Porterville police chief, assistant chief on leave as civil rights lawsuits rock department

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Porterville Police Department’s chief and assistant chief have gone on medical leave as lawsuits filed by former officers alleging racial and sexual discrimination make their way through federal court.

The suits, filed by former officers Ana Isabel Moreno and Anthony Luckey, detail repeated alleged acts of discrimination and violations of constitutional rights — and say the problem comes from the top.

“The highest rungs of (Porterville Police Department) leadership are composed of a ‘boys’ club’ of male officers, including current Chief Jake Castellow, who have for years violated the rights of the female police officers, violated the rights of male officers who spoke up for those female officers, and even violated the rights of female citizens,” Moreno’s suit says.

“When these female officers or their male allies have spoken up, formally or informally, men like Chief Castellow and Assistant Chief Dominic Barteau and numerous others have rallied around the violators and orchestrated the firing of the complainants and the ruining of their careers.”

Both Castellow and Barteau went on medical leave in recent weeks, according to the Valley Voice. Castellow’s leave was announced Oct. 27, Barteau’s Nov. 4, the paper reported.

Luckey, who is Black, began dating in Moreno in early 2021.

He alleges he was afterward discriminated against because a sergeant didn’t approve of him dating a white co-worker.

Hearings on the suits are scheduled next week.

The city has denied the allegations.

Moreno’s suit says she “was subjected to repeated unwelcome sexual advances from three of her direct supervisors,” and was threatened, humiliated and bullied after rebuffing them.

Bruce Sokoloff, her supervising sergeant in 2020, sent numerous texts asking her to meet him while his wife was out of town and go away with him on weekends, according to the suit. She declined, but he continued to ask her out, the suit says.

“As a result of these persistent advances, (Moreno) from that point on experienced fear and apprehension when going to work and interacting with Sokoloff,” the suit says.

Following numerous rejections, Sokoloff’s behavior changed: he belittled and humiliated her, according to the suit.

He also followed through on a threat, placing her in a dangerous situation by violating department policy and forcing her to transport a homeless man in the front seat of her patrol vehicle, according to the complaint.

The suit says two other supervisors — Sgt. E Martinez and Corporal Enrique Lara — also harassed her.

In one instance, the suit says, Lara sent her “a disturbing and repulsive video of himself naked from the waist up, drinking a beer, and asking her to come to his residence to swim alone with him.”

Moreno’s suit is intertwined with Luckey’s — the two began dating in early 2021.

Once the relationship became known, Sokoloff “created an increasingly hostile work environment,” the suit says.

Sokoloff kept close watch on her, criticized her for things she’d never seen other officers criticized for and threatened her career, according to the suit.

He also conducted an Internal Affairs investigation that resulted in Luckey’s firing on Sept. 30, 2021, the suit says.

Luckey’s suit alleges Sokoloff used his position as a sergeant and influence with department administration “to conduct a discriminatory campaign to create a pretext to fire (Luckey).”

As for Moreno, Sokoloff’s “harassing, retaliatory campaign” stretched into winter 2022, according to her suit.

Moreno applied for and got a job at Tulare County District Attorney’s Office’s Bureau of investigations in March of that year.

The job paid less, but she wanted to escape “the anxiety, hostility and harassment she was experiencing at (Porterville Police Department),” the suit says.