Board of Supervisors. Koehler was promoted to chief deputy in 2024 and leads operations in the Corrections Division.