Toberman Hires Former Police Chief Accused of Racism and Antisemitism to Manage Gang Intervention and Prevention Programs

SAN PEDRO–Toberman Neighborhood Center’s quiet hiring of former Beverly Hills Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli to the position of “Director of Social Justice,” has drawn quizzical attention from the racial justice community in San Pedro.

Questions arose because of the lack of an official announcement for such a controversial hire. In an interview with Random Lengths, Toberman executive director Darlene Kiyan confirmed that Spagnoli had been hired and that Jan. 5 was just her third day on the job. Kiyan also explained that Spagnoli will be overseeing the gang intervention program at Toberman.

When asked about the title given to Spagnoli, Kiyan said that while the name is new, the position is not. But didn’t offer an explanation for how the new title related to the work of gang intervention or gang prevention.  She said the last person to hold the position was Audrey Jackson. Kiyan did not provide further explanation and Random Length’s research did not turn up a connection between the individual and Toberman before press time.

Spagnoli was the first female police chief in Beverly Hills history. She served on the board of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and had previously led the San Leandro and Benicia police departments in Northern California.

Spagnoli joined the Beverly Hills police department during a moment when the previous chief, David Snowden retired following questions that he was drawing a second salary from a private-sector job.

The trailblazing chief’s troubles began in 2018 when the city Beverly Hills was forced to defend a couple dozen lawsuits, accusing Spagnoli of making racist comments, retaliating against officers, and showing favoritism toward subordinates with whom she had sexual liaisons. The city hired a crisis public relations specialist to deal with the fallout as the lawsuits piled up.

Among the lawsuits that were settled was a claim made by a former police captain, Mark Rosen, who was the highest-ranking Jewish member of the department who had accused Spagnoli of denying him promotional opportunities based on his religion and making anti-Semitic remarks. The city settled the suit for $2.3 million.

According to contemporaneous reporting on her retirement, Spagnoli had once referred to the yarmulkes worn by observant Jews as “funny little hats” and asked if she had to “dress Mexican” when invited to dinner at a Latino employee’s home and reacted with revulsion when informed that an employee was gay.

A Woodland Hills attorney, Brad Gage, represented most of the officers who brought claims of discrimination, retaliation and harassment by Spagnoli against the city.

One complaint references prior allegations of Spagnoli having sex with a subordinate in exchange during her tenure in San Leandro to establish a pattern for a similar accusation while she was at Beverly Hills Police Department.

In 2019, a jury awarded more than $1 million in damages to a group of lieutenants who had accused Spagnoli of workplace harassment and retaliation for giving depositions that were favorable to Rosen’s lawsuit. The amount was later lowered to $850,000 by a judge, but Gage reportedly said he also recovered more than $3 million in attorney’s fees and court costs in that case.

In all, the lawsuits Gage’s clients brought against Spagnoli cost the city about $8 million.

In a 2018 interview with The Times, Spagnoli denied the allegations of improper sexual relationships but stopped short of denying the allegations about racist remarks. Less than 24 hours after the interview, the city settled Rosen’s lawsuit.

“She’ll be overseeing gang intervention, gang prevention, diversion program, re-entry program as well as drug prevention programs with teeth.”

“We typically don’t announce director-level positions when they get hired. This is only her third day. So we’ve only just started talking to the staff as well as reaching out to the community,” Kiyan said.

Kiyan, who succeeded Executive Director Deborah Anthony, in 2018 said that for a director-level position or manager-level position, a posting was made online. But noted that it was typical of Toberman’s hiring process to have panel interviews. Kiyan explained that a six-person panel decided there was no merit to the allegations against Spagnoli.

“We look at all the candidates and we go through a reference check,” Kiyan said.

Kiyan went on to explain that the board of directors only has a say in the executive director’s position, but that all operation [hires] are done internally.

Kiyan took a more defensive posture in defending Toberman’s new hire

“Rumors start and rumors go forward because people don’t understand,” Kiyan said. “One of the things I was told when I was hired at Toberman is that Toberman is a place for people to get a second chance.”

While a city choosing to settle a lawsuit is not necessarily an indication of guilt or innocence of allegations, Beverly Hills Police Department has been fending off allegations that their taskforces dubbed Operation Safe Streets and the Rodeo Drive Taskforce were practicing racial profiling.

This past September, the city of Beverly Hills was sued by a black couple alleging that their arrest was part of a campaign to arrest black people for trivial reasons and at disproportionate rates. The couple has retained the services of Gage and civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump in their suit against the city.

While these latest issues have nothing to do with Spagnoli, context matters, Kiyan seemed firm on sticking by Spagnoli’s hiring.

“I have done extensive investigations and have talked to a lot of people who had first-hand knowledge of her situation and I was confident that the allegations were not founded.

Kiyan likened Spagnoli’s hiring to the hiring of former gang members working in gang intervention and prevention.

“I’m hoping you won’t continue these rumors and making a negative of somebody that has really great experience and should be given a chance,” Kiyan said. “I’m really disappointed that this has happened when we have people who are former gang members who were given a chance to be successful.”

Toberman is set to meet with San Pedro civil rights leaders including Cheyenne Bryant and Joe Gatlin representing the San Pedro/Wilmington chapter of the NAACP. Community activist, Najee Ali, informed Random Lengths that there will be a press conference on the issue on Jan. 7, at 10 a.m.

This story was updated to reflect that only representatives of the San Pedro/Wilmington chapter of the NAACP were invited to the meeting.