Former Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo took legal action against the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor said in a lawsuit Friday that the organization is responsible for a secret recording that “ruined his reputation” and cost him employment income.

Cedillo’s attorneys provided a copy of their lawsuit to The Times and said it had been filed. Although the filing does not appear to have yet been processed by the Los Angeles Superior Court, Cedillo’s legal team has provided a court receipt issued in response to the filing.

The recording at the federation’s headquarters became public nearly a year ago, sparking angry protests and the resignation of two others who attended the meeting of council president Nury Martinez and Ron Herrera, the head of the union federation. Councilor Kevin de Len, who also attended the meeting, is standing for re-election. The conversation included racist and derogatory comments about Black Angelenos, Oaxacans and others.

Cedillo’s complaint, which alleges invasion of privacy and negligence, also names two of the federation’s then-employees, Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez.

The defendants surreptitiously recorded him at a meeting he attended at the federation offices in October 2021, the complaint said.

In his filing, Cedillo said the recording was made without his knowledge or consent. The filing also portrayed the audio’s release as a “textbook ‘October Surprise'” intended to “inflict maximum damage on [Cedillo’s] reputation.”

A spokesperson for the Union Federation, a nonprofit organization that represents unions across the province, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cedillo also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In his lawsuit, he said the federation and its employees acted negligently and deprived him of his privacy actions, ultimately causing him to lose job offers and income.

The lawsuit also offers a new response to the audio, which The Times first reported in October 2022, saying others in the recording, not Cedillo, “made comments that many people found deeply offensive.” The lawsuit alleges that the comments heard in the recording were taken out of context or contained Spanish slang that was improperly translated by the media.

“But the most glaring fact left out of the public discourse about this conversation is that Mr. Cedillo never made any comment that was remotely offensive during the illegally recorded conversation,” the complaint says. “He was actually silent during those comments.

“His entire service was jettisoned because he failed to object to the comments of his colleagues,” the filing said.

Cedillo lost his bid for re-election in June 2022, several months before the audio’s release. After the audio became public, Cedillo denied making racist statements but apologized for remaining silent.

My instinct is to hold others accountable when they use derogatory or racially divisive language. Clearly I should have intervened, he said at the time.

Cedillo did not resign in the wake of the uproar, but instead decided to avoid council meetings for the remainder of his term. In December, hours after leaving office, he published a three-page letter saying he was a victim of “cancel culture.”

I publicly apologized for not cutting off my colleagues when their comments crossed a line, Cedillo wrote. But resign because I remained silent, without looking at who said what in that room, and ignored the totality of my work and history? That is unacceptable.

Cedillo is seeking punitive damages, general damages and compensatory damages, among other damages, saying the release of the audio caused him to lose income and job opportunities.

Neither Leon nor Vasquez have been publicly identified as suspects in the case. At the time of the recording, Vasquez was the executive assistant to Herrera, the leader of the Federation, and Leon was the organization’s accountant. The couple is married.

Los Angeles police served a search warrant on their Eagle Rock home in July. Leon’s computers were seized by police, according to a person with knowledge of the warrant but who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Recording conversations without a person’s consent is illegal in California, with rare exceptions, and can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor. The arrest warrant cited criminal codes for wiretapping and destroying or concealing evidence as a source said.

A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson said earlier this week that there were no updates on the police investigation into the tape recording.

Leon’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment. An attorney for Vasquez, who resigned from her position with the federation earlier this year, said Friday that he had not yet seen the lawsuit.

“I will be in a better position to comment once I have had an opportunity to review the lawsuit,” said Michael A. Goldstein, the attorney representing Vasquez.

Cedillo’s lawsuit said those behind the recording have not been held accountable. Nearly two years after the ruling was issued, not a single person has been arrested or prosecuted, the lawsuit said.

Cedillo’s attorney, Brian Kabateck, declined to discuss the lawsuit, saying in an email that it “speaks for itself.”

Times staff writer Emily Alpert Reyes contributed to this report.