Ex-Policeman Claims Trauma After Slaying Led to Loss of His Job

A Granada Hills man who resigned under pressure from the Torrance police department for patronizing prostitutes has filed a claim against that city for workers compensation benefits, arguing that his judgment was distorted because he was not treated for stress after he shot to death a suspected thief.

Henry Fricke, 36, said he still suffers from psychological trauma caused by the shooting, carried out in the line of duty.

Torrance police officials declined to comment on the claim.

On Sept. 9, 1984, Fricke and two other Torrance officers, John Maley and Mark Hein, confronted Bryant John Leadbeater, a theft suspect, in the Del Amo Fashion Center. The Police Department said Leadbeater lunged at Maley with a 10-inch knife and all three officers opened fire. Leadbeater, 32, of Redondo Beach, died after being struck by 24 bullets.

Fricke said in an interview that the psychological trauma of the shooting caused him to seek out prostitutes.

Apprehended by Police

Six weeks after the shooting, Fricke was apprehended by undercover Los Angeles policemen as he approached a suspected house of prostitution in Hollywood, according to Torrance city records. He was not arrested or charged, but Los Angeles police notified the Torrance department of the incident.

In 1977, Fricke had resigned as a reserve officer in Santa Monica after hiring a prostitute who turned out to be a police informant, according to Fricke and Torrance police records. Fricke said he also was motivated by psychological stress in 1977, stemming from an unhappy romance.

Fricke was later rehired by the Santa Monica force, and Torrance officials knew of the incident when they hired him. But the officials said the two incidents, in 1977 and 1984, formed a pattern of conduct by Fricke. City records show that the department gave him the choice of resigning or facing an internal investigation that could lead to his dismissal. Fricke did resign, but maintained that the choice given him amounted to a firing, and filed an unemployment claim.

An administrative law judge on Dec. 27 upheld Fricke’s contention that he was fired, and also ruled that the Police Department had not proved that Fricke had engaged in misconduct.

Fricke said the department’s disciplinary standards were unfair, citing a case in which an off-duty officer had aimed his pistol at another man during a traffic dispute but had kept his job.

Wrongful Death Suit

Fricke suggested that the department may have wanted him to resign because of a $10.5-million wrongful death suit brought by Leadbeater’s mother against the city and the three officers.

Maley, another of the officers involved in the shooting, was subsequently fired for pulling a knife on a fellow policeman during an argument.

Maley is appealing his dismissal before the Torrance Civil Service Commission, also arguing that his judgment was affected by psychological trauma from the shooting.

Fricke and Maley have said that the department offered them psychiatric counseling after the shooting, but did so in a manner that made it clear that capable officers would not need it.

“The funny thing,” Fricke said, “is everybody thought I was handling the shooting the best, which was just a facade.”

Fricke, who filed for compensation benefits May 22, said the shooting constantly came up in conversation with fellow officers.

“The day of the shooting, there were people who wouldn’t even say hello to me (before), who walked up to me and saluted,” Fricke said.

He said another officer told him that “we always wanted to do this.”

Fricke, who moved to Granada Hills after leaving the Torrance department, said he is looking for work as a data processor.