Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer's mother and father filed a claim on Monday against Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, the county Board of Supervisors, and the city of Palmdale for the wrongful death of their son on September 16th. Deputy Clinkunbroomer was shot and killed in an execution-style ambush where the suspect pulled up alongside his patrol vehicle and shot him in the head at close range. 

The governmental claim filed by Clinkunbroomer's parents, Michael and Kim Clinkunbroomer, lists them along with Ryan as the plaintiffs and is seeking $20 million in damages from the county of Los Angeles. Their lawsuit alleges that Sheriff Luna, along with the county Board of Supervisors and the city of Palmdale, created a perfect storm of horrible working conditions caused by "consistent and historic executive mismanagement" that led to the murder of Deputy Clinkunbroomer. 

#BREAKING - Letter from attorney Brad Gage regarding the deplorable work conditions at #LASD under @LACoSheriff considered a factor in deputy #RyanClinkunbroomer inability to function and be aware of his surroundings that lead to his murder. pic.twitter.com/YwYcwa2SoR

— Cece Woods (@ceceswoods) November 28, 2023

The lawsuit, filed nearly three months after his death, comes after a string of preventable tragedies that have struck the men and women of the department. Almost a month after Clinkunbroomer's murder, two deputies were severely injured in an explosion at one of the department's mobile shooting ranges at a custody facility in Castaic, California. According to sources with knowledge of the investigation who spoke to RedState on condition of anonymity because they're not authorized to speak to the press, the explosion was caused by a build-up of years worth of unburnt gunpowder residue in the filtration system that somehow caught fire and exploded. The sources further stated that the trailer was condemned by the department several years ago because it was too old, but because Luna didn't want to spend $25,000 to fix the new trailer's electrical system, he forced the old one back into service. 

Another month later, the department was hit with shock and tragedy yet again when not one, not two, but four members of the department all committed suicide in one day. A sheriff's commander, two deputy sheriffs (one of whom was freshly retired), and a sheriff's custody assistant all committed suicide on November 6th. In a final message before her death, the custody assistant wrote a message saying, "This is what burnout feels like. I think I'm done."

Sheriff Robert Luna, along with the Board of Supervisors, are both directly and indirectly responsible for all of these tragedies. As indicated in the claim filed by the Clinkunbroomers, Luna, along with his masters at the BOS, knowingly and intentionally created a work environment that takes the men and women of the department to their breaking points. Forced mandatory overtime, cutting corners with dangerous equipment, maintenance failures, and an apparent overwhelming lack of compassion or empathy for his people all create an environment that gets people hurt and or killed. Recently, I wrote a four-part series (Parts One, Two, Three) on how Luna and the BOS have collectively created a work environment that is so toxic and deadly that deputies are literally killing themselves or getting injured or killed because of it. 

In my final installment, I laid out my case for why Luna and the BOS are responsible for these events. Luna appears to be a man who cares more about pleasing his political masters on the BOS than he does about his people, and he is closely aligned with far-left progressive District Attorney George Gascon. This leads to the first problem with Luna: He will punish and or fire deputies for the smallest violation of policy. This has caused hundreds of deputies, if not more, to back off of proactive policing. This means that more and more deputies aren't initiating traffic or pedestrian stops for fear that they may get in trouble or worse just for doing their jobs. Deputies are more afraid of Luna and the department than they are of the evil-doers who would love to kill or injure them. 

Secondly, the Board of Supervisors still refuses to give the roughly 1,100 sworn positions back to the department that they took away during former Sheriff Alex Villenueva's term. And for his part, Luna hasn't fought hard enough, or at all, to get them back. This causes a few separate but equally dangerous issues. The understaffed department has to rely heavily on overtime to fill vacant spots at the stations and other facilities. This situation is not new. However, this time is different in the sense that the department has removed all safety limits on working overtime. Before Luna and Villanueva, the overtime cap for hours worked in a single month for a deputy was 96 hours, and the deputy could not work 12 consecutive days without a day off, they couldn't work over 19 hours a day and could not work back-to-back "county doubles." County doubles are two back-to-back, eight-hour shifts. Now the OT limit is 120 per month, deputies routinely work more than 12 days in a row without a day off, and more are routinely working back-to-back county doubles, most of them in the same work week. 

Luna is forcing his deputies to work these shifts, which is in clear violation of their contract, not to mention the MOU agreement between the department and the deputy's union, ALADS. Deputies are being worked to their human limits, and Luna, along with the BOS, seems not to give a damn about it. Deputies are forced to work these shifts, which prevents them from getting the legally required eight hours of rest between the shifts. They're working more than 12 consecutive days in a row, which takes them away from their friends and families. Luna could care less; his command staff could care less. All the deputies I have spoken to about this have confided in me that they have never worked so hard for so little. A sergeant that I spoke with stated that deputies are falling asleep during their pre-shift briefing. He even caught a deputy asleep in his radio car at the station, his pencil still in his hand for the report he was writing before he fell asleep. Another deputy that I spoke with stated that three deputies from her station had crashed their personal vehicles going home because they fell asleep. 

Deputy Clinkunbroomer was being worked to death, and his partners are also being worked to the point of exhaustion and more. According to the claim, Clinkunbroomer "was forced to work 100+ hours of overtime each month," but he never complained, he never quit, and he kept going. In the commercial aviation industry, the FAA requires all aircrew to get a minimum of 10 hours rest between shifts. It's a good rule because we don't want the pilots to crash because they weren't operating at 100 percent. Why isn't the same rule applied to the LASD or any agency for that matter? The public demands that we be on top of our game at all times; we cannot make a mistake lest we get torn apart by our leadership and the public. And Luna, by his inactions, is putting more and more lives at risk by not protecting them. He is putting his people in such a place that they are, sooner or later, statistically bound to make a mistake or worse while working. And they will be massacred by the public for not being 100 percent. Deputy Clinkunbroomer and his partners were not firing on all cylinders, and it wasn't and isn't their fault. It's Robert Luna's and the County Board of Supervisors.  

Luna can stop this. He has the power to go to the BOS and demand the ability to hire more deputies. He has the platform to be their advocate and supporter, but he remains silent, and his silence is deafening. Nobody on Luna's staff is helping either, and they are equally culpable in Deputy Clinkunbroomer's death, as well as the tragedies of the mobile range explosion and the rash of suicides of department members. If there is anything I hate more, it is weak and feckless leadership, and Luna is just that. He is not a leader by any stretch of the imagination. Rather he is a fumbling buffoon who, based on his actions, cares more about public opinion of himself and his political masters on the Board of Supervisors. 

The full letter from attorney Brad Gage to the City of Palmdale and the County of Los Angeles may be viewed below: