An D.C. police captain is suing the department, alleging that he was retaliated against after he reported the decision of his supervisor to authorize a police chase that violated MPD’s General Orders and ended in a 16-year-old being injured. His lawsuit is the latest in a series of recent lawsuits against MPD alleging a toxic workplace and a culture of retaliation.

Captain Steve Andelman, who has been with the department for 13 years, is seeking damages of $1 million from the department, a transfer to a different unit, and an injunction that would prevent further retaliation. He is also asking for $100,000 in damages from each of the individuals named in the suit: Police Chief Robert Contee, Assistant Chief Wilfredo Manlapaz, and Second District Commander Duncan Bedlion.

NBC4 first reported on the suit.

The retaliation, Andelman claims, stems from an incident on March 7. Andelman was serving as a watch commander on his shift when a call came on the radio about a theft in progress at an opticians office in Georgetown. It was what police called a “flash mob” theft, where a group of several people enter a store at once, confuse security, and then rely on that element of surprise to steal items from the store. Two nearby officers received a description of the car that people who allegedly robbed the store were using to drive away.

MPD’s General Orders prohibit officers from engaging in a vehicular chase unless someone is in imminent danger of bodily injury or death. So, the suit says, Andelman told the officers over the radio that they were not authorized to chase the people suspected of the theft at the store, particularly since they were not able to confirm that they possessed or used any weapons.

But, the suit says, “within 30 seconds” of Andelman telling the officers that they weren’t authorized to pursue the car, his supervisor — Second District Commander Duncan Bedlion — overrode Andelman’s order and told them they were authorized to chase the car.

Ultimately, the car flipped over on George Washington Parkway after the police pursuit, and “the suspects in the vehicle sustained substantial injuries,” according to the suit. The suit alleges that when Bedlion arrived at the scene of the crash, he ordered a sergeant who had his body worn camera on to walk away from a discussion among a group of detectives at the scene, “in order for the conversation not to be recorded.”

Police did not find weapons in the car.

After further investigation, Andelman found no other evidence that weapons were used during the robbery either — and he therefore pursued the investigation as a theft, and not a robbery. But the suit claims that because pursuing the incident as a theft would have “functionally contradicted” Bedlion’s authorization of the chase, Bedlion began to retaliate against him.

Bedlion declined to comment for the story. MPD did not respond to a request for comment.

Days after the March 7 crash, Andelman says, the retaliation began. On or around March 9, the suit alleges, Bedlion screamed at him in front of a subordinate because he had been five minutes late to work on March 7. Later that shift, Andelman alleges, Bedlion emailed him a long list of tasks — above and beyond his typical captain duties — and said he was required to complete them by the end of that day.

Around March 16, the suit says, Andelman wrote an email to Contee, Manlapaz, and D.C.’s inspector general, to report both the events of the case on March 7, and the bullying and retaliation that followed.

“I observed misconduct and I did what I thought was right,” Andelman tells DCist/WAMU in an interview. “If we cover things up, if we don’t report misconduct … we’re hurting the trust with the community.”

He also requested to be transferred to out of the Second District and given a different supervisor — but his transfer wasn’t granted, he says.

“It was unfathomable in my mind that after writing a detailed email to the chief of police about my direct boss who’s the commander, allegations of possible serious misconduct and possible violations of the law, that they would then put me back to work 50 feet away from him the next day,” says Andelman.

After that, Andelman says, came a “barrage of retaliation” from Bedlion.

“I’m assuming that he got word of my whistleblower email,” says Andelman. “I don’t know how.”

Andelman had a scheduled counseling appointment through MPD’s Employee Assistance Program, a strategy he uses to cope with the stress of his work, the suit says. Bedlion had never voiced objection to these appointments before, but the suit says that after Andelman wrote the email to MPD leadership reporting Belion’s behavior, Bedlion called the EAP program and tried to get one of his appointments cancelled. The suit says EAP refused the request and told Andelman that Bedlion had tried to prevent his appointment from happening.

And in April, the suit alleges, Andelman was handed a 14-day suspension for inadvertently deleting a staffing-related email in January 2021.

Andelman’s suit is one of several pending against the department alleging retaliation. A group of Black women officers sued the department in September, alleging racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and a “systemic pattern” of bullying and retaliation on the force. In December, more Black women sued, alleging a pattern of discrimination and retaliation in the Internal Affairs Division. Manlapaz, who leads the IAD, is named in that second suit.

Pamela Keith, the attorney who represents both Andelman and the plaintiffs of both the lawsuits filed by Black women officers, argues that D.C.’s police department repeatedly fails to take accountability for officer misconduct — and then retaliates against officers like her clients who speak out against it.

“There are two steps to transparency and accountability: step number one is reporting, [and] step number two is allowing that reporting to happen without retaliation,” said Keith. “And MPD is not just bad — it is catastrophically bad at that second component.”

Andelman said he was nervous to write his whistleblower email to MPD leadership — the one that he says eventually resulted in more severe retaliation from his supervisor. But, he said, he did so because he thought of the “bigger picture.”

“Police accountability is crucial to the community,” said Andelman.

Andelman also said he believes MPD’s no-chase policy is an important one. He knew it was the right thing not to authorize a chase after a theft in which there was no risk of imminent harm to anyone.

“Police pursuits are so dangerous, inherently dangerous to the community at large,” said Andelman.

Police chases in D.C. have ended in a series of tragedies in recent years.

In 2018, Jeffrey Price was killed in a collision with a D.C. police cruiser. Price’s family believes MPD was violating department policy while chasing him on his dirt bike when the crash took place.

Last year, D.C. police officer Terence Sutton was indicted on second-degree murder and conspiracy charges in connection with his vehicle pursuit of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown, who died in a traffic crash after Sutton pursued him in an unmarked cruiser.

Captain Steve Andelman laws… by wamu885