LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The adult daughter of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who was one of three deputies killed in a 2025 grenade explosion in East Los Angeles is suing the county and Sheriff Robert Luna, alleging negligence and wrongful death.
Alexis Lemus was the offspring of Deputy Victor Lemus. Her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit was filed Thursday and seeks unspecified compensatory damages and punitive damages where available. She additionally alleges civil rights violations.
On Monday, the deputy’s widow, Nancy Lemus, also filed a lawsuit on behalf of herself and the couple’s two minor daughters. Alexis Lemus was born during the deputy’s prior relationship.
The LASD released a statement regarding the Nancy Lemus lawsuit.
“Our fallen detectives exemplified the very best of this department and one year later we continue to mourn their loss, honor their service and support the families they left behind,” the statement read. “Since the tragic incident, the department is implementing several measures to further strengthen operational safety, including standardizing policies and procedures to ensure greater organizational consistency, introducing new equipment, and refining supervisory response protocols based on the nature of each incident.”
The Alexis Lemus suit states that she will seek consolidation or coordination with Nancy Lemus’ suit.
According to Alexis Lemus’ suit, in 2015 the department consolidated the Arson/Explosives Detail into the Special Enforcement Bureau and she believes that step was taken to reduce costs and consolidate budgets, not to improve the safety or effectiveness of bomb-disposal operations.
While the LAPD maintains a state-of-the-art bomb laboratory and disposal facility for its bomb squad, the LASD provided its bomb technicians with no comparable facility, the Alexis Lemus suit alleges.
Deputy Michael Digby served in the detail as a retiree hire-back after his retirement and he left that temporary assignment a few months before Lemus was killed, the Alexis Lemus suit states. Before his departure, Digby told the detail’s then-captain “in words or substance” that the bomb squad unit was so under-trained that someone would be killed, according to the Alexis Lemus suit.
Lemus joined the LASD in July 2003 and achieved his goal of working in the SWAT K-9 unit, but was removed from that job when his dog bid a third party during the apprehension of a criminal suspect, according to the Alexis Lemus suit.
Lemus was reassigned in June 2024 to the explosives unit and he complained to his supervisors and to management about serious safety risks inherent in bomb-disposal operations, including the lack of training and the state of the detail’s equipment, and unsafe practices, the Alexis Lemus suit states.
Lemus repeatedly requested training commensurate with those risks, including attendance at the FBI Hazardous Devices School, according to the Alexis Lemus suit.
Lemus was told he would get some of the training, but the dates he was given turned out to be months away and after the deaths of himself and his fellow deputies, meaning they had to perform bomb-squad duties with nothing but “on the job” training in the interim, the Alexis Lemus suit states.
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