In an exclusive interview with KTLA’s Mary Beth McDade, Al Labrada says he wants to clear his name after being demoted from his Asst. Chief position with the LAPD.
Labrada supplied documents from the San Bernardino District Attorney’s Office that says no criminal charges will be filed against him, and outlines a lack of evidence in the case.
“I think it’s important the issues of clearing a wrong,” Labrada said.
Labrada was seen as a rising star in the department. He stepped into the role of Chief of the LAPD when the now-retired Michel Moore was on an extended vacation, and many saw Labrada as the eventual successor to Moore.
But that changed when Labrada was accused of placing an Apple Airtag in the bumper of his former girlfriend’s vehicle. She was also an officer with the LAPD. The tracking device found in the vehicle was traced back to Labrada’s work-issued cell phone.
The 31-year law enforcement veteran says the allegations had a profound effect on his career.
“My career has been tarnished,” said Labrada. “My reputation has obviously been destroyed.”
Labrada, the highest-ranking Latino in the department, joined the LAPD in 1993 and was one of three assistant chiefs who reported directly to Moore.
But Labrada says Moore didn’t use a similar approach that he did when another officer was accused of similar actions against the same woman that Labrada was dating.
The former Assistant Chief says Moore’s comments about him following the allegations were unfair.
“Everything that was put out in the media initially, more importantly the words that Michel Moore put out, providing my name openly within a week of the allegations are unheard of,” Labrada said. “It’s unprecedented.”
Larbrada adds that the way he was treated by Moore and the LAPD when his former domestic partner initially made the complaint was unjustified, including making it public that he had been demoted.
The former Assistant Chief has filed a government claim against the LAPD.
“There’s an expectation of privacy, there’s a police officers’ Bill of Rights,” Labrada said. “More importantly there’s something called due process, in this case it wasn’t afforded to me.”
Labrada stated that he received the document stating that he won’t be charged from the San Bernardino DA last week, but that the LAPD has had the same document since last October.
“They waited over six months to provide those findings to me,” Labrada said.
The DA’s document says there is a lack of evidence that Labrada put the device into his former girlfriend’s vehicle. There was also nothing from the case that proves Larbrada was actively tracking his former partner.
According to the document, when the woman, identified by the L.A. Times as Dawn Silva, was asked what Labrada would say if confronted about placing the tag in her vehicle, she responded that he would say it was in case of theft.
When asked by KTLA if Labrada placed the device in her car or if he had stalked her, he vehemently denied the allegations.
“No, I did not,” Labrada said. “We were in a six-year relationship, two-and-a-half years in a domestic partnership, we were in the process of purchasing a home. We had a breakup, it led to these allegations.”
Labrada is not currently working, pending the outcome of a Board of Rights investigation in June.
KTLA spoke with Moore, who said that he stands by the investigation and looks forward to Labrada exercising his rights to a full review.