Judge Dismisses Suit Claiming LA County Fire Discriminated Against White Men

LOS ANGELES, CA — A judge Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles County Fire Department battalion chief who said he has been denied a promotion to assistant fire chief because of the department's alleged discrimination against white men.

Plaintiff Dayton Calhoun maintained in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that he had far exceeded the minimum requirements for the upgrade and that Chief Anthony Marrone was committed to promoting women and people of color over candidates such as the plaintiff.

Judge Daniel Crowley heard arguments on the county's motion to dismiss the case Tuesday. He took the issues under submission and issued a final ruling Wednesday.

"Plaintiff fails to meet his burden to produce substantial evidence that defendant's given reasons for not selecting plaintiff for an acting assistant fire chief assignment or for promotion to assistant fire chief were either untrue or pretextual, or that defendant acted with discriminatory animus," the judge wrote.

The judge also noted that Marrone contended in a sworn declaration that he did not consider gender when deciding whom to select for any acting assistant fire chief assignment or for a promotion to the position.

"Defendant sufficiently demonstrated a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for not selecting plaintiff for an acting assistant fire chief assignment or for promotion to assistant fire chief," according to Crowley.

In addition, the county "met its burden to demonstrate that the county does not have a policy or practice that disproportionately disqualifies Caucasian candidates compared to non-Caucasian candidates," the judge further wrote.

Calhoun is a 1994 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and he served for 11 years as a Marine Corps officer before joining the Los Angeles County Fire Department in January 2006. He was promoted to firefighter specialist in 2011, to captain in 2014 and to battalion chief in 2020.

The Board of Supervisors appointed Marrone as chief and before the vote he told the board he would work to make his department more inclusive of women and people of color in hiring and in promoting, according to Calhoun's attorneys' court papers. Marrone often called himself during meetings the "DEI fire chief," the plaintiff's lawyers further state.

Calhoun scored high on the examination for assistant fire chief, but rather than promote the most-qualified candidates, the department and Marrone "applied the discriminatory and unlawful promotion scheme to unlawfully circumvent Calhoun's earned promotion," the suit alleged.

The department's alleged practice of selecting candidates because based on race and gender has a disproportionately adverse effect on Caucasian males who are more qualified for the promotional positions as demonstrated by their examination scores and eligibility for the promotional positions, the suit filed in December 2024 stated.

City News Service