Five high-ranking officers of the Visalia Police Department (VPD), including Police Chief Jason Salazar, are accused of maintaining an illegal traffic citation quota system and retaliating against officers who objected to the unlawful action, according to a lawsuit filed June 13 in Tulare County Superior Court.
The allegations come from VPD officer Donald Huard, who claims he and another officer were punished repeatedly for refusing to participate in the scheme. Huard claims he was punished for reporting other incidents of wrongdoing by fellow officers, as well. Huard is seeking financial compensation for lost income and damages to his health, wellbeing and reputation.
The citation quota, the suit states, remains in force. Huard’s employment status with the VPD remains unclear. The suit does not seek damages for wrongful termination.
City, Officer’s Attorneys Remain Silent
The suit names the City of Visalia and unnamed other defendants. Following standing practice, Visalia City Manager Leslie Caviglia declined to comment on the accusations, citing the ongoing litigation as the cause.
After this article was published, City of Visalia officials provided a statement to the Valley Voice.
“The City of Visalia has investigated these claims and has found no evidence to support the allegations. The City is confident in having these allegations dispelled in the pending litigation and will have no further comments, upon the advice of legal counsel,” the statement read.
Attorneys Jon Drucker, Matthew S. McNicholas and Douglas Winter of the Los Angeles-based law firm McNicholas & McNicholas are representing Huard in the suit. Repeated telephone calls to the law firm went unanswered and were eventually disconnected. McNicholas & McNicholas’ website claims the firm acts as “panel counsel” to the labor unions the Los Angeles Police Protective League and United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.
Matthew McNicholas, the site said, won “the largest employment verdict ever” against the Los Angeles Police Department. The firm as whole claims more than $400 million in verdicts and settlements.
The first scheduled action in the case is a management hearing set for 8:30 a.m. on October 22 before Judge Brett Hillman in Department 2. Huard’s attorneys have requested a jury trial.
VPD Top Brass Allegedly Participated in Quota Cover-Up
The suit accuses five officers – Captain Luma Zaid Fahoum, Lt. Celeste Sanchez, Lt. Ozzy Dominguez, Sgt. Henry Martinez and Chief Salazar – of punishing officer Huard in an attempt to keep the VPD’s quota system under wraps. The five feared Huard would inform the public or another law enforcement agency, the suit said.
“They also calculated that the best way to exert control over (Huard) was to take adverse actions by punishing and downgrading him,” the suit alleges.
The command officers hoped to “make an example of him as to what would happen to others if they engaged in protected activities by reporting the illegal quota or by refusing to participate,” the suit states.
The lawsuit said the quota system that required traffic officers to make at least five stops during which they were to issue at least 10 citations – a practice known as “double-tapping” – has been in place at the VPD since at least January 2024. Such quota systems are prohibited by the California Vehicle Code.
The suit claims the practice is ongoing at the VPD.
VPD Traffic Officers Rated by Number of Traffic Citations
Under the system, various traffic enforcement units and their officers were pitted against each other, according to the filing, and a chart entitled “Motors vs Patrol” was distributed among VPD officers to “spur competition in ticketing the public.” “Motors” refers to officers on motorcycles, while “patrol” refers to those in squad cars.
Huard said the quota was introduced to his unit on January 9, 2024 by Sgt. Martinez during a motor officers division meeting. It was at this meeting that Huard complained about the quota system as being prohibited by state law. Huard’s suit said he was joined in his objections by fellow officer Lucas Valverde.
Martinez, Huard said, then began comparing the division’s officers by the number of citations they issued and the nature of those citations. When asked if the number of citations was the only measure of officers’ productivity, Martinez is alleged to have agreed. Huard said he was told by Martinez that the VPD does not take into consideration items such as collision follow-up investigations, uniform proposals or training in assessing its officers.
It was on the same day the “Motors vs Patrol” charts were introduced. Huard again objected, stating he believed the charts were also prohibited. The California Vehicle Code specifically prohibits the use of arrest and citation as the sole criteria for personnel actions of law officers.
