Mayor Karen Bass allegedly went scorched earth on the LAFD Union President — launching a retaliation campaign after he publicly blasted the city’s lack of resources during the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, according to a new lawsuit.
Freddy Escobar, a 36-year veteran of the LAFD and the elected president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles Local 112 (UFLAC), filed the federal lawsuit against Bass and the City of Los Angeles Tuesday.
Escobar claims the mayor and her senior staff directed fire department officials to issue misleading statements to the media suggesting he was under scrutiny for overtime abuses — part of what the complaint describes as a coordinated effort to silence his criticism of Bass and the fire budget.
A heated clash between Escobar and Bass went down in her office in the days after the devastating January 2025 Palisades Fire, when questions swirled over whether the city’s fire department was adequately prepared, according to the documents.
Escobar, on numerous occasions had backed then-Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, and repeatedly warned that years of budget cuts had left the department stretched thin. After she was fired, Escobar continued to publicly support Crowley, saying she was telling the truth when it came to reduced resources.
Crowley also sued Bass in February, The Post reported, alleging that the mayor “sought to avoid accountability by shifting blame and lying.”
Tensions boiled over during a closed-door meeting at City Hall, where Bass confronted the union boss over his public criticism and demanded to know: “When are you going to stop?,” according to the complaint.
Escobar claims he refused to back down, telling the mayor directly that Crowley had “told the truth” about the department’s lack of resources — a stance that, the lawsuit claims, triggered a campaign of retaliation from the highest levels of City Hall.
From there, Escobar claims city officials went to work “fabricating a sham ‘comprehensive review’” into his overtime and “leaking distorted information to the press” to suggest wrongdoing where none existed, according to the lawsuit.
After a review, Escobar’s overtime was found to be “ordinary and fully consistent with department policy in a chronically understaffed agency. The directive from the Mayor’s Office was carefully crafted and designed to portray Escobar’s overtime earnings as potentially corrupt and undermine his credibility as a union leader,” according to the documents.
Escobar is seeking damages and a jury trial, accusing the city and its top officials of violating his constitutional rights and waging a campaign to silence dissent at a time when public safety was on the line.
Mayor Bass did not respond to a request for comment.
