{"id":333822,"date":"2026-05-27T02:38:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333822\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T02:38:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:38:03","slug":"fired-berkeley-police-watchdog-sues-city-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333822\/","title":{"rendered":"Fired Berkeley police watchdog sues city, mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Berkeley\u2019s recently fired director of police accountability<\/a> has sued the city and Mayor Adena Ishii, claiming she and other officials deliberately made his job impossible<\/a> and retaliated against him for trying to do it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a civil complaint filed in state superior court on May 15, Hansel Aguilar accused the city of wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, interference, retaliation and violation of whistleblower protections. Aguilar\u2019s complaint alleges police and other Berkeley officials were trying to \u201cundermine\u201d his investigations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese issues we\u2019re seeing, they\u2019re unfortunately not specific to one specific jurisdiction, but are part of a broader story of resistance toward oversight,\u201d Aguilar told Berkeleyside in a phone interview, echoing sentiments he expressed in an East Bay Times op-ed<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, the city had not officially received service of the lawsuit, according to City Attorney Farimah Brown, and as such has not made a formal response to the allegations. Ishii declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Aguilar argued that his firing on Feb. 9<\/a> came suddenly and without any periodic evaluation of his work, even though he made frequent requests for them over his more than three years working for the city.<\/p>\n

\"\"Hansel Aguilar, formerly Berkeley\u2019s director of police accountability, has sued the city and Mayor Adena Ishii. Credit: Hansel Aguilar<\/p>\n

The firing followed months of escalating tension<\/a> between Aguilar\u2019s office and the Police Accountability Board on the one side, and the City Council, Berkeley Police Department leadership<\/a> and other city administrative agencies on the other. In December, Aguilar sued BPD Chief Jen Louis<\/a> in an attempt to get records related to a complaint against the police. A judge denied Aguilar\u2019s petition in February, saying Aguilar had not had the authority to file it in the first place.<\/p>\n

The City Council was supposed to \u201cestablish objective, verifiable measures of Mr. Aguilar\u2019s performance,\u201d and give him an evaluation every year, according to his contract. They never did, Aguilar alleged in his complaint, despite him writing up an evaluation proposal with annual goals, performance criteria and other metrics.<\/p>\n

Ishii and the council \u201crepeatedly\u201d told Aguilar they would hire a consultant to review his performance but never did, according to his complaint, which he alleged violated his contract.<\/p>\n

The same contract also stated that Aguilar \u201cis an at-will employee of the city\u201d who \u201cshall serve at the pleasure of the City Council, which may remove Mr. Aguilar from office with or without cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suit accuses police chief, mayor of retaliation<\/p>\n

In April 2023, early in Aguilar and the PAB\u2019s investigation into racist and anti-homeless messages<\/a> between BPD bike team officers, then-Councilmember Kate Harrison asked Aguilar for, as she put it at the time, \u201cinformation about areas where they think they hadn\u2019t gotten information in a timely manner\u201d from BPD, the City Attorney\u2019s Office and other agencies. Aguilar sent Harrison a memo listing records and information BPD had delayed or denied access to; in response, Louis issued a letter accusing Aguilar of \u201crepeated fabrications and stretching of facts,\u201d Harrison said at the time.<\/p>\n

Louis\u2019s remarks were a swing at Aguilar\u2019s reputation, his complaint alleges, done \u201cin an effort to retaliate against him for making claims that the Berkeley Police Department was violating the city charter by delaying investigations into law enforcement actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the delays from BPD were a pattern, according to Aguilar\u2019s attorney, Richard Richardson of Berkeley-based Siegal and Richardson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s getting pushback from the chief of police who doesn\u2019t give him the information that he\u2019s requesting,\u201d Richardson said in a phone interview with Berkeleyside. \u201cThey delay it, or they give him half the information.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Aguilar sought accommodation to work remotely last summer while caring for a family member with a medical condition, the complaint alleges that Ishii held up his request, a violation of the California Family Rights Act.<\/p>\n

Aguilar also claimed that when Berkeley instituted a city-wide hiring freeze last year<\/a>, it did so \u201cin such a manner as to limit the authority of the Office of Police Accountability and deter investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Aguilar was recruiting for additional staff. When City Manager Paul Buddenhagen announced the freeze, Aguilar wrote that if his office could not hire more people, it would be impossible to meet legal deadlines for completing some investigations. He announced last June that he had cut short 10 misconduct investigations and suspended 10 policy reviews on account of being short-staffed.<\/p>\n

Aguilar also sued another former employer, Washington, D.C., in a case that hinged on performance reviews, requests for leave and the manner of his dismissal. Aguilar and the D.C. government settled out of court in March 2024, according to court records. The terms of the settlement were not immediately available.<\/p>\n

That job, too, involved civilian oversight of law enforcement. From 2016 to 2019, Aguilar had worked as an investigator for the Office of Police Complaints<\/a>, an independent agency tasked with investigating complaints against city and housing authority police in D.C.<\/p>\n

Aguilar\u2019s lawsuit against Berkeley was previously reported by Courthouse News Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated stories<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Berkeley\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tBerkeley mayor taps onetime interim police oversight director to return<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tMarch 5, 2026March 5, 2026, 4:48 p.m.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"City\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tCity Council fires head of Berkeley\u2019s civilian police oversight office<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 9, 2026Feb. 13, 2026, 3:57 p.m.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Two\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tTwo police oversight board members resign in protest, saying Berkeley ignores its work<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tJanuary 30, 2026Jan. 30, 2026, 5:17 p.m.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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