In 2006, plaintiff Mitchell Jones, a deputy sheriff with the County of Los Angeles, tested for a promotion to sergeant and was placed in Band 2. However, he was not promoted. Jones again tested for a promotion to sergeant in 2009 and was again placed in Band 2. However, once again, he was not promoted. Jones claimed he was denied promotions because of his military service. Jones sued his employer, the county of Los Angeles. He alleged the county’s actions constituted violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Jones, a member of the U.S. Navy reserves, began work as a full-time deputy sheriff for the county of Los Angeles in 1998. He claimed that when he tested for a promotion to sergeant in both 2006 and 2009, he was placed in Band 2, a Band from which sergeant promotions were made, but that each time he was passed over for promotion. He claimed the county did not want to promote him to sergeant because of his military service. Jones alleged that when others learned of his desire for a promotion in or about 2006, he began receiving negative treatment, including hostility toward his military deployments and training commitments. He also alleged that supervisors, which he construed to be anti-military or anti-military-leave in nature, began making negative comments about his military service. Specifically, Jones claimed that multiple supervisors, ranking from sergeant all the way up to chiefs, made comments to him such as, “You need to be at work,” “Your Navy career seems to be taking precedence over your Sheriff’s Department career,” “Your military service is great, but you can’t serve two masters,” “You won’t get promoted if you are deployed,” and “You need to pick between the Navy and the department, but not both.” In addition, Jones claimed that his lieutenant failed to recommend him to the personnel directly involved with sergeant promotions because the lieutenant was hostile toward his military service. Thus, his counsel argued a “Cat’s Paw” Theory of discrimination. Defense counsel denied all of Jones’ allegations, including the claim that Jones’ supervisors made any of the statements that he attributed to them. Counsel also denied that Jones’ lieutenant, a former member of the Air Force, had recommended other employees over Jones for discriminatory reasons. Defense counsel argued that Jones was in a highly competitive division, and was competing for promotion with deputies in Band 1 (a higher Band), female deputies (due to a federal consent decree regarding female promotion rates), and with deputies from other divisions. Furthermore, the county argued that, when compared directly with his peers who were promoted to sergeant, Jones had less tenure and a less impressive resume., Jones sought recovery of compensatory damages for past loss of earnings based on the difference between what he made as a deputy and what he would have made if he had been promoted to sergeant. He also sought recovery of liquidated damages equal to the amount of compensatory damages based on his claimed that county’s conduct was willful.