Palmdale will pay $5.25 million to settle a lawsuit from three high-level employees who alleged they felt threatened and uncomfortable because a former city manager regularly brought a gun to work and was recorded receiving oral sex from a married woman.
The employees, Deputy City Manager Michael Behen, Human Resources Manager Patricia Nevarez and City Clerk Shanae Smith, filed the lawsuit in June 2022. Their complaint alleged former City Manager J.J. Murphy, who was fired without cause earlier that same year, and other administrators “terrorized” and discriminated against the employees for raising concerns about no-bid contracts, gender biases and other misconduct.
“I am pleased that we were able to vindicate our clients, seek justice for them and to send a message to the city that such conduct is not going to be tolerated in the future,” said Brad Gage, the attorney for the three employees. “When you give 30 years of your life, or more, to a company, you expect to be treated a lot better than my clients were.”
Under the settlement, Palmdale paid $845,000 to Behen and $4.4 million to Smith and Nevarez, according to Gage.
Tensions high at City Hall
Tensions at Palmdale City Hall in late 2021 reached such a level that an elected official wore a bulletproof vest to a council meeting, according to the lawsuit. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reportedly sent deputies and a helicopter to one meeting in response to concerns that Murphy, who had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, could potentially harm someone if the City Council decided to fire him that night.
Gage said the city attorney recommended his clients take voluntary administrative leaves that same month because the city thought it would be safer.
“That’s the reverse of what should have happened,” Gage said. “If you’re worried that people are likely to be victims of violence, or other acts of wrongdoing, you don’t punish them by sending them home. The alleged harasser should be sent home.”
Both Nevarez and Behen had spent decades working for the city and had positive reviews until they began to question the handling of certain contracts and a 1% interest home loan issued to Murphy, Gage said.
Video circulated
Around the same time, a video purportedly showing Murphy receiving oral sex at a Quartz Hill hair salon and spa circulated through City Hall. Nevarez, Behen and Smith’s lawsuit alleges Murphy used public funds to keep the woman’s husband quiet and disrupted efforts to investigate the rumors.
In a separate lawsuit, Murphy accused an elected official of distributing the recording, which did not take place at City Hall or on the clock, to intentionally harm him.
Palmdale paid $2.23 million to Murphy last year to resolve a separate wrongful termination claim in which he portrayed himself as a victim of retaliation for refusing to cut corners to help out councilmembers’ donors.
Gun was unseen
Kevin Shenkman, who represented Murphy in that case and others, acknowledged that Murphy carried a firearm for his own safety, but he never threatened to use it or showed it to any of the employees who have claimed they felt unsafe.
Smith, Nevarez and Behen testified in depositions that they had not seen the gun personally, according to Shenkman.
“Mr. Murphy is a retired Air Force major. He is very familiar with firearms,” Shenkman said. “He had been receiving threats from one member of the community and so he had a concealed carry permit, and so he was legally carrying a firearm. Not on his person. He had it in a bag.”
Murphy was the one who feared for his life when the Sheriff’s Department sent five patrol cars and a helicopter to the December 2021 council meeting after being “falsely informed” that Murphy “was armed and dangerous,” according to his lawsuit.
The employees also never saw the sex tape, which Shenkman said they latched onto for the attention it would bring to the case. The recording, which he had not seen either, “purports to show a sex act not during work hours, not on the city hall premises” and not involving any other city employees, he added.
Allegations ‘ridiculous’
“What these folks started with is some scandalous, salacious things about guns and sex, that have nothing to do with their employment, and they tried to make a case around that,” Shenkman said. “Ultimately, you have a city that doesn’t want to go to trial on anything, so they pay out whatever money it takes to not go to trial.”
He called the allegations “ridiculous,” pointing to one, in particular, in which an employee reportedly felt threatened by an assistant city manager jiggling a locked office door handle.
Shenkman alleges employees were recruited to file the lawsuits as a pretext for firing Murphy. At least two other cases filed by employees during the same time period are still pending, according to court records.
Gage denied any such collusion occurred in his case, saying the city would not have paid such a large amount if the claims were false.
“They decided they were entitled to $5.25 million,” Gage said. “That’s a lot of money for someone who thinks it is made up.”
Palmdale released a statement calling the settlements a “fair compromise based on the totality of the facts.”
“We appreciate the mediator’s effort in achieving an equitable settlement on these claims,” the statement reads. “This marks a significant turning point for the City, allowing us to leave these longstanding cases in the past and direct our full attention to Palmdale’s promising future and the committed staff working each day to deliver for our community.”