Former Cop Says He Routinely Confiscated Guns, Fentanyl and Cocaine at Tesla Factory

A lawsuit filed by Ozell Murray, a former police officer fired as head of security at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, suggests the plant has a severe sexual assault, drug and alcohol abuse, and rampant racism problem.

According to the 159-page federal suit, first obtained by The Independent, the officer's team "routinely" confiscated cocaine, fentanyl, and guns onsite. His team also investigated "acts of sexual deviance" and sent employees "home for being alcohol-intoxicated and high on drugs."

The startling allegations aren't the first warnings of workplace trouble at the facility. The Fremont factory has already garnered a reputation for rampant racism, with a previous lawsuit raising concerns over racist graffiti — "KKK epithets, a swastika, and the N-word all over the bathroom" — and mistreatment of workers. Black employees have also said that nooses — a symbol of racial violence from America's history of fatal lynchings — were used to taunt them at work.

Tesla has already settled in court over accusations of racial discrimination at the factory.

Worse yet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a long track record of waging a war against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, while furthering white supremacist conspiracy theories. He even infamously performed two Nazi salutes at Donald Trump's post-inauguration celebration earlier this year.

He has previously blamed the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year on Black firefighters and suggested that Black students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have lower IQs and shouldn't become pilots. He's also been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior, including against employees, on several occasions.

In other words, the abysmal situation at the mercurial billionaire's first car factory in California — a home state he abandoned in favor of Texas years ago — is closely wrapped up in his own personal beliefs.

In his lawsuit, Murray accused Tesla of putting profits over everything.

"Healthy profits have always been more important to the Company than a healthy working environment," reads the suit obtained by The Independent. "For Tesla, more bodies on the manufacturing line meant more vehicles flying out the factory door — no matter how unclean the hands were that were assembling those cars."

According to the complaint, supervisors also abused the company's policy on drug and alcohol use.

"As it turned out, many supervisors and managers were merely using the policy as a means to retaliate against their subordinates — and, in particular, when a line employee had turned down the supervisor or manager’s sexual advances," the complaint reads.

"Or, when the manager or supervisor wanted to retaliate against someone because of their race or ethnicity," it goes on. "Or, when the manager or supervisor wanted to retaliate against someone because of a complaint an employee had lodged against them."

According to the document, a specific manager continuously fostered the "delusion that the environment and culture at Tesla is one of tolerance and innovation, rather than racism and retaliation."

Murray also accused the company of firing him "under the pretextual guise of 'poor performance.'"

Beyond racial discrimination, Tesla's Fremont factory also has long been accused of fostering an unsafe work environment, including reports of crushed limbs, workers fainting from dehydration, and fires. An employee there also murdered a colleague in the parking lot several years ago.

Earlier this year, Tesla was fined for violating California's workplace heat protection rules.

Workers are known to have borne the brunt of Musk's "ultra hardcore" work culture, including 12-hour shifts, often putting them at risk of injury.

In 2020, a Tesla factory worker described working conditions to SF Weekly as a "life and death situation." A separate worker called the plant a "modern-day sweatshop."

Murray, alongside his co-defendants, is seeking compensatory, emotional distress, punitive, and exemplary damages, accusing Tesla of retaliation, wrongful termination, and failure to prevent unlawful discrimination.

It's ironic in the face of the allegations, but Musk has spent the last week raging about crime rates — even though violent crime just hit its lowest level in the United States since the 1960s.

More on the Fremont plant: Elon Musk Is Shutting Down the Part of the Government That Helped Him Save Tesla