Former Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley is suing Mayor Karen Bass personally, alleging that, while campaigning for reelection, Bass defamed her, damaging Crowley’s reputation by blaming her for the catastrophic Palisades fire response.
Crowley sued the city in February, alleging Bass “orchestrated a campaign of retaliation” and removed Crowley as fire chief to shift blame amid mounting criticism of the mayor’s decision to attend a ceremony in Ghana on Jan. 7 even as the deadly Palisades fire was spreading in extreme red-flag fire conditions.
Crowley’s new lawsuit on Tuesday sues Bass personally for defamation. In it, she argues that comments the mayor made on the campaign trail aren’t protected by government immunity and that Bass should pay damages out of her own pocket. The former chief seeks unspecified economic and compensatory damages.
In the complaint, Crowley alleges that Bass spread misinformation to protect her own reputation on the campaign trail, “knowing that her statements about the Palisades Fire, about the LAFD’s resources and deployment decisions, and about Crowley, were false.”
Bass “sought to avoid accountability by shifting blame and lying — including by falsely claiming that she was not aware of the nationally anticipated weather event,” the suit says.
According to Crowley’s attorneys Genie Harrison and Mia Munro, the mayor knowingly made false statements in her personal capacity and as an election candidate, which they say are not protected by government immunity.
Crowley’s lawsuit points to a televised debate on May 6 in which she claims Bass blamed her for inoperable fire engines, which the former chief says were not repaired due to insufficient funding for mechanics.
“Bass falsely blamed Crowley, despite Crowley having publicly and privately opposed Bass’ budget cut that left fire engines inoperable,” the suit said. It goes on to say that Bass told viewers that Crowley had sent home 1,000 firefighters who would have been in the area of the fire, which was false, but “maliciously and intentionally exploited the ease with which misinformation spreads. …
“Through her actions, Bass has chosen her personal interest over transparency and the truth, over the interests and safety of the people of Los Angeles, and over the interests and safety of the thousands of firefighters who risk their lives daily to protect the people of Los Angeles, including Crowley, a career firefighter serving the LAFD for over 26 years,” the suit said.
Bass fired Crowley on Feb. 21, 2025, six weeks after the fire. Early on in the firefighting efforts, the mayor had praised Crowley, but she said she later learned that additional firefighters could have been deployed on the day the blaze ignited and that that was why Crowley was fired. She said Crowley rebuffed a request to prepare a report on the fires that was a critical part of investigations into what happened and why.
The Palisades fire took off the morning of Jan. 7, 2025, amid fierce Santa Ana winds, killing 12 people and destroying thousands of homes, amounting to billions of dollars in damage. Although authorities allege a Florida man who is currently on trial started the fire, saying it was actually a rekindling of a Jan. 1 blaze, decisions by both LAFD brass and the mayor before, during and after Jan. 7 have come under scrutiny.
According to records obtained by The Times, shortly before releasing an after-action report on the Palisades fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department issued a confidential memo detailing plans to protect Bass and others from “reputational harm.” The 13-page document is on LAFD letterhead and includes email addresses for department officials, representatives of Bass’ office, and public relations consultants hired to help shape messaging about the fire.
Amid growing criticism of inadequate deployment of firefighters, a chaotic evacuation of Pacific Palisades and a lack of water caused in part by a local reservoir being left empty for repairs, The Times revealed that the city’s after-action report had been altered to deflect criticism of LAFD’s failure to predeploy engines and crews to the Palisades, among other shortcomings.
Crowley, her attorneys say, revealed to the public that “budget cuts had weakened the department’s readiness and jeopardized public and firefighter safety.” They said Crowley’s repeated warnings were ignored and that Bass retaliated by ousting her.
Crowley’s lawyers allege their client repeatedly pointed out the LAFD’s worsening resource and staffing crisis before the fire and warned that aging infrastructure, surging emergency calls and shrinking staff left the city at risk.
Three days after the fire, Crowley told a local TV news station that her department was “screaming to be properly funded,” which prompted Bass to summon Crowley to her office, according to the lawsuit.
Before Crowley was ousted, the city’s top financial analyst pushed back on her budget-cutting narrative, saying that spending on the Fire Department actually went up during that budget year — in large part because of a package of firefighter raises. Those increases added an estimated $53 million to the department’s budget.
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