The first openly gay Los Angeles police officer is due in court this morning to be arraigned on domestic violence charges.
Retired Sgt. Mitchell Grobeson, 57, was arrested Friday after he allegedly holed up inside a West Hollywood home for nearly four hours before surrendering to a sheriff’s SWAT team.
Grobeson is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail on suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He is due to appear in LAX Superior Court this morning to say how he pleads.
The incident began about 10:10 a.m. Friday in the 800 block West Knoll Drive, according to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. No evacuations were ordered.
“Crisis Negotiation Team personnel made contact with the suspect requesting him to come out of the residence,” according to a sheriff’s department statement. “The suspect agreed and surrendered to Special Weapons Team personnel without incident.”
Officials did not release further details about the incident. They are asking anyone with information on what happened to contact the sheriff’s department West Hollywood Station at (310) 855-8850.
Grobeson sued the city of Los Angeles in 1988, alleging discriminatory practices against gay and lesbian employees by the police department. He won reinstatement to the LAPD as part of a settlement to that suit but later claimed that his bosses held the suit against him and filed a second lawsuit.
The entire legal saga took 25 years to play out, and Grobeson finally settled the second lawsuit in 2013.
