Former Police Officer Who Recanted Harassment Claim Loses Suit, Is Ordered to Pay City $40,000

A former Pasadena police officer who publicly accused the city’s police chief of sexual harassment, then acknowledged under oath that the accusation was a lie, has lost her discrimination lawsuit and been ordered to pay the city $40,000 in legal fees, the City of Pasadena reported Thursday.

The dismissal, in February, and the fee award, in June, ended at the trial level a case the former officer, Taisyn Crutchfield, filed in 2024, after nearly two years of litigation. In its account of the rulings, the city said the court had found her lawsuit without merit and concluded that she was not truthful in pursuing it.

The trial court dismissed each of Crutchfield’s claims on Feb. 13, finding no or insufficient evidence to support her allegations, according to the city. The release said the court found that the city had presented “significant” and, in other instances, “substantial” evidence of legitimate, nondiscriminatory justifications for its employment decisions, including those made by the police chief, Eugene Harris.

Following the dismissal, the court on June 3 ordered Crutchfield to pay the city $40,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs, the city said.

After the second session of Harris’ deposition, the release said, the court found that her “prosecution of her action was … ‘frivolous, unreasonable or groundless.'”

The release also detailed findings about Crutchfield’s credibility. The court found that she had been “untruthful” in pursuing her case, the city said. According to the release, the court further found that after filing her complaint, she appeared at a televised news conference and “made scandalous statements about Chief Harris that a month later she admitted were not truthful.”

At that news conference, on April 2, Crutchfield said she “did not want to sleep with [Chief Harris]” and that “as a result of that, [she] was punished harshly.” The court found that “a month later in a deposition [Ms.] Crutchfield admitted under oath that her statements [concerning the alleged sexual harassment by Chief Harris] at the televised press conference were a lie.”

Crutchfield’s case grew out of a Feb. 20, 2023, incident, according to court filings and earlier reporting on the case, in which she — then a probationary officer — intervened in an encounter between another officer, Ralph Palacios, and members of the public near the Pasadena police station. She was placed on administrative leave afterward, and her filings alleged a pattern of racial bias within the department. When she first raised the claim in 2023, the city called the allegations inaccurate and said it would contest them.

Crutchfield filed suit in June 2024, alleging discrimination and harassment based on her gender and race and retaliation for allegedly reporting unlawful conduct.

Court records show she filed a consolidated complaint, entered May 16, 2024, with two other officers, Sgt. Milton White and Officer Jarvis Shelby, though the city dates her own filing to June 2024. Shortly after filing, she voluntarily resigned from the Police Department, claiming she had been constructively terminated.

Crutchfield could not immediately be reached for comment on the dismissal and the fee award. It was not clear whether she intends to appeal. Harris remains the chief of the Pasadena Police Department.