A former Baldwin Park police chief who was fired after less than two months on the job claims in a lawsuit filed Monday that he was racially discriminated against and his termination was retaliation for refusing a councilman’s requests to engage in illegal and political activity.

In the complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, David Salcedo alleges he suffered discrimination, harassment and, ultimately, termination for investigating what he believed to be unlawful conduct within the Police Department, making complaints about Councilman Ricardo Pacheco’s requests to engage in illegal activity. Salcedo said he refused those requests.

City Attorney Robert Tafoya did not respond to request for comment Tuesday. Pacheco, who is not a defendant in the suit, has denied the allegations, calling them “outrageously wrong.”

Salcdeo also alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of the California Labor Code, the Fair Employment and Housing Act and the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act.

“We see this case as a textbook example of a courageous whistleblower suffering at the hands of his employers because he did the right thing,” Carney Shegerian, of Shegerian & Associates, the law firm representing Salcedo, said. “The city of Baldwin Park violated multiple labor codes while harassing and retaliating against our client … who was simply trying to do his job.”

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