Mayor Libby Schaaf & OPD Retaliate Against Whistleblower in Murder Cover-up

(Claim filed against Oakland, Libby Schaaf, Sabrina Landreth, David Downing, and John Lois. 6-page PDF)


Sargeant Gantt and Dan Siegel filed a claim today against the City of Oakland and the civilian and sworn leaders who are stooping to new lows to try and hide the truth.

Schaaf and Landreth, along with Assistant Chief David Downing and Deputy Chief John Lois have gone to great lengths to prevent any fact-finding in the mysterious death of Irma Huerta Lopez, wife of now-deceased OPD Officer Brendan O’Brien.

In June 2014, after Sgt. Gantt began to suspect that Officer O’Brien had killed his wife, then-Lt. Lois removed him from the investigation. About a month later, several Homicide Inspectors improperly accessed and viewed Sgt. Gantt’s personnel records. The Department failed to act on Sgt. Gantt’s complaint about the harassment and misconduct, and he was forced to transfer out of the hostile environment of the Homicide Unit.

Nearly two years later the Chief of Police placed Sgt. Gantt on administrative leave due to a domestic dispute involving Gantt and his wife, neither of whom wished to make charges against the other. The City of Oakland has failed and refuses to complete that investigation, leaving Gantt’s officer status in limbo.

Then in June 2016, before doing any consultation with the District Attorney, Mayor Schaaf and City Administrator Landreth publicly accused Sgt. Gantt of improperly allowing an acquaintance to review and transcribe confidential materials relating to homicide investigations. As the DA’s office stated when it cleared Sgt. Gantt of criminal wrongdoing about 10 days later, these materials were not confidential at all - they were simple audio recordings of jail conversations that Sgt. Gantt’s acquaintance had transcribed.

That was totally legal activity and definitely not worth a public news conference with the Mayor and City Administrator - unless they were trying to deflect attention away from the massive OPD sexual exploitation scandal that appears to develop new twists and revelations on a weekly basis.

Finally, City Administrator Landreth has proposed to suspend Sgt. Gantt without pay because of his involvement in sending offensive text messages to other members of the Homicide Unit - back in 2014. None of the other officers involved has been disciplined.

Evaluated as a whole, all of the actions against Sgt. Gantt and their curious timing present a clear campaign to retaliate against, stigmatize and make an example of someone who tried to break the Blue Wall of Silence at OPD.

Siegel & Yee has a long track record of successfully representing City of Oakland and other public employees in whistleblower lawsuits. If you see misconduct, please call the hotline at 510.839.1200 or email evidence to policehotline [at] siegelyee.com.