3 Former LAPD Officers Allege Slander in Suit

Three former police officers who were denied a security clearance to assist in the defense of an accused spy filed a $5-million slander suit Thursday against the Los Angeles Police Department, claiming that department officials said they could not be relied on should Soviet authorities approach them for information.

The three men, including the former captain of the Hollywood Division and a former aide to Chief Daryl F. Gates, said the statements made to FBI investigators effectively blocked their contract as private investigators in the defense of accused spy Svetlana Ogorodnikova.

LAPD officials, the suit said, told federal authorities that the three men “could not be recommended” for security clearances and raised allegations of professional misconduct during their years on the police force.

Jerry Feinberg, former Hollywood Division commander, claims that LAPD authorities told investigators that he “was responsible” for problems in the division that eventually led to the conviction of several detectives on burglary charges and allegations that officers had sexual relations with teen-age Explorer Scouts.

FBI officials were also told that Feinberg uses drugs, was in partnership with “persons of bad repute and morals,” and was so bitter over his forced retirement from the department in 1982 that “it was unknown what he would do if approached by the Soviet Union concerning secret information.”

The second plaintiff, Dennis Lunder, is a former captain and Gates aide. Police officials accused him of lying during the investigation of the now-defunct Public Disorder Intelligence Division, the police spying unit.

Lunder alleges that police representatives also said he “could not be trusted with secret information” and accused him of “actively supporting a left-wing candidate for a position on the City Council” while on duty as a captain in the Hollywood Division.

John W. Helvin, a former detective, said department authorities recommended against him for a security clearance and accused him of “numerous acts of professional misconduct” in the investigation of James David Hawkins Jr. Hawkins, initially hailed as a hero in the shooting of a 19-year-old gang member who was reportedly trying to steal bicycles in front of his father’s hamburger stand, was eventually convicted of murder in the 1983 incident.

In a statement issued Thursday night, the three former officers described “the men and women of the LAPD” as “the finest police officers in the world. . . . Unfortunately for all of us, the Police Department’s leadership ranks are riddled with a few loose cannons.”

The statement also said “maliciously untruthful statements made by certain high-ranking members of the LAPD,” particularly in the contract to gather information for the defense of Ogorodnikova, were responsible for their firm’s security clearance being denied.

Ogorodnikova eventually pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with former FBI Agent Richard Miller to pass secret documents to the Soviet Union.

Police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth declined to comment on the suit.

“We defer all questions on lawsuits to the city attorney’s office,” he said.

A city attorney’s spokesman could not be reached for comment on the suit, which was filed late Thursday.

Feinberg retired in May, 1982, rather than accept a transfer from Hollywood and being downgraded from the highest rank to the lowest rank of captain.

Lunder said Wednesday that he left the department in July, 1981, after an extension of his six-month leave of absence was denied.

“I had supported Mike Woo against Peggy Stevenson in their City Council race, and Chief Gates had supported Stevenson,” he said. “Gates was very upset with me. The department had promised to renew my leave for six additional months, but they changed their minds because of my political activity.”

Lunder said he retired in 1984 “under amicable circumstances and with several commendations.”

Times staff writers Edward J. Boyer and Nieson Himmel contributed to this article.