High Court Decision Could Hurt Misconduct Probes, Lawyer Says
Richard Ceballos, the Los Angeles prosecutor at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting whistle-blower rights, said Wednesday that the high court's ruling will dampen prosecutors' willingness to speak out when they encounter corrupt police officers.
Ceballos, 42, who grew up in East Los Angeles and was among the first generation in his family to go to college, said he found the Supreme Court's decision disheartening -- for his own career and for all public employees.
"I'm clearly disappointed," he said, sitting in his office on the 18th floor of the county's Criminal Courts Building. Ceballos still works for the district attorney's office, though he says he is persona non grata among some of the department's top managers.
"It strikes a blow for all government employees and creates a disincentive to report corruption, misconduct, waste and fraud that we come across in our work," he said.
Six years ago, Ceballos filed a suit against Los Angeles County, contending that top supervisors in the district attorney's office tolerated misconduct by sheriff's deputies and retaliated by demoting him for writing a memo alleging that deputies may have lied to obtain a search warrant.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court threw out much of the suit, ruling that while government employees have the same rights as other citizens to speak out on the controversies of the day, they do not have the right to speak freely inside their offices on matters related to their "official duties."
The message, Ceballos said, is "Keep quiet. Keep your mouth shut."
The decision could effect millions of public employees, including teachers, public hospital workers and police officers, legal experts said.
Lawyers for city and state agencies say the decision will prevent employees from making federal cases out of routine internal workplace disputes.
"He wasn't doing it to express his opinion as a concerned citizen," said Cindy Lee, the private lawyer hired by the county to handle the case. It was Ceballos' job to evaluate search warrants, Lee said. He determined that the search warrant was faulty, but his supervisor disagreed.
Ceballos' dispute arose during former Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti's tenure, but Ceballos' current boss, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, praised the ruling.
Other government agencies, including the Bush administration, joined the case on the side of county officials.
