A Redondo Beach man whose car was allegedly vandalized with racist graffiti by two Torrance police officers filed a federal lawsuit against the South Bay city this week, revealing new details about the incident, which sparked an investigation that revealed more than a dozen Torrance cops had been exchanging racist and homophobic text messages for years. A Times investigation last year revealed the identities of 13 of the officers under investigation as part of the scandal and the details of some of their hateful comments. Tomsic and Weldin are no longer employed by the Torrance Police Department and 15 other officers have been suspended as part of the scandal. Swaine said investigators kept him in the dark about their investigation into the officers for well over a year. “Weldin is the instigator in all of this … I’ve been pissed at Weldin ever since then,” Tomsic said, according to the affidavit.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 21, 2022 22:48 UTC