Lawsuits filed several years ago by a handful of UC Santa Barbara Police Department officers against the university and other members of the department are headed to trial this summer.
The lawsuits — filed between 2018 and 2021 — collectively allege misconduct by UCPD employees, retaliation for filing complaints against other members of the department and violations of the California Whistleblower Protection Act.
Six of the seven lawsuits, all filed by officers who currently or previously worked at the UCPD, are still active, with June and July trial dates on the court calendar.
Many of the lawsuits detail the same specific events and people involved, but offer differing views on exactly what happened.
A lawyer representing the plaintiffs — Michael and Tiffany Little, Matthew Stern, Mark Signa and Jonathan Lee Reyes — confirmed that the cases are headed to trial and declined to provide a comment on behalf of their clients.
Lawyers for plaintiffs Ryan Hashimoto and Ryan Smith did not respond to Noozhawk requests for comment.
A lawyer for the UCPD defendants named in the lawsuits — Cathy Farley, Dustin Olson, Gregory Smorodinsky, Robert Romero and David Millard — did not respond to a Noozhawk request for comment.
One lawsuit, filed in 2020 by police officer Amanda Siegel, was settled out of court. Siegel’s attorney in that case did not respond to a Noozhawk request for comment.
Of the UCPD employees involved in the lawsuits as plaintiffs or defendants, only two remain employed at the department: plaintiff Tiffany Little and defendant Smorodinsky, UC Santa Barbara spokeswoman Kiki Reyes confirmed.
She told Noozhawk that the university cannot comment on pending litigation.
“Our police department receives extensive, ongoing training, and we hold it to the highest standards,” Reyes said in an email. “Personnel complaints at the university are promptly investigated. We are committed to ensuring that our campus community is a safe and welcoming environment.”
Signa, a former UCPD lieutenant who worked for the department for 28 years, filed the first lawsuit in November 2018, alleging a violation of First Amendment rights and the California Whistleblower Protection Act.
The lawsuit alleges that then-UCPD Chief Dustin Olson’s “inner circle” within the department contributed to two botched internal affairs investigations in 2016 and 2017. It also alleges that Signa experienced mistreatment after reporting misconduct.
One investigation involved two officers who were accused of sexual assault and providing alcohol to a minor UCSB student. Signa alleged in the lawsuit that Olson said he wanted the investigation to go away as quietly as possible.
The other investigation involved an alleged affair between officer Ryan Smith and a subordinate, Amanda Siegel, and related misconduct.
Signa said he raised concerns about management’s alleged favoritism toward Smith and said other officers were too intimidated to report misconduct, even after Smith left the department.
Smith, who resigned from UCPD in December 2017, filed his own lawsuit in March 2019 under the pseudonym John Doe.
He alleged that Signa and others in the department “engaged in misconduct subjecting (Smith) to harassment, retaliation, slander, libel, invasion of privacy” and depriving him of his First Amendment rights, per the lawsuit.
He also said he resigned because of the alleged “ongoing harassment and retaliation,” per court documents.
Four other UCPD employees filed lawsuits in 2019: married police officers Michael and Tiffany Little in March, Reyes in May and Stern in August. All alleged violations of the California Whistleblower Protection Act and the California Labor Code.
The Littles alleged that their superiors retaliated against them after they reported Smith for alleged unethical behavior such as time card fraud and misusing department funds.
Reyes alleged that his superiors placed a “failing” trainee in the field who wasn’t ready to be there. He also alleged that he was not promoted for speaking out against the trainee’s qualifications.
Stern alleged he was demoted and retaliated against for reporting two other officers who were “causing safety risks” by ignoring backup requests, turning off their radios and not responding to phone calls.
(Those two officers are the same two that Signa alleges provided alcohol to a minor UCSB student and committed sexual assault. They resigned from the department.)
Siegel sued the department and the university in February 2020 and alleged sexual harassment, discrimination and violation of the California Whistleblower Protection Act. The case was settled in 2024.
She alleged that the Littles created a hostile work environment and that Michael Little and other superior officers sexually harassed her. She also alleged she was not promoted after refusing to enter into a romantic relationship with a superior in 2018, named in the lawsuit as Smorodinsky.
She said she made Title IX reports about sexual harassment to the university in 2018 and 2019, but both were rejected, according to the lawsuit.
Hashimoto’s lawsuit followed in March 2021. He alleged he was subjected to “discrimination and harassment by his white supervisors and personnel based on his race and ethnic background as an Asian-American of Japanese heritage,” per the lawsuit.
In lawsuits filed by other UCPD officers, Hashimoto was accused of lying and fabricating evidence, an allegation he denies in his own lawsuit.
He was also accused of other inappropriate behavior as detailed in Smith’s lawsuit, such as allegedly mocking the victim of a sexual assault investigation.
The parties involved entered into internal mediation after the first series of lawsuits were filed, UCSB student newspaper the Daily Nexus reported.
The first case set to go to trial is Smith’s, which is scheduled to begin on June 8 in Department 4 of the Santa Barbara Courthouse with Judge Donna Geck.
