Why the LAPD Fired Dorner

The 'Los Angeles Times' delves into 2007 incident
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 11, 2013 8:50 AM CST
Why the LAPD Fired Dorner
This undated photo released by the Los Angeles Police Department shows suspect Christopher Dorner, a former Los Angeles officer.   (AP Photo/Los Angeles Police Department)

As police continue to search for Christopher Dorner, the ex-LAPD officer accused of killing three people, the Los Angeles Times takes a look at why Dorner was fired in 2009. The department is also reopening the investigation. Dorner was working with training officer Teresa Evans in 2007; she said he was having trouble readjusting to police work after being deployed overseas for 13 months, and she frequently evaluated him as "satisfactory" but needing improvement. He got "upset" after she warned him she would mark him "unsatisfactory" if he didn't improve, she later recalled. On July 28, 2007, Dorner and Evans responded to reports of a mentally ill man creating a disturbance at a San Pedro hotel. Almost two weeks later, a teary Dorner reported that Evans had kicked the man twice in the chest and once in the face and had asked him not to include it on the arrest report.

An internal affairs investigation concluded Evans never kicked the man, and Dorner was charged with making false accusations. He reported the kicks a day after Evans said, in one of her evaluations, that he needed to improve in three areas. But Dorner testified that the only reason he waited to report the incident was fear of retaliation; he had already filed other complaints against fellow officers. Ultimately, Dorner was fired by a disciplinary panel. When he filed an appeal, a Superior Court judge expressed some doubt with the panel's ruling, writing that he was "uncertain whether the training officer kicked the suspect" but upholding the decision to fire Dorner. Dorner's manifesto centers around his complaints with the LAPD and claims of being unjustly fired. In a separate story, the Times profiles Dorner's first two alleged victims: Monica Quan, daughter of the attorney who represented Dorner, and her fiance Keith Lawrence, whom she met while playing basketball at Concordia University. (More Christopher Dorner stories.)

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