In 2010, plaintiff Timothy O’Hara, a Long Beach Police Department sergeant and former Navy SEAL in his 50s, reported a theft of overtime by the Long Beach Harbor Patrol Dive Team. Unlike the Port Security Unit, which is made up of sworn police officers and has its own diving squad, the Harbor Patrol and its dive team’s members are security guards. However, O’Hara reported that the Long Beach security guards were claiming overtime for work not performed, and were behaving and dressing like police officers. In September 2011, O’Hara was investigated by the Internal Affairs Division, assigned counseling, and ultimately removed from his position. However, he appealed, and a Civil Service Commission ruling restored him to his old job, but upheld the suspension. O’Hara claimed that he was subjected to relentless scrutiny and ostracized for alerting his superiors to the Long Beach Harbor Patrol’s overtime violations and that the retaliation against him continued, even after he won his appeal. He alleged that as a result, he was forced to retire in 2016, instead of three years later, as he had planned. O’Hara sued his employer, the city of Long Beach, alleging whistleblower retaliation. O’Hara claimed that after he blew the whistle on the Port of Long Beach’s employees, he was confronted with internal affairs investigations and unnecessary counseling, even after he successfully appealed most of the punishment he initially received. Plaintiff’s counsel argued that O’Hara was retaliated against and ultimately removed from his position after O’Hara reported the misconduct because the Port of Long Beach was paying the Long Beach Police Department $9 million a year for police salaries and the Chief of Police did not want that money cut off. Defense counsel argued that O’Hara was not a whistleblower and that O’Hara was only disciplined for wearing a T-shirt with the word “testicle” on it during a sexual harassment training seminar in September 2011. The city of Long Beach’s human resources officer claimed that she reported O’Hara for joking around during the seminar and wearing the potentially offensive T-shirt because she was concerned that people would think that the police department did not take sexual harassment seriously. Counsel contended that as a result, the then-Long Beach Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell — now Los Angeles County’s sheriff — suspended O’Hara for 20 hours, transferred him from the Port Security Unit to patrol, and removed him from the dive team. Thus, defense counsel argued that O’Hara was appropriately disciplined for his inappropriate conduct during the seminar. In response, plaintiff’s counsel noted that the human resources officer admitted that no one else at the seminar complained about being offended by the T-shirt and that she was surprised by the punishment that was handed down to O’Hara. Thus, plaintiff’s counsel argued that the punishment was excessive and was really in retaliation for O’Hara blowing the whistle on the Port of Long Beach’s employees., O’Hara, who had joined the department in 1993, claimed he suffered from economic loss as a result of his temporary transfer and need to retire three years earlier than he had planned. He also claimed he suffered emotional distress as a result of the mistreatment by management.