Fired Newport officer’s lawsuit gets another chance

After first calling the arguments nonsensical and scattershot, a federal judge said he would give a former Newport Beach police sergeant one more chance to make his case that a group of city and police officials conspired to illegally fire him.

In a ruling June 30, Judge Andrew Guilford threw out Eric Peterson’s 44-page complaint, calling it a “shotgun pleading” that required the judge to piece together his allegations like a jigsaw puzzle. He said other documents filed by Peterson included “largely incoherent arguments” and “ramblings” unrelated to the case.

Nevertheless, Guilford said he made the decision without prejudice, meaning Peterson can refile the allegations in a new complaint intended to fix the problems the judge pointed out.

Peterson’s attorney Gregory Petersen said he will file a new complaint. He called the judge’s decision nothing more than a speed bump that doesn’t change Peterson’s core allegation.

In a lawsuit filed in February, Peterson accused former Newport Beach Police Chief Jay Johnson, Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff, former Seal Beach Police Chief Robert Luman and a handful of other police officials of repeatedly violating his due-process rights while they painted him as a dirty cop.

The defendants, however, contend Peterson was rightly fired in 2014 for misconduct related to an inappropriate relationship with a convicted felon.

Peterson was hired by the Newport Beach Police Department in 2001 and began working in the narcotics unit the following year, according to court documents.

In 2006, as part of a drug case, federal authorities introduced Peterson to a confidential informant named Doug Frey, according to court filings.

Peterson worked with Frey on multiple drug investigations, but Newport police alleged that Peterson continued a relationship with Frey even after the sergeant transferred from the narcotics unit to patrol in 2008.

According to court documents, authorities began to uncover that relationship in 2011 when Seal Beach police served a search warrant on Frey’s jail cell in their city.

Documents say they found a picture of Peterson wearing a commemorative 9/11 jersey with a note that read “Eric?” next to the symbol “2K.”

Newport Beach officials said they eventually determined the jersey was from a nonprofit benefiting 9/11 victims that Frey’s ex-wife was heavily involved in.

Newport police alleged they discovered that Peterson was wrapped up in other projects connected to Frey. For instance, Peterson once set up a meeting about a book proposal between Frey and a literary agent at the Alhambra Police Department jail, according to court documents.

When confronted with that and other allegations, Peterson was dishonest and evasive, police claimed.

Court documents filed by the city of Newport Beach allege that Peterson purged his e-mails to hide correspondence with Frey.

Peterson’s lawsuit calls those accusations a smear.

For instance, the complaint accuses police investigators of springing an interview on him in 2012 in which they asked him to remember specifics of events that happened as much as six years earlier.

When Peterson couldn’t remember all the details they were looking for, investigators accused him of telling “half truths” and trying to hide information, according to the lawsuit.

The suit also alleges that Johnson tried to intimidate Peterson so he wouldn’t get a lawyer involved in the proceedings.

Peterson is now seeking unspecified damages as compensation.