Former Vallejo deputy police chief alleges in lawsuit he was fired for addressing officer misconduct

VALLEJO – Former Vallejo Deputy Police Chief Joseph Gomez sued the city Wednesday claiming he faced harassment from subordinate officers and the city fired him for his efforts to address deficiencies in the internal affairs department.

Gomez was hired as Vallejo’s deputy chief in June 2023, a month before the city declared a public safety staffing emergency with staffing levels at a historic low of 72 sworn officers. Gomez had previously worked at the Fresno Police Department for 32 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant, and served as chief of the Selma Police department for just over a year but left for undisclosed reasons. Gomez left Vallejo in March 2024, just nine months after he was hired.

The lawsuit states that Gomez’s responsibilities in Vallejo entailed reviewing departmental processes including internal affairs investigations. Gomez said that he discovered a backlog of cases that were delayed or ignored despite a one year statutory deadline, after which the cases are no longer actionable. 

Gomez also alleged that officer evaluations were over a year behind in part because a captain had taken evaluations home and lost the documents.

According to the lawsuit, Gomez worked diligently to process the misconduct cases before their expiration dates. 

However, he alleges that captains in the department who were vying for his position immediately began a campaign of resistance. The suit describes “stalking behavior” in which captains followed Gomez’s every move and complained to then-Interim Chief Jason Ta about any attempt Gomez made to hold members of the department accountable. 

The Vallejo Police Officers Association represents officers through the rank of captain. The lawsuit notes that in other departments it is uncommon for the union to represent upper management ranks.

The lawsuit does not name which captains were involved in the resistance campaign. Just before Gomez left the department, then-Capt. Robert Knight was promoted to deputy chief alongside Gomez. 

Knight has been with Vallejo police since 1999 and was a VPOA board member in 2022. 

In 2020, as a lieutenant in the professional standards division, Knight fought with two veteran police recruiters that former police Chief Shawny Williams hired from San Jose. Meanwhile, staffing levels declined, which the union blamed on Williams.

Williams, who was hired to reform the department after a series of scandals, eventually resigned from the department under pressure from the VPOA. A recent lawsuit alleged that Williams faced threats in the months before he left.

Ta, who was deputy chief at the time, was promoted to interim chief and hired Gomez for the deputy chief position.

According to Gomez’s suit, it became apparent to Gomez that the department preferred to allow the misconduct cases to expire rather than taking disciplinary action in a timely manner. Gomez also alleged that Ta was unwilling to discipline VPOA President Lt. Michael Nichelini despite a history of misconduct issues. Nichelini was fired by Williams but won his job back in arbitration.

When Gomez was hired, Nichelini publicly welcomed him and said in a statement that he was hopeful that Gomez would help move the department in the right direction. Nichelini added that due to the low staffing levels officers were facing “extreme workloads” driving them to leave for other agencies where they could get paid more for less work.

But Nichelini then filed a union grievance regarding a number of Gomez’s actions to address administrative deficiencies at the department, according to the lawsuit. The complaint claimed that Gomez had taken over work that was the responsibility of captains, resulting in an unfair transfer of bargaining unit work to the deputy chief.

The department did not notify Gomez about the union complaint but he later learned about it through a labor negotiation meeting. According to the suit, Ta became angry with Gomez when he asked why he had not been told about the union grievance.

Gomez claims that Ta restricted his supervisory duties and then suspended him. After the suspension, the city offered him a $100,000 severance package in exchange for his resignation, according to the lawsuit.

Gomez asked Ta to explain why he was being let go. But instead of providing specific examples of performance issues, Ta only said that Gomez was “not prepared” and had failed to build “trust in the agency,” according to the suit.

When Gomez refused to resign, the city fired him, the suit states.

Gomez claims that the city retaliated against him for his work to address deficiencies in the officer discipline process at the department. He claims that the wrongful termination damaged his career as evidenced by the lack of response he has received after submitting applications to multiple agencies. 

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount for reputational damage, lost wages and pension benefits.