The LAPD officer who filmed the racist and homophobic incident could face charges

After Daniel Flores secretly recorded his LAPD colleagues talking about racism, sexism and homophobia in the workplace, he turned the evidence over to his superiors, according to the Interior Department’s complaint filed with the department last year, and said he hoped the evidence would be used against those involved.

But now, his lawyer says, the recordings could be used in the criminal case against Flores.

The attorney, Greg Smith, told The Times that Los Angeles prosecutors are charging his client with allegedly violating a state law that prohibits the recording of conversations without the consent of the parties involved. Violations of the law, known as the California Invasion of Privacy Act, can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor or a felony.

Smith said Flores recently received notification that his internal affairs case has been forwarded to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office for charges.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office confirmed that prosecutors are reviewing the LAPD’s criminal investigation into possible wiretapping charges.

A separate administrative investigation of Flores by the LAPD found him guilty of violating policy and recommended a 20-day suspension without pay, his attorney said.

According to Smith, Flores’ defense is that, as a police officer, he had the authority to make secret recordings as part of an investigation.

The interviews were recorded between March and October 2024 in a staff building in the city, near police headquarters, according to Flores’s LAPD Internal Affairs complaint, which details nearly 90 recordings of profanity and offensive remarks made by officers tasked with deciding who can join the police force.

Smith said that it was not yet clear whether any of the accused officers have been punished, but it seems that the Department is going after his client for bad reporting. LAPD policy prohibits officers from retaliating against colleagues who report misconduct. California law requires that most investigations of police personnel be kept confidential.

New details about the LAPD recording of Flores were revealed in a lawsuit he filed against the city June 12 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The lawsuit said he joined the department in 2013 and transferred to the recruiting unit in November 2021. The problems began, he says, in late 2021 after Sgt. David Williams retired from the department where Flores worked.

The lawsuit says instead of Williams – identified in Flores’ Internal Affairs complaint as Sgt. Denny Jong – started making insulting comments in the office, encouraging a culture of tolerance that allowed the same comments to go viral. Jong did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, nor did an LAPD spokesman.

Flores “was subjected to numerous statements that he considered derogatory to himself and others because of his race, ethnicity, sex/gender, and behavior,” the lawsuit said.

Flores says he heard his boss, who was Asian, say the “Asian invasion” had begun, and he began hiring officers of Asian descent into the unit, according to the lawsuit. At times, the supervisors and their unnamed colleagues spoke unfavorably about the women, the suit says, calling them untrustworthy “sluts.”

Flores also said in the case that he heard women being talked about as “bad managers and they don’t know what they are doing,” and that they “start problems.”

In one conversation described in the lawsuit, Flores said he overheard his manager discussing the death of Dodger legend Fernando Valenzuela from septic shock, allegedly telling subordinates that the Mexican pitcher “ate too much” tacos.

Flores said in this case that the police referred to some of his colleagues who are believed to be thugs with names that are not familiar to each other. They also called black people monkeys, the complaint said. “Black people love grape soda – they enjoy watermelon in the middle of basketball,” one was heard saying, according to the lawsuit.

Flores said in the case that he started having health problems related to stress including anxiety, dizziness, thirst and vomiting. After one such episode outside the LAPD’s Ahmanson Recruit Training Center, the complaint said, he was referred to the ER by his doctor. and was later diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, a chronic illness with symptoms that include a sharp spike in heart rate and lightheadedness.

Flores stands by the legal claim that his decision to begin recording his colleagues came as part of “a legitimate investigation as a police officer to report racist, sexist, homophobic and other disrespectful speech to LAPD personnel.”

The tipping point, Flores said in the lawsuit, came in March 2024 when one of her female coworkers threatened to stab her co-worker with a knife she kept on her desk.

After the existence of Flores’ recording became public last year following a report by The Times, the LAPD launched an internal investigation to determine whether the department’s hiring had an impact, according to a May 2025 email obtained through a public records request.

In an email, Internal Affairs Sgt. Jacob Fraijo wrote to the human resources officer to get information about how many applicants in the “protected category” were terminated during the one-year period starting in February 2024. Fraijo wrote that he also wanted information on the reasons why each recruit was rejected and whether any of those decisions were later overturned.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell condemned the racist and homophobic comments, and the police union called them “reprehensible” and “unacceptable” at a time when the department is struggling to attract new recruits.

At least five members of Flores’ unit were assigned to the home pending the completion of an internal investigation, officials said at the time. The captain who was in charge of this unit was also assigned to manage the department’s prisons department.

California’s law against recording “secret communications” previously drew attention during the 2022 City Council leaked audio scandal. In October 2022, The Times published details of a leaked, secret recording that captured crude and racist remarks made by then-City Council President Nury Martinez, council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, and labor leader Ron Herrera.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to file charges in the case, saying it could not determine who recorded the October 2021 redistricting meeting at the headquarters of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office also ultimately decided not to file harassment charges.

Times staff writers James Queally and Dakota Smith contributed to this report.