A federal judge this week ruled against the city of Los Angeles in a long-running lawsuit over the city’s practice of destroying unhoused people’s property during encampment sweeps.
In a rare default judgment, U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer made a finding in favor of the plaintiffs — ending the case — because the judge found the city's explanations for why it had destroyed or altered certain documents were not credible.
The judge found the city had acted "willfully and in bad faith" to deprive the plaintiffs information that was relevant to their case, according to court documents.
It’s a win for six unhoused residents and advocacy organization Ktown For All, who filed the lawsuit in 2019, challenging whether L.A. Sanitation employees violated unhoused residents’ constitutional rights when seizing and discarding belongings during sweeps.
L.A. city code allows employees to remove and impound unattended, abandoned or hazardous items that are in the public right-of-way. In the lawsuit, plaintiffs alleged city sanitation workers arbitrarily seize and destroy property without objective standards or proper notice. With the default judgement, the court accepted those allegations as true.
City’s misconduct
According to the judge's ruling, attorneys for Ktown For All argued that the city had "altered and fabricated key evidence" — including health hazard assessment reports and checklists —- after the lawsuit was filed. Their arguments were supported in 2023, after a forensic examiner had examined some of the evidence and the court found the city had "altered, modified, and created documents" relevant to the case.
The city of L.A. admitted to destroying some documents, but argued it did so because the records were error-filled because of flawed record-keeping during the pandemic, not an “intent to deprive Plaintiffs of the information’s use in the litigation,” according to the ruling.
Fischer noted there were problematic documents associated with more than 90% of the 144 cleanup cases examined by the court. Those records were being used to justify the city’s legal defenses for seizing unhoused residents’ belongings.
The judge also affirmed that city employees rewrote some reports to change the reason for seizures, including adding details about “biohazards” and describing property as “surrendered” or “dangerous.”
According to the ruling, the L.A. City Attorney’s Office hid the misconduct from the court and violated multiple court orders over five years.
“The court cannot proceed to trial with confidence that plaintiffs have had access to the true facts,” Fischer wrote.
“Where a party so damages the integrity of the discovery process that there can never be assurance of proceeding on the true facts, a case-dispositive sanction may be appropriate,” the judge continued, quoting another legal ruling.
Reaction from the attorneys
Shayla Myers with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said the city’s fabrication and alteration of documents made a fair trial impossible.
“The fabrication of cleanup reports in this case is itself an indictment of the city's practices,” Myers said. “At these sweeps, the city provides unhoused people absolutely no recourse.”
L.A. city officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the court’s decision.
What’s next?
The plaintiffs are seeking damages and a permanent injunction blocking the city from seizing and discarding personal property during encampment cleanups. They have until March 27 to file a brief in support of a proposed permanent injunction.
