Costa Mesa Motion Denied in Sex Suit : Woman Can Pursue Battery, Imprisonment Case Against Officer

A Los Angeles federal judge refused Monday to rule in favor of the City of Costa Mesa in a lawsuit involving a former Costa Mesa police officer convicted of sexually assaulting a Santa Ana woman.

Attorneys for the city asked U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon to rule against Tammy Ferguson, a 25-year-old Santa Ana waitress who sued the city two years ago. Ferguson’s complaint alleged that former Officer William Lauchlan violated her civil rights, sexually assaulted her and falsely imprisoned her during a Jan. 10, 1983, encounter along a deserted stretch of the Costa Mesa Freeway.

Kenyon dismissed the allegations that Ferguson’s civil rights were violated but said there were grounds for the case to proceed on the issues of battery and false imprisonment. He set a pretrial conference for July 28. The delay is to await a ruling on Lauchlan’s appeal of his criminal conviction.

‘Very Optimistic’

Lauchlan, 36, was fired from the Police Department in February, 1984. In July of that year, he was convicted by an Orange County jury on sexual battery charges. In September, 1984, Lauchlan was sentenced by Orange County Superior Court Judge James F. Judge to serve 60 days in the county jail.

“It looks like the case will go to trial,” said Larry Pleiss, who represents the City of Costa Mesa.

However, Pleiss said in an interview that he is “very optimistic” that Lauchlan’s assault and battery conviction will be reversed because “this lady (Ferguson) has totally changed her story.”

Fred Anderson, Ferguson’s attorney, said Lauchlan ordered Ferguson to pull off the freeway about 3 a.m. “He sexually touched her on all parts of her body,” Anderson said in an interview Monday.

When Lauchlan was sentenced in 1984, Anderson quoted Ferguson as saying: “He destroyed my life in so many ways, both mentally and physically. I am scared whenever I see a police car and terrified when one comes up behind me on the freeway.”

Three other Orange County women accused Lauchlan of accosting them while on duty between December, 1982, and January, 1984, but a Harbor Municipal Court judge reduced or dismissed those charges in March, 1984.