The highest-ranking female law enforcement officer in Seal Beach is suing the city, alleging that a toxic culture has taken root in the Police Department where she’s been subjected to blatant sexism and harassment for years.
Lt. Julia Clasby, who also serves as the department’s public information officer, alleges in the lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court last week that she was passed up for promotions, disparaged for being a mother and denied training opportunities that were routinely provided to her male colleagues.
Clasby is seeking unspecified monetary damages, including for past and future lost wages, pension benefits and emotional distress.
The lawsuit lays out years’ worth of discrimination allegations that culminated in what her attorney argues are baseless retaliatory internal affairs investigations probing her conduct. Clasby was previously employed as an officer in Laguna Beach where she worked on several high-profile cases, including one involving John Meehan, who was later the subject of a series of LA Times stories and a Bravo television show.
In April, Clasby was named one of Assemblymember Diane Dixon’s (R-Newport Beach) women of the year for her work within the Police Department.
“Lt. Clasby has devoted her entire professional life to work in law enforcement. She loves it. That’s all she wants to do. That’s all she’s been trying to do. What she’s asking for is simply the ability to do that in a professional, normal working environment,” Clasby’s attorney, Jon King, said in an interview with The Times.
Seal Beach City Manager Patrick Gallegos said in an email that the city has not yet been served with the complaint and isn’t able to comment on the specifics of the pending litigation.
“This personnel matter is being handled in accordance with the City’s established legal and administrative procedures. The City is committed to ensuring that all such matters are reviewed thoroughly, fairly, and in compliance with applicable laws and policies,” he said.
Clasby is still employed with the department as a lieutenant—the first woman to hold the title in the department’s history. But she alleges in the lawsuit that the road to the position was anything but smooth.
When Clasby was pregnant with her first child in 2015, she learned that several male sergeants had discussed her pregnancy during a management meeting, stating that she was trying to game the system by being hired and then immediately going on light duty. She hid her pregnancy for almost 20 weeks out of fear that her career might be derailed, according to the lawsuit.
Later, at a holiday party, a sergeant speaking over a microphone at an event referred to Clasby’s young child as her and her husband’s “f— trophy,” according to the lawsuit.
In June 2016 when Clasby tested for a corporal position within the department, the then-police chief asked her how much she paid for child care, calling out her position as a working mother. When she told him, the chief said it, “sounds like we are paying you too much if you can afford that,” the lawsuit states.
Clasby was passed over for promotions three times in a year, despite ranking higher on the eligibility list than several men who were promoted ahead of her, according to the suit.
When she finally was moved up, the lawsuit said, rumors began circulating within the department that she’d been promoted because she brought her baby to a department workshop to “evoke sympathy.”
“Clearly, her competence could not be the reason for her promotion,” King wrote in the legal filing. “This is the mindset in the department, reaching for such bizarre and unfounded reasons as to why a woman could possibly be promoted.”
In 2020, the then-chief allegedly called Clasby’s husband, a law enforcement officer who works for another department in Orange County, to ask for his permission before promoting her to lieutenant. Clasby’s attorney wrote in the lawsuit that this undermined her autonomy and made “her feel as if her boss felt her husband owned her and made decisions for her.”
She later learned that prior to being promoted, Michael Henderson, who is now the city’s police chief, contacted a human resources director to inquire as to whether he could ask Clasby if she planned to have more children, according to the lawsuit. Human resources informed him that such questions are illegal.
In March, Clasby sent a formal complaint to Gallegos, seeking an investigation and explaining how Henderson had denied her training opportunities and treated her unfairly because of her gender. The lawsuit alleges that the city did not contact her for more than a month after she filed the complaint.
This resulted in severe stress and anxiety that led her to need a six-week medical leave, according to the lawsuit.
“She doesn’t want special treatment,” King said. “She just wants to be treated fairly and to go about doing her job for the department and the community.”
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