Wife of police officer sues L.A. after both contract typhus

LOS ANGELES >> The wife of a Los Angeles police officer assigned to the Central Community Police Station is suing the city after both she and her husband contracted typhus, which she alleges resulted from his working at an unsafe building in an area with a large homeless population.

Barbara Wong’s lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges negligence and liability on the city’s part for having a dangerous condition on public property and seeks unspecified damages. The complaint criticizes Mayor Eric

Garcetti, Police Chief Michel Moore and others for allegedly failing to take corrective action.

A representative for the City Attorney’s Office did not reply to a request for comment on the suit, which was filed Thursday.

Wong’s husband, Franklin Chen, joined the LAPD in 2013 and was assigned to the Central Community Police Station two years later. Numerous calls for service to the station are related to the homeless population that lives on nearby streets and parks, the suit states.

“The encampments of the homeless population within the Central Division are unsanitary ... rat-infested and flea-infested,” the suit says. “There are no toilets or bathing facilities and the homeless population routinely use city property to relieve themselves.”

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, which protects California workers from health and safety hazards on the job, has deemed the Central Community Police Station to be unsafe for many of the same unsanitary reasons and ordered the city to abate the conditions, the suit says. However, the city has failed to take the actions ordered by Cal/OSHA, the suit alleges.