Retaliation Against Whistleblower Actions Came Swiftly
Huard said Martinez began to treat him differently within days of his objections. The first alleged slight was denial of overtime work requested by Huard. He said Martinez cited a rule – unknown previously to Huard – that prohibited overtime duty when other motorcycle officers were on duty. Huard would later the next day learn that overtime detail had been assigned to three other officers, including one with less seniority. The overtime detail did not appear on the calendar Martinez provided Huard, he said.
Huard said that on January 19, Martinez again denied him work for which he was qualified. Officer Valverde was also included when the pair were told by Martinez they could no longer conduct motorcycle training. Huard claims Martinez tied the prohibition directly to the men’s objections to the quota system.
According to the suit, Martinez stated: “Why would they (the VPD leadership) give you what you want, if you’re not giving them what they want?”
Huard and Valverde were called into the office of Lt. Sanchez on January 30, the suit states, where they were confronted by Lt. Dominguez and Capt. Fahoum. The pair were allegedly called “suspects” and an “island of misfits” by the ranking officers. Further, they were accused of embezzlement for their use of a city-issued credit card to purchase lunch during an on-the-job training they performed in 2023.
Fahoum, ironically, was arrested on charges of embezzlement in May 2025. She was accused of stealing nearly $50,000 between 2017 and 2023 from the VPD’s Explorer Program.
Huard Faced Discipline Hearing Despite Turning to Union for Help
At some point, Huard reported the illegal quota scheme to Sanchez, who was his supervisor, and to a union representative in an attempt to “constructively” address his complaints and the subsequent retaliation. Yet on May 23, he was notified of a disciplinary action – a Skelly Hearing – that would remove him from the VPD’s traffic enforcement unit for “consistently failing to perform assigned duties as a Traffic Unit officer.”
Two days before the hearing on June 6, Huard was told he was being removed from a special detail for youth outreach in the Police Activity League. While such details were normally based on officer seniority, Martinez removed him on June 4, citing a “change in plans.” Martinez had given Huard the assignment on May 30.
At the June 6 Skelly Hearing, Huard again complained about the quota system’s legality. He also reported two incidents of misconduct by fellow officers, alleging one had stolen department property, while the other was allegedly working a second job while in his VPD uniform and working on a VPD overtime detail. The suit said neither accusation appears to have been investigated.
Conducting the hearing were Chief Salazar and the disgraced Capt. Fahoum, who removed Huard from the traffic unit, eliminating the pay he received for the assignment. Salazar and Fahoum allegedly denied the existence of a traffic citation quota scheme. However, the suit describes VPD officers displaying patches marked “16%” and “17%,” references to the increases in traffic citations the department demanded.
Huard said the unfair treatment continued during August while he remained in the traffic unit pending the outcome of his Skelly Hearing. Martinez again allegedly denied Huard overtime hours to complete work when other officers were granted them. Martinez’s action, Huard said, prevented the proper preparation of arrest warrants in active cases.
Officer Removed from Traffic Unit
On September 5, Huard learned he would be removed from the VPD’s traffic unit on September 21. Besides attempting to regain the lost wages this action caused, Huard’s suit also seeks compensation for damage to his professional reputation that will restrict his advancement and delay his retirement. He is also seeking compensation for mental suffering.
Huard joined the VPD in September 2019. Previously, he worked for the Fresno Police Department. Huard became a certified motorcycle instructor in April 2023. His suit claims his disciplinary record was unblemished prior to his objections to the alleged VPD ticket quota. According to the website Giglio-Bradylist.com, which monitors the California Brady List, Huard has no previous issues of misconduct.
The Brady List includes all known issues of police misconduct, do not call status, decertification, public complaints, use-of-force reports and citizen reports among California police agencies. However, Giglio-Bradylist notes that the Visalia Police Department is not currently in compliance with its Brady reporting obligations.
The loss of traffic unit pay and associated overtime appear to represent a major blow to Officer Huard’s income. According to govsaleries.com, in 2023 Huard earned a total of $191,427 as a VPD officer. That number includes a base pay of $99,704 for Huard, which was supplemented by $15,923 in overtime, “other” pay of $10,879, and a benefits package worth $40,549.
This article was corrected on 8/8 at 7:00am to correct the name of the Skelly hearing.
This article was amended on 8/15 to add a post-publication statement from the City of Visalia.