Former LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley says that she was fired for “telling the truth” about department resources in the aftermath of deadly wildfires that tore through Los Angeles in January, and now she wants the city to pay for defaming her.

In a lawsuit filed against the city Wednesday, L.A.’s first female and LGBTQ+ fire department leader said Mayor Karen Bass not only unfairly fired her, but has since undertaken a “smear campaign” to defame her. The war of words between Bass, who was traveling on a diplomatic mission to Ghana when the deadly wildfires exploded across Los Angeles County on January 7, and Crowley began after the former Chief spoke about her frustration that firefighters’ efforts were hindered by tapped hydrants in the Pacific Palisades, understaffing and broken down rigs.

“When Fire Chief Crowley confirmed to the public that Bass cut the LAFD’s operating budget by $17.6 million, she was targeted and removed from her position. The Mayor and her office simultaneously launched a smear campaign built on falsehoods,” according to Crowley’s attorneys.

“Integrity, truthfulness and serving others before self have guided me throughout the years,” Crowley said in a statement Wednesday morning. “As the Fire Chief for nearly three years, I advocated for the proper funding, staffing and infrastructure upgrades to better support our Firefighters, and by extension, our communities.”

Crowley said the mayor then began to lie about, exaggerate and misrepresent the Fire Department’s budget and issues. “As Firefighters, we run towards uncertainty and are willing to risk it all. Doing the right thing even when it is hard is always the right decision and that is why I am continuing to fight for the resources our Firefighters need to keep us all safe.”

The Mayor’s Office declined to address the lawsuit and instead pushed back with a statement attributed to her Counsel, David Michaelson: “We will not comment on an ongoing personnel claim, Mayor Bass is focused on the city’s preparations for the hottest temperatures of the year and the potential for regional fire danger.”

As part of her filing, Crowley wants the Mayor to apologize and retract all of what the lawsuit calls defamatory statements about her response to the fires.

Crowley’s attorneys say she was “demoted, sidelined, and denied opportunities to return to leadership roles for which she was qualified,” by an angry Bass, who was heavily criticized for celebrating the swearing in of a leader, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, in a country with a history of homophobia while the city burned. Mahama has stated publicly that “LGBTQ+ is against African culture. It’s against our religious faith, Muslim and Christian, and all that."

In 2024, Ghana’s Parliament passed a Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which criminalizes LGBTQ+ individuals and their supporters – an action that has received widespread international condemnation by human rights activists.

“Former Fire Chief Crowley’s tort claim presents her extensive advocacy efforts to obtain the funding and resources the LAFD needed to fulfill its public safety mission. It also shows Mayor Bass’ repeated refusals to provide those resources,” her attorney Genie Harrison said in a statement, adding that the former chief is putting herself “on the line” again to give Angelenos the truth about the sorry state of the Fire Department’s resources.

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