In July 2015, the
Los Angeles Times released a "note to readers" stating that Rall had been dropped from the paper because of allegations that he had lied about a police encounter in 2001.
[21] The
Los Angeles Police Department claimed that Rall misrepresented the encounter in a May 2015 opinion blog post he wrote about enforcement of
jaywalking laws in Los Angeles.
[22] The LAPD provided an audio tape of the encounter that the
Times found to "raise serious questions about the accuracy of Rall's blog post".
[21] Rall stood by his version of the incident.
[23] Another version of the recording, which Rall posted online after having it
restored by sound engineers, included sounds of bystanders talking. One person is heard saying "you need to take off the [unintelligible]" which may have referred to handcuffs.
[24][25] The
Association of American Editorial Cartoonists issued a statement calling for an independent investigation of the tape.
[26][27] On August 19, the
Times issued a lengthy statement reaffirming its conclusion that Rall's original blog post "did not meet its standards". In it, they reported they had the tape investigated by two audio and video forensics experts and it still did not support Rall's version of the event.
[28] In March 2016, Rall filed suit against the Times for
defamation of character and
wrongful termination;
[29] in June 2017, the judge in the case dismissed claims against four individuals for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress; claims against the former and current
Times corporate ownership remain.
[30] Rall has appealed the lower-court dismissal to the California Court of Appeals.