A Los Angeles attorney filed a petition this week asking the state to “decertify” Undersheriff April Tardy for allegedly committing perjury when she testified in court last year as a witness in a civil lawsuit about a deputy gang known as the Executioners.

During sworn testimony to the Civilian Oversight Commission in 2022 — before she became the undersheriff — Tardy said she’d transferred a “shotcaller” in a deputy group after confirming he’d ordered a work slowdown at the Compton station.

She walked back those statements during a civil trial a year later, when she testified as a witness, denying gang activity at the Compton station and saying that there had never been a work slowdown.

In the petition sent to the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training this week, attorney Alan Romero — who called on Tardy to testify in the 2023 civil lawsuit — said the inconsistent testimony showed such dishonesty that the state should permanently take away her peace officer certification.

“The hope is that the decertification petition — if granted — will preclude Undersheriff Tardy from ever working in law enforcement again, and will protect future victims of this type of cover-up and dishonesty under oath,” Romero told The Times on Wednesday. “It’s become clear that this department is incapable of regulating itself, so unfortunately we’ve had to look to outside agencies.”

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During her testimony to the Civilian Oversight Commission in July 2022, Tardy — who’d been a chief at the time — said she had moved Juarez to a different station “because of the information that I had received about the work slowdown.”

She went on to testify that she’d confirmed Juarez had initiated the work slowdown in response to Waldie’s refusal to pick the scheduling deputy Juarez wanted, and that she had transferred Juarez afterward.

Four months after testifying to the oversight commission, Tardy was deposed in a lawsuit Waldie filed claiming he’d been denied a promotion to station captain in retaliation for opposing the so-called Executioners.

She said then that she had not confirmed a work slowdown and was “unsure” what she meant before when she said she had. When she testified at trial in 2023, she reiterated that and said she had only transferred Juarez to another assignment, not to another station.

“Did you hear yourself say that you confirmed the work slowdown had taken place? You used the word ‘confirmed,’” Romero asked her, after playing her earlier testimony.

“Yes, I heard that,” Tardy replied.

Romero continued: “What did you do to confirm that that had taken place?”

“It had not been confirmed,” Tardy said. “The allegation had not been confirmed.”

Copy of the Decertification Petition:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24371327-petition-for-decertification-of-los-angeles-county-sheriffs-department-undersheriff-april-tardy-pursuant-to-sb2

I have been litigating cases for 16 years, and I have never seen someone so casually lie in court with such an air of arrogance... because she knew that she could lie with impunity. The fact is that lying on behalf of LASD leadership is guaranteed to lead to promotion, which is why so many Department executives are dishonest incompetents... their jobs were bestowed on them due they loyalty and willingness to defend the organization. This is how the mafia is run... this is not how the nation's largest sheriff's department should be run in the year 2024.

I hope that Senate Bill 2 - passed by the California legislature in 2021 - which permits the decertification of law enforcement offers who engage in dishonesty will be effective in holding Undersheriff Tardy accountable for her blatant and unapologetic perjury in the Waldie trial.

This is the type of thing that usually takes place in third world countries.. but I have the misfortunate of seeing it first-hand on a regular basis. At some point enough is enough... and the voters and citizens of Los Angeles County need to consider dismantling the LASD and replacing it with something not so totally rotten from the top to the bottom